IF you’ve ever felt hopeless about keeping your kids safe online, there are some settings you’ll definitely want to check.
Apple‘s iPhone is absolutely stuffed with clever tricks to limit how your children use their devices – and protect them while they do.
There are three main areas that you’ll want to check.
But first, you’ll need to make sure that you properly link up your youngster’s iPhone.
GETTING STARTED
Firstly, you’ll need to set up a Family Sharing group and add your child’s Apple Account to it.
You can do that by going into Settings > [Your Name] > Family > Continue, and then inviting your child.
Once that’s done, you can get going.
CONTENT RESTRICTIONS
Your first port of call should be Content & Privacy Restrictions.
This lets you set age-related restrictions for what they see, buy, and download.
Go into your Settings app, then tap on Screen Time.
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Now under Family, tap on your child’s name, then tap on Content & Privacy Restrictions.
You’ll need to enter your Screen Time passcode, and then you can turn Content & Privacy Restrictions on.
LIMITS AND BLOCKS
Once you’ve got that done, you can now activate an extensive list of blocks and limits.
The full list includes:
- Preventing App Store purchases
- Allowing built-in apps and features
- Preventing explicit content (and managing content ratings)
- Preventing inappropriate web content
- Restricting Game Centre features
- Restricting Intelligence & Siri features
- Preventing changes to privacy settings
- Preventing or allowing changes to other settings & seatures
And you can also make changes to health and safety features too.
Most of these features are available to adjust inside your Screen Time settings (which is also where you can view how much your child is using their device).
You can specifically limit the usage of certain apps, and even entire categories (like games or social media).
And for content, you can set specific ratings (like PG for movies, Clean for books, 9+ for apps, and so on) for your child too.
You can also limit specific websites, or block adult websites entirely.
And if something is being accidentally blocked, you can add it to an Always Allow list to let it through.
COMMUNICATION SAFETY
Once that’s all done, you’ll want to turn to Communication Safety.
Go into Screen Time > [Your Child] > Communication Safety and then turn Communication Safety on.
This is a way to protect your child from seeing (or sending) nude images.
“If Communication Safety determines that a photo or video your child has received or is about to send appears to contain nudity, it blurs the photo or video and displays a warning,” Apple explained.
“This warning reassures the child that it’s OK not to view or send the content, and offers ways to get help.”
The ways of getting help include:
- Messaging a trusted adult
- Leaving the chat or group message
- Blocking the contact
- Viewing online safety resources
And it adds a message: “You’re not alone, and can always get help from someone you trust or with trained professionals. You can also block this person.”
If the youngster is under 13, it’ll prompt them to start a conversation with their parent or guardian.
GUIDED ACCESS – THE CLEVER IPHONE & IPAD TRICK
If you want to yet a very young child play on your iPhone or iPad, there’s an extra trick to try…
It’s called Guided Access, and it lets you lock down a child to a specific app on your device.
So if you wanted to let them play a single game, you could make sure that they don’t accidentally wander elsewhere – and text your boss a poo emoji, or delete your Facebook profile.
Go to Settings > Accessibility > Guided Access.
Then open an app, triple click the side button, and then begin the Guided Access session.
You can set time limits, block the keyboard, have it ignore screen touches (handy for video viewing), and even lock the volume buttons.
To end the session, just triple-click the Side button and authenticate yourself.
Picture Credit: Apple