In this digitized world, tech addiction has been the most common issue. Not just children, even adults are equally addicted to their mobile phones. So, are you concerned about your child’s prolonged screen time?
Do you have a question in mind like, “can I lock my child’s iPhone remotely?” after witnessing them getting attached to mobile phones often?
The availability of an iPhone or iPad has been a basic necessity for children. It is often difficult for you to move around your child and limit their screen time.
Now, it’s time to use parental controls to supervise your child. You must set up parental controls on your child’s iPhone or iPad to restrict screen time.
Why Restrict Screen Time?
A child getting glued to an iPhone or iPad is not a good thing as they neither get physically and emotionally fit nor enhance creativity.
Apart from getting online classes and going through educational research, they are more active in internet surfing, using social media, watching videos, playing games, etc. Moreover, according to reports over the past years, more screen time for children, especially for teenagers, often leads to disturbed mental health.
So, ensure that your child spends minimum time on their iPhone or iPad. Furthermore, as the internet is not always monitored, they might come across adult content that is inappropriate for their age. They might also make in-app purchases of some games or videos, giving you a headache with credit card bills.
Before getting yourself in trouble, set up parental controls on your child’s iPhone or iPad to restrict their screen time.
Why Set Up Parental Controls?
Parental Control is an application or in-built feature of the iPhone or iPad that allows you to remotely control your child’s online activities.
The primary advantage of using parental controls is restricting screen time, which is good for your child’s physical and mental well-being.
When you set up parental controls on your child’s iPhone or iPad to restrict screen time, they won’t be able to go through adult-sensitive content.
You can restrict some of the websites or set privacy that displays content inappropriate for their age. You can supervise their social media activities and get a history of what they did on their iPhone or iPad the whole day.
Likewise, you can also restrict your child from making in-app purchases through parental controls. You get an alert whenever your child is about to purchase games or buy other online goods and services through parental controls.
6 Ways to Set Up Parental Controls on your Child’s iPhone or iPad to Restrict Screen Time
There are numerous benefits of using parental controls to remotely control your child’s iPhone or iPad activities. Out of them, I have enlisted 6 effective ways to set up parental controls on your child’s iPhone or iPad to restrict screen time and reduce their tech addiction.
1. Enable Screen Time on iPhone or iPad
Use the in-built screen time monitoring features available on iPhone or iPad. You can oversee the mobile activities of your child after turning on Screen Time. You will be able to check the websites they visit, and their apps and keep track of their social media activities.
Similarly, the in-built Screen Time feature also allows restrictions on your child’s iPhone or iPad. You can limit the usage of certain apps or web pages.
Restricting in-app purchases along with downloads is also possible after you enable Screen Time on your child’s iPhone or iPad.
Follow these steps to enable Screen Time on your child’s iPhone or iPad:
Step 1: On your child’s iPhone or iPad, go to “Settings”.
Step 2: Scroll down and tap on the option “Screen Time”.
Step 3: To enable screen time, tap on “Turn On Screen Time”.
Step 4: Read the instructions displayed on your screen and click “Continue”.
Step 5: Select the option “if this is your child’s device,” and you are ready to go.
2. Use Screen Time Passcode
Using a Screen Time passcode is another effective measure to set up parental controls on your child’s iPhone or iPad to restrict screen time.
With the help of a Screen Time passcode, you will be able to see the time your child spends using certain apps or web pages.
Not only can you supervise phone activity through Screen Time passcode, but you can also set limited time on apps or web pages. You can change the time limit anytime as per your preference.
For this, you also need to set Apple ID as an alternative way to recover the passcode if you forget the Screen Time passcode.
Follow the steps mentioned below to set up a Screen Time passcode.
Step 1: On your child’s iPhone or iPad, go to “Settings”.
Step 2: Scroll down and click on the option “Screen Time”.
Step 3: To enable the screen time passcode, scroll until you get “Use Screen Time Passcode”, and tap on it.
Step 4: Now, enter the Screen Time password and re-configure the passcode.
Step 5: Enter an additional Apple ID to reset or change the passcode whenever you forget the passcode.
Step 6: You can use either biometrics or device passcode to make these changes.
3. Use Family Sharing to Restrict Screen Time
Set up parental controls on your child’s iPhone or iPad to restrict screen time using Family Sharing. Family Sharing is the group or family circle you can create by connecting family members through iPhone or iPad.
Once you are connected to Family Sharing, you can get access to any of the devices.
The app downloaded or purchased on one device can be accessed on other devices within the Family Sharing circle. All the family members can see the same TV shows, movies, or books once you enable purchase sharing.
Therefore, with the help of Family Sharing, you can keep an eye on what your child has downloaded or the types of apps they use.
