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iPad How to hide stock iPad apps from tenacious 4-year-old?

Mazda 3s

Mazda 3s

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 29, 2006
564
857
OK, my son has an iPad mini 2, and we have a bunch of education apps and games on there for him, which he of course plays. But he also likes to fiddle around with stuff that he really shouldn’t be messing with. He’ll go and set up calendar appointments, surf the web, mess around with the email program, set alarms (which woke us all up last night) and create mayhem in other apps.

I’ve tried using the parental controls to limit him as much as possible, but what I really want is to somehow be able to hide all of the stock apps from him and just leave him with his educational stuff. I even tried putting all the stock apps in a separate folder and hiding them three pages over. He STILL found them of course. And I know there’s some trick where you can do some tap and hold wizardry to hide apps, but it goes away after a soft reset which is kinda pointless.

Is there an app I cause to hide stock apps, or do I have to jailbreak? :(
 
Unfortunately there is no way you can hide the stock Apple apps - I'd do that in a heartbeat with Stocks and Tips, to name a few.
I hope that Apple bring about multiple user accounts with modifiable privileges in iOS 10.
 
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windywalks said:
I hope that Apple bring about multiple user accounts with modifiable privileges in iOS 10.
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Apple will most likely not add a feature to support multiple users sharing the same idevice because they want consumers to all have their own personal idevices. However, they should consider a "kid mode".
 
Ugh! You mean there isn't even an app that can help? I don't care if I have to pay for it.
 
You coul fennel restrictions...as well as guided access controls. I used to use guided access to prevent the home button from being used, and locking the iPad to YouTube while a 3yr old was using it. More features in line with multi user access would be nice.
 
CarlosQG said:
Have you tried Restricted Access? https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202612
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This is the best option. You can lock your toddler into individual apps; the only pain is you will have to manually enter a password in order to switch apps.

On a side note I wish Apple would allow you to hide or at least restrict any app. It's possible on an Android (I use Smart App Lock. Free and works great), but I don't think Apple wants to give users that much control. :(
 
What about taking the ipad away from him and giving him some Legos, letter blocks, coloring books and educating him yourself instead of expecting your ipad to do it, you make it sound like you give the ipad to him for long periods of time totally unsupervised and hope it keeps him entertained safely while you do your thing, and maybe learn something if possible. I don't get why people have kids if they don't want to educate him by themselves and instead rely on a virtual nanny, last generation was TV and now it is the ipad.
 
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karladdr said:
What about taking the ipad away from him and giving him some Legos, letter blocks, coloring books and educating him yourself instead of expecting your ipad to do it, you make it sound like you give the ipad to him for long periods of time totally unsupervised and hope it keeps him entertained safely while you do your thing, and maybe learn something if possible. I don't get why people have kids if they don't want to educate him by themselves and instead rely on a virtual nanny, last generation was TV and now it is the ipad.
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Well hello! How is the weather up there on that high horse? :)
 
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karladdr said:
What about taking the ipad away from him and giving him some Legos, letter blocks, coloring books and educating him yourself instead of expecting your ipad to do it, you make it sound like you give the ipad to him for long periods of time totally unsupervised and hope it keeps him entertained safely while you do your thing, and maybe learn something if possible. I don't get why people have kids if they don't want to educate him by themselves and instead rely on a virtual nanny, last generation was TV and now it is the ipad.
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A little snarky of you, don't you think? The OP clearly stated the his son uses the iPad for educational purposes but tends to starts messing around with other aspects of the iPad. My niece and nephew do the same exact thing. It's not a virtual nanny, it's an actual tool that can greatly benefit the next generation. When my nephew was 18 months old he was playing Monkey School Lunchbox and actually understood what he was doing when he could barely speak. Matching colors and shapes.

BTW giving a 2 year old Legos is incredible dangerous and unbelievable reckless. Take your eyes off of them for one second and if they swallow a brick, they could die.
 
karladdr said:
What about taking the ipad away from him and giving him some Legos, letter blocks, coloring books and educating him yourself instead of expecting your ipad to do it, you make it sound like you give the ipad to him for long periods of time totally unsupervised and hope it keeps him entertained safely while you do your thing, and maybe learn something if possible. I don't get why people have kids if they don't want to educate him by themselves and instead rely on a virtual nanny, last generation was TV and now it is the ipad.
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Ah, yes, the usual completely reactionary stereotypical response barely based on just the thread title without a care to even the slightest details that are involved. Those are typically very informative and useful and contribute a lot.
 
