All iPads HELP! - Kids and Adult Content on iPad

[SMD79]

So it came out recently that our boy (7) and 2 others (8 and 9) have all seen/watched some pretty dirty stuff on an iPad (porn, death, etc...you know the typical crappy stuff kids can access these days without proper supervision/controls). All 3 kids have their own iPads (or use their parents). While ours is locked down with parental controls, who knows what could have happened. Long story, but when we got word of this from another parent, we confronted our son and he (and eventually the 9 year old) both are pointing to the 3rd boy as being the culprit of sharing the videos at his house. No one is innocent here. All 3 apparently lied when asked what they were watching at various times over last summer at this kids house. "Allegedly" Sound lovely huh? (sigh) We're gonna get these kids all together and hopefully figure out what went down because the 3rd boy is denying it. At the very least I'm glad it's out there and stopped. Not sure what will come of this but figured talking about it together is better than not. Plus, we're all neighbors and generally get along and see each other lots and our kids play together often.

So my question is...if this browsing took place last summer for several months, is there any way to access the browsing history at this point on each iPad? I'm probably the most tech savvy of the parents but I don't get into this kind of stuff often so I figured I'd hop on the forum here to see if there's ways or 3rd party apps or something that would allow us to go into an iPad and unlock it's true history, at least dating back to this time last year. From what I know Safari history goes back only a month. And while there's incognito mode and private ways of browsing, I'm wondering if there's something I can do when if I gain access to each of these iPads tonight or whenever we all meet up to discuss.

Thanks for your help and welcome to the wonderful world of being a parent in this time.

 

[Shirasaki]

To access those info, the best bet is to use those forensic tools like the one provided by Cellebrite that can reveal a lot more than average tools can. But, it depends on how Apple stores safari history data on iOS device. If history data is deleted from device as time goes on, then you are out of luck. I personally don’t regularly check back history often, so could not give my personal experience.

 

[SMD79]

To access those info, the best bet is to use those forensic tools like the one provided by Cellebrite that can reveal a lot more than average tools can. But, it depends on how Apple stores safari history data on iOS device. If history data is deleted from device as time goes on, then you are out of luck. I personally don’t regularly check back history often, so could not give my personal experience.

Interesting. Anything else that might be readily available to the general public? Or any other methods I might wanna use to help figure out the truth, assuming it doesn't come out when we all talk together?

 

[Shirasaki]

Interesting. Anything else that might be readily available to the general public? Or any other methods I might wanna use to help figure out the truth, assuming it doesn't come out when we all talk together?

Due to the lack of my knowledge, I have no idea. For a cheaper alternative, you can try out apps like iMazing to see if it is possible to extract safari browse history older than one month.

 

[bensisko]

It might be easier to check your router’s history.

Given the amount of time passed, and depending on method of browsing and amount of use since, it may be more trouble than it’s worth.

 

[Ruggy]

You might be lucky if it's set to back-up to the cloud. Some data recovery programs claim to be able to extract Safari history from a cloud back even if deleted but I haven't tried any so I have no recommendations, but this one has a free trial.
https://www.imyfone.com/iphone-data-recovery/

Good luck.

 

[AutomaticApple]

So it came out recently that our boy (7) and 2 others (8 and 9) have all seen/watched some pretty dirty stuff on an iPad (porn, death, etc...you know the typical crappy stuff kids can access these days without proper supervision/controls). All 3 kids have their own iPads (or use their parents). While ours is locked down with parental controls, who knows what could have happened. Long story, but when we got word of this from another parent, we confronted our son and he (and eventually the 9 year old) both are pointing to the 3rd boy as being the culprit of sharing the videos at his house. No one is innocent here. All 3 apparently lied when asked what they were watching at various times over last summer at this kids house. "Allegedly" Sound lovely huh? (sigh) We're gonna get these kids all together and hopefully figure out what went down because the 3rd boy is denying it. At the very least I'm glad it's out there and stopped. Not sure what will come of this but figured talking about it together is better than not. Plus, we're all neighbors and generally get along and see each other lots and our kids play together often.

So my question is...if this browsing took place last summer for several months, is there any way to access the browsing history at this point on each iPad? I'm probably the most tech savvy of the parents but I don't get into this kind of stuff often so I figured I'd hop on the forum here to see if there's ways or 3rd party apps or something that would allow us to go into an iPad and unlock it's true history, at least dating back to this time last year. From what I know Safari history goes back only a month. And while there's incognito mode and private ways of browsing, I'm wondering if there's something I can do when if I gain access to each of these iPads tonight or whenever we all meet up to discuss.

