Apple DevicesMobile

iOS Restrictions – Control Your Kids Smart Device Use

iOS Restrictions – Control Your Kids Smart Device Use

How many articles have you read in the past year that talks about some or other kid, almost bankrupting their parents with a sky high AppStore bill? It seems almost unreal, but it happens more times than not. And we aren’t talking about small change either. $6,000£1,000, $3,200£4,000…. the list goes on. I mean, which little kid wouldn’t be tempted to buy a bushel of 1000 Smurfberries for $59.99?

Since my daughter was 18 months old, she has been playing on my iPad. She is now 3 years old and I have given her my old iPad and bought myself an iPad mini. It provides her hours of fun, especially on those long trips down to the coast to visit granny. Unfortunately, I need to carefully screen the apps available because the game makers are after all, there to make money. Unfortunately, there are some that will try to trick use the kids to make a sale.

It is no secret that advertisers sell products to adults by marketing to children. Nevertheless, what can you do to protect your child’s Smart Device usage? Luckily Apple makes this process incredibly easy with iOS Restrictions.

Enable iOS Restrictions

On your iOS device, Head on over to Settings-> General-> Restrictions. It will prompt you to enter a passcode.  When you have entered your passcode, you are then able to view the available iOS Restrictions you can enforce.

iOS Restrictions Enabled

If you are thinking money, and protecting your iTunes account then the first thing you need to do is slide the slider to the left (green indicates that it is allowed) for ‘Installing Apps’, ‘Deleting Apps’ and very importantly ‘In-App Purchases’. It is here that many parents have had their bank balance seriously affected by multiple bushels of Smurfberry purchases. As you can see, you can even turn off the iTunes Store and Safari for those less than desirable websites that your child should not view.

iOS Restrictions Allowed Content

Moving down further, you can allow content based on ratings. This means that for the Movies category, you can set the PG rating to ‘Allow All Movies’, ‘NC-17’, ‘R’, ‘PG-13’, ‘PG’, ‘G’ or ‘Don’t Allow Movies’. In a similar fashion you can allow apps based on their ratings too.

iOS Restrictions Allow Changes

Another section you might want to have a look at is the Game Center options. As you can see, iOS allows you to enforce restrictions on your child’s smart device. This puts you firmly back in control of your child’s tablet or iPhone without being creepy. Another tip I have heard from parents with teenagers is that you can change the Wi-Fi password in your home each day. Based upon certain house rules such as your kids needing to do chores around the house, finish their homework or similar, you can then give them that day’s Wi-Fi password.

This makes the impact of grounding them so much more severe because they can’t retire to their rooms and WhatsApp their friends or entertain themselves with other activities using their smart device. We need to remember that kids and teenagers of today are more tech savvy than we were when we were kids. I mean, when I was a teenager, the Internet didn’t even exist yet.

We as adults need to be less ignorant of our kids and what they are capable of achieving. They literally have a world of knowledge at their fingertips if they own a smart device. We as parents need to protect them, and ourselves by using that technology available to us.

Josh Benson

Josh Benson

Josh is the Editor of GeekLift.com and supreme geek to boot. He spends much of his time learning new software, coding languages, gadgets and more. He loves helping people figure out tech problems - big or small. Josh is a former television news anchor and tech reporter. He spends his days developing websites and producing videos.

Previous post

Meet the woman behind the voice of Siri

Next post

Secure Removable Data Drives With BitLocker For Windows