C DM said:
Ah, yes, the usual completely reactionary stereotypical response barely based on just the thread title without a care to even the slightest details that are involved. Those are typically very informative and useful and contribute a lot.
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I disagree. karladdr does have a point.
 
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C DM said:
Sure, a generic stereotypical talking point, one that overlooks and doesn't really consider any specifics of the situation at hand.
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Not trying to be argumentative here, but the very same could be said about your rebuttal (i.e. "[...] generic stereotypical talking point [...] that overlooks [...] any specifics of the situation at hand"). In no way are you engaging with the more fundamental point addressed by karladdr, namely that iOS was designed with a specific user/age group and level of control in mind.

Given how iOS is designed, there is no way for us to help OP out - that is aside from having him/her rethink his/her approach to using the device itself.
 
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alphonseM said:
Not trying to be argumentative here, but the very same could be said about your rebuttal (i.e. "[...] generic stereotypical talking point [...] that overlooks [...] any specifics of the situation at hand"). In no way are you engaging with the more fundamental point addressed by karladdr, namely that iOS was designed with a specific user/age group and level of control in mind.

Given how iOS is designed, there is no way for us to help OP out - that is aside from having him/her rethink his/her approach to using the device itself.
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iOS was not designed for a specific age group in mind. Where are you getting that from?
 
alphonseM said:
Not trying to be argumentative here, but the very same could be said about your rebuttal (i.e. "[...] generic stereotypical talking point [...] that overlooks [...] any specifics of the situation at hand"). In no way are you engaging with the more fundamental point addressed by karladdr, namely that iOS was designed with a specific user/age group and level of control in mind.

Given how iOS is designed, there is no way for us to help OP out - that is aside from having him/her rethink his/her approach to using the device itself.
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Seems like that's not actually the case and there are in fact some suggestions that can help that have been made here.
 
Have you tried sitting down with your son and explaining why it is not in his best interest to "tinker" with certain apps? Hiding certain apps won't educate him but explaining your viewpoint most likely will - it will also allow some "bonding" time with his parent/role model.
 
ardchoille50 said:
Have you tried sitting down with your son and explaining why it is not in his best interest to "tinker" with certain apps? Hiding certain apps won't educate him but explaining your viewpoint most likely will - it will also allow some "bonding" time with his parent/role model.
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Curb the curiosity of a 4 year old? Probably not far off from worldwide peace. ;)
 
Michael Goff said:
iOS was not designed for a specific age group in mind. Where are you getting that from?
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Of course it has. Just think about the whole discussion about skeuomorphism vs flat design. iOS makes implicit assumptions not only of its target audience, but their demographic and cultural background. To argue that iOS is neutral towards all of that would invalidate not just the areas where iOS stands tall, but also to ignore its shortcomings.

C DM said:
Seems like that's not actually the case and there are in fact some suggestions that can help that have been made here.
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My mistake. There was the suggestion to use restricted access. However, I'm sure you get my point. That OP might be "holding the [device] the wrong way" is very much also a valid argument.
 
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alphonseM said:
Of course it has. Just think about the whole discussion about skeuomorphism vs flat design. iOS makes implicit assumptions not only of its target audience, but their demographic and cultural background. To argue that iOS is neutral towards all of that would invalidate not just the areas where iOS stands tall, but also to ignore its shortcomings.



My mistake. There was the suggestion to use restricted access. However, I'm sure you get my point. That OP might be "holding the [device] the wrong way" is very much also a valid argument.
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How is it designed, as in the way it is used, for a certain age?
 
ardchoille50 said:
Not curb, rather satisfy via explanation. I do this for a living ;)
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Explanations don't really statisfy curiosity in a lot of cases when it comes to 4 year olds, at least certainly not all (and likely not many) of them. Also speaking from experience.
 
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