Recommend me some parental controls apps for iOS please?

[RedTomato]

Like millions out there, I plan to hand down my iPad to my sprog this Xmas.

However, I don't want her wasting her time playing rubbish games all evening and not doing her homework (as if I didn't do the exact same thing when I was her age). I'm looking for parental control apps that will let me:

- set permitted hours of use on the iPad
- enforce spending a certain amount of time on 'educational' apps (eg Swift Playground, Monument Valley, maths games etc) before letting her play games of her choice (Slither etc)

Has anyone had any experience with this sort of stuff? Any recommendations?

A bonus would be if it let us have different profiles/user accounts on the iPad so that I can use it for FaceTime every now and then without needing to disassociate iMessages from her account and re-associate it to mine, then afterwards reversing the process every time.

 

[cswifx]

You could always just use your Apple ID so that she'll have to go to you to download/install any apps. That way you can install apps for her when she wants it. I doubt that there's any app like that, due to Apple's policy on apps on the App Store.

 

[kasimodem]

Hi,

You could enable the family account function to limit many things, and then use the parental control feature to authorize what you want.

 

[RedTomato]

Hi, You could enable the family account function to limit many things, and then use the parental control feature to authorize what you want.

Thanks for the links, and I spent some time reading them. Unfortunately Apple's inbuilt iOS parental controls don't seem to have time restrictions, which is what I want. They also don't allow individual app time restrictions either.

You could always just use your Apple ID so that she'll have to go to you to download/install any apps. That way you can install apps for her when she wants it. I doubt that there's any app like that, due to Apple's policy on apps on the App Store.

I found some interesting info. There are some parental control apps coming out that leverage Apple's MDM (Mobile Device Management) business/ corporate device functionality to get more fine-grained parental control of iOS. Eg Kaspersky Safe Kids (for iPhone) - here's a review:

http://uk.pcmag.com/kaspersky-safe-kids-for-iphone/82849/review/kaspersky-safe-kids-for-iphone

Anyone any experience with Kaspersky Safe Kids or the other parental control apps mentioned in the review?

 

[kasimodem]

Thanks for the links, and I spent some time reading them. Unfortunately Apple's inbuilt iOS parental controls don't seem to have time restrictions, which is what I want. They also don't allow individual app time restrictions either.

No that's right, no time restrictions in what I linked, but you can lock or ask grant for many things like in app purchases and surf. Family share also let you know where is the phone owner via GPS, and so on...

And about time, what about this one ?

 

[PJ.]

I use kidslox. Have it on my iPhone and control their tablets and phones. Works on kindles iPads iPhones and android. Can have set bed times, block certain apps or just lock right away

Kidslox Screen Time Parental Control by Kidslox Trading Ltd
https://appsto.re/gb/FfYH2.i

 

[pacorob]

There is also an option that you got a router (e.g. Asus has this Parental control) with a parental control build into it so you can set which devices can have a limited amount of internet (x hours a day for example). I think it's not possible though to set it per app it's per device.

Other then that I can give you an app for YouTube videos in which you can decided which videos can be shown and for what ages group and how long these can be watched.

 

[RedTomato]

I use kidslox. Have it on my iPhone and control their tablets and phones. Works on kindles iPads iPhones and android. Can have set bed times, block certain apps or just lock right away

Kidslox Screen Time Parental Control by Kidslox Trading Ltd
https://appsto.re/gb/FfYH2.i

That looks great many thanks. I can see hints in their material that it allows per app time control, and there's a two week free trial so I might try that out.

Kaspersky Safe Kids seems more focussed on monitoring and controlling the kids (very Russian ), and Kidslox seems more about ensuring your children use their time appropriately, which I'm more into.

I already have internet filters set at my router and Youtube itself is unfiltered. (And yes I skip merrily around the filters whenever I want to access something the filters block. It's more fun than going to my ISP page to temporarily deactivate them. When my kids become old enough / smart enough to work out how to circumvent the filters, then I think they're old enough to handle the wider Internet.) I don't have any problems with Youtube, it's more about ensuring my kids spend some time on educational apps before playing games and that the iDevices switch themselves off at appropriate times.

 

[andyw715]

Curbi
http://www.curbi.com/

Looks interesting. I'm going to try it with 2 my kid's iPads.

 

[RedTomato]

Curbi
http://www.curbi.com/

Looks interesting. I'm going to try it with 2 my kid's iPads.

http://www.curbi.com/features
Seems highly limited on iOS. Can't do time restrictions, can't lock off the device. 'Lock' mode only stops internet access.

Another one is OurPact - seems to have similar capabilities to Kidslox. Giving link to iTunes because the OurPact website isn't very clear as to what it can do on iOS.
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/ourpact-parental-control-screen/id954029412

 

[adam9c1]

There was something I heard in a podcast. I'm typing here as a reference, I'll update the thread once I find the app / service..

 

[LordQ]

You could try setting up timers on the iPad and your iPhone / Apple Watch if you have, that way you can monitor if she slips using some apps more than she is allowed (and you can control if she tweaks the timer)

 

[RedTomato]

There was something I heard in a podcast. I'm typing here as a reference, I'll update the thread once I find the app / service..

Good luck finding it.

You could try setting up timers on the iPad and your iPhone / Apple Watch if you have, that way you can monitor if she slips using some apps more than she is allowed (and you can control if she tweaks the timer)

That works as a one-off but not every day. I didn't mention I actually have two kids, who are both more intelligent and more logical than me. Putting timed account access (via OSX parental controls) on the shared laptop really helped cut down on the arguments, begging and blackmail, and frees me to get on with cooking them dinner each evening.

Smaller one is getting an Android device, cheap n suitable for her in the short term, bigger one is getting the ipad and for family harmony, they should both have the same account access duration. I hand out time extensions pretty liberally for doing homework online, playing on maths apps, or creative work in imovie or whatever; that way I'm the good daddy that gives extra time and rewards hard work, rather than the bad daddy that takes away devices in the middle of a game.

 

[mariusignorello]

Guided Access locks an app in place and allows you to set a time limit:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202612

This article leaves out info about setting a time limit, but the option is there when you go in to enable Guided Access (Options > Time Limit).