Thanks for your help and welcome to the wonderful world of being a parent in this time.

Your internet provider should have access to incognito mode browser history.

 

[Streamer]

I kind of had a similar issue so ended up giving my girls (7 & 10) cheap Android tablets as Google has way better kids controls with Family Link. We also have Circle built into the router so I can see what they're up and look at the logs etc. Best feature with Google is the tablets just lock at the times I prescribe and any tantrums, few swipes and presses and all technology locked. They miss the iPad but OK with the $90 10" tablets....

 

[psingh01]

Do you really need year old browser history when your kid has already admitted something? Just dish out the punishment. No iPad. No going over to the other kids house. Whatever it is you do.

 

[SMD79]

Your internet provider should have access to incognito mode browser history.

My iPad had been locked with Parental controls since we got it. No browser is even available the way I have it set up. So the story was that it happened on another kids iPad. That iPad is wifi only so would the internet provider still have access to that history? Would they hand it over if asked? That would be awesome.
[doublepost=1563311456][/doublepost]

Do you really need year old browser history when your kid has already admitted something? Just dish out the punishment. No iPad. No going over to the other kids house. Whatever it is you do.

At this point our little one has been punished for not coming forward with the info sooner. The other parents are involved and their kid is denying it and they said they believe him so what can you do. They reached out to Apple and did a screen share and they couldn't find anything so they said it was 100% not his iPad. I was told by Apple that no Apple tech support would find any browser history or any web data anywhere on the device since it was so long ago unless they did a backup to the cloud at some point (which they had not done afaik). They're iPad has no parental controls by the way. We've reached the point where they're getting super defensive which we've been told would happen by friend's of ours that are therapists, so I'm about to let it all go. We're don't need justice or anything honestly. We just wanted to let them know what we heard and obviously see if we could find out what happened. Interestingly, the oldest of the kids just offered to go to their house and sit down with their parents alone and tell them everything he knows. He has WAAAAAY more details about this stuff than our kid. It'll be interesting if they take them up on it. If I were them I would wanna know.

 

[Ledgem]

I can't be of help here, but I appreciate you sharing the story. I've been considering doing most of the blocking at the router level, and changing our DNS to the "safe" DNS services that automatically block adult content. This is a good reminder that it's still important to do it on the device... but that even if you lock down everything you and your family own, they can still view things when interacting with children from families that haven't locked their things down.

 

[Newtons Apple]

If kids really want to find this material, they will find a way.

 

[SMD79]

If kids really want to find this material, they will find a way.

Yup. For sure. My whole question was about tracking down old browser history and if that's possible.

A call into Apple tech support lead to a screenshare with no luck, but they said you can't find old history unless the person did a backup to the cloud during that time. I asked him if one could trace web history a year back without any backups and he said no.

 

[Newtons Apple]

Yup. For sure. My whole question was about tracking down old browser history and if that's possible.

A call into Apple tech support lead to a screenshare with no luck, but they said you can't find old history unless the person did a backup to the cloud during that time. I asked him if one could trace web history a year back without any backups and he said no.

I know you want to know but the damage was done.

Time to move on.

 

[SMD79]

I know you want to know but the damage was done.

Time to move on.

Yeah, and we have. It wasn't going anywhere. I was just curious about the tech side of it all.

 

[Newtons Apple]

Yeah, and we have. It wasn't going anywhere. I was just curious about the tech side of it all.

It is good for your kids to know you are watching. It only takes one "bad" friend to blow things up. I am lucky that my kids were born prior to the crazy days we have now.

 

[SMD79]

It is good for your kids to know you are watching. It only takes one "bad" friend to blow things up. I am lucky that my kids were born prior to the crazy days we have now.

That is the one truth that has come of this whole mess.

 

[iPhysicist]

Im sure you care but I want to remind you to talk to your child about this incident and what it may have seen. Sooner or later they will find out by themselves and 8 is young but not that young. If they aren’t interested they don’t look for porn. Talk about it and it will help. Best of luck!

 

[SMD79]

Im sure you care but I want to remind you to talk to your child about this incident and what it may have seen. Sooner or later they will find out by themselves and 8 is young but not that young. If they aren’t interested they don’t look for porn. Talk about it and it will help. Best of luck!

Thanks. Yes, we did. We spent so much time dealing with the drama of the kid who they said showed them the videos that we "almost" lost sight of what was important, talking to our own kid about what he saw and communicating to him about what it all is. There's so much more to this story that I didn't post here for obvious reasons. I was mostly interested in the tech side of seeing if it's possible to recover one year old browser history (if the iPad was not backed up).