If you have already created Family Sharing and added your child to the family circle, it’s great. In that case, follow step 6 to step 8. If the information regarding Family Circle is new to you, follow all the steps mentioned below.
Step 1: On your iPhone or iPad, go to “Settings”.
Step 2: Tap on your Name.
Step 3: Select the option “Family Sharing”.
Step 4: Now, select “Set Up Your Family”.
Step 5: You need to go per on-screen instructions to invite or add members to Family Sharing.
Step 6: Now, to restrict screen time for your child, go to “Settings”.
Step 7: Again, select “Screen Time”.
Step 8: Click on your child’s name from the Family Sharing group, and you’re done.
4. Use In-Built Downtime on iPhone or iPad
Downtime is a parental control feature of the iPhone or iPad that allows you to set limits on app usage or any other activities on your child’s device. Through the use of Downtime, you are allowed to form a time frame daily every week, or forever.
You can customize Downtime hours based on the need. App limits can be temporary or permanent. If you want to completely restrict some app usage or features, you can set the limits accordingly.
Follow the instructions below to set Downtime as a parental control on your child’s iPhone or iPad to restrict screen time.
Step 1: On your child’s iPhone or iPad, go to “Settings”.
Step 2: Scroll down and tap on the option “Screen Time”.
Step 3: Tap on “Downtime”.
Step 4: Enable “Scheduled” by clicking on the button on the right side.
Step 5: You will see the option “From” and “To” to schedule Downtime for every day or customize it as you want.
Step 6: Further, if you want to block websites on iPhone, apps, or other features, scroll down and enable the option “Block at Downtime”.
That’s it. You have now successfully set up Downtime on your child’s iPhone or iPad.
5. Set Content and Privacy Restrictions as Parental Controls on Your Child’s iPhone or iPad
Moreover, to restrict screen time for your child, you can also set content and privacy restrictions. After getting access to a sensitive site, your child might be exposed to inappropriate content. So, you must filter all the inappropriate adult contents to eventually restrict screen time.
Follow the steps mentioned below to enable content and privacy restrictions as parental controls on your child’s iPhone or iPad.
Step 1: On your child’s iPhone or iPad, go to “Settings”.
Step 2: Click on the option “Screen Time”.
Step 3: Confirm clicking on “This Is My Child’s device.”
Step 4: Enter and re-enter the passcode to proceed further.
Step 5: Finally, select and enable “Content & Privacy Restrictions”.
Step 6: Now, you can restrict contents that are either music, podcasts, movies, music videos, TV shows, apps, books, music profiles, and many more.
6. Set up Communication Limits
If your child is more on social media and most of the time, enroll in making voice calls, video calls, or text messages, you can set up Communication Limits on their iPhone or iPad.
Communication Limits are appropriate parental controls on your child’s iPhone or iPad to restrict screen time. The feature allows you to set a limit on your child’s communication abilities on iPhones and iPads.
Communication Limits work properly for social media communication time, messaging and phone calls within iCloud contact lists.
You can limit communication time and discard a few contacts you don’t want your child to be in touch with.
Follow the steps mentioned below to set up Communication Limits on your child’s iPhone or iPad.
Step 1: On your child’s iPhone or iPad, go to “Settings”.
Step 2: Click on the option “Screen Time”.
Step 3: Scroll down until you get “Communication Limits”, tap on it.
Step 4: Now enable “Allow Contact Editing”.
Step 5: Tap on “During Screen Time” to limit communication within the contact list.
Step 6: To add specific contacts or block contacts, go back and tap “During Downtime”.
Step 7: Follow the instructions as displayed on the screen to set allowed communication and allowed contacts.
Conclusion
If you are concerned about your child’s mobile or online activities, you can remotely control their tech activities. By setting parental controls, you can view your child’s phone activities, including social media, multimedia content, books, visited webpages, etc.
I have listed 6 ways to set up parental controls on your child’s iPhone or iPad to restrict screen time. Read the article and let us know if the information was helpful through comments. Also, you can check this article to learn how to set up parental controls on Android.
How do I set parental controls on my iPhone and iPad?
To set up parental controls on your iPhone or iPad, you can go to the Settings app and then use the built-in Screen Time feature to set up parental controls for/ on your child’s device.
How to restrict screen time of my child on iPhone?
You can restrict the screen time of your child on iPhones by setting parental controls like Downtime, limits for app usage, content restriction, and others via the Screen Time functinality on their devices or via the Family Sharing settings.
Can my child turn off Screen Time on iPhone?
Although your child will have the ability to turn off Screen Time features on their devices, they would require the Screen Time passcode to make the changes. Hence, if your child doesn’t know the Screen Time passcode that you have set, they will not be able to disable Screen Time.