Lots of smoke and no fire. The only way apps could accomplish “parental controls” would be though MDM or maybe through something a bit more heavy handed like a

Lots of smoke and no fire. The only way apps could accomplish “parental controls” would be though MDM or maybe through something a bit more heavy handed like a VPN. Neither are great solutions (MDM being slightly better) AND the privacy concerns are very high (see: Facebook VPN/“Study”). There exist no API’s to natively do what these apps said they could do and so they took the MDM/VPN heavy-handed route. I am 100% ok with Apple requesting changes from or straight up blocking apps that do shit like this. It’s deceptive IMHO and users don’t understand what they are really signing away when they stuff like this. I doubt parents fully understand that while they get some level of control over the phone they are ceding full control over every packet the goes over the VPN to some random company. That’s another thing, let’s not pretend these companies are well know/reputable. I’ve never heard of them before and I assume that’s because they didn’t really do anything novel and instead used a sledgehammer to kill a fly. Granted it’s because a fly-swatter didn’t exist (and still doesn’t) but they exist in the same category for me as ad-blocker apps that use a VPN to accomplish their goals. I’m not interested in giving up 100% of my internet traffic to get something like filtered ads. Also I have a legitimate use for VPN’s for home and work and I don’t like halfway solutions (am I supposed to be fine with ads when I need to use a real VPN?). In summary I question the usefulness of these apps and strongly feel that they create way more problems than they fix. Also Apple is LOSING money by removing/neutering these apps. This isn’t a case of Spotify vs Apple Music and I’ve got nothing but crocodile tears for these “businesses” that have gone up in smoke because from my perspective they were all smoke and mirrors to begin with.