iPhone 5 or earlier Is it possible to have a mirror iPhone?

[LifeIsAVapor]

My young teen has had trouble in the past with how to handle social media but we are ready now to start rebuilding trust. Is there a way to have an 'accountability' mirror/clone iphone? Ideally, it would be an exact replica of everything on the other phone, as well as the activity going on. I'd like to be able to see SnapChat, Instagram, and iMessage specifically. I will have physical access to the phone and my teen will know it is monitored so secrecy is not an issue. At this point, I am even willing to buy a second identical iPhone if mirroring it that way would work?

The phone we have is an Phone 5c running iOS 10.3.3 - it cannot be updated further.

 

[newellj]

I don't think it's possible to mirror a phone.

I think the best you can do is to sign into the various apps/social media sites on the same account on both phones. If you personally use any of those apps or sites it would probably be much more convenient to have a second phone dedicated to monitoring those accounts.

You probably know about software that controls access and have probably (and for good reasons) decided that doesn't address your wishes. But to achieve your goal you probably need something that will restrict creation of new accounts, as well as possibly end-runs via browser access to sites that are also visited using a dedicated app.

I don't have any expertise here, just trying to reach out a supporting hand. My kids grew up before the era of 'every kid has a cellphone in their pocket.' This is a brave new world. Best luck navigating.

 

[mcdj]

I think there’s a reason there’s no way to mirror your teen’s phone. I think it’s because people arrive at the conclusion that the best way to prepare a teen for impending adulthood is not to shepherd their every move under surveillance. A teen’s sense of privacy is one of the most important, and contentious, parts of their development.

And if you have a particularly problematic teen, watching what they do on their phone may feel empowering, but it’s likely not the whole story of their behavior anyway.

 

[alphaswift]

Don't think you can mirror, but I don't see why you couldn't share username/password credentials on various apps so you can inspect content.

 

[eyoungren]

Mirror, maybe not but you can get close.

My wife and I get our son's email because we have his email accounts set up on our phones. IMAP makes that possible. He knows that we can look through his email on our phones at any time.

You can create an Apple ID for your son through Family Sharing. That allows you to control what he can download or access and if you set parental controls on his phone you can directly control that.

That also gives you control of his Apple ID and therefore his iCloud email address.

You'd have to login under his ID though to see his iMessages and such, which would probably be problematic. But signing in with his credentials at iCloud.com might be a workaround.

Other than that, you'd have to download the apps he has and use his credentials to keep tabs.

 

[Gav2k]

Buy a second phone and restore it from his backup. It’s as simple as that.

 

[hovscorpion12]

@Gav2k said it perfectly. if you have a second iPhone, you can sign in or restore from your child's iCloud backup that will have all of the the app's and their data saved. At that point you will be able to see everything.

If you want to be really secretive, download and install the apps on your iPhone and sign into his account.

 

[unibility]

yes. selfie mode.

 

[Phone Junky]

yes. selfie mode.

Didn’t even read the thread...

 

[Parkin Pig]

My young teen has had trouble in the past with how to handle social media but we are ready now to start rebuilding trust. Is there a way to have an 'accountability' mirror/clone iphone? Ideally, it would be an exact replica of everything on the other phone, as well as the activity going on. I'd like to be able to see SnapChat, Instagram, and iMessage specifically. I will have physical access to the phone and my teen will know it is monitored so secrecy is not an issue. At this point, I am even willing to buy a second identical iPhone if mirroring it that way would work?

The phone we have is an Phone 5c running iOS 10.3.3 - it cannot be updated further.

If there's no secrecy involved you could just sit down with him/her each evening and go through the day's activity, discussing any concerns. If it's a trust rebuilding exercise wouldn't this be a better solution?