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Hi - how did you lock down your kids iPhone? Am more of an android man but will be getting a refurbed iPhone 7 for my daughter (apparently they are "better" tha

by retube 6y ago

Hi - how did you lock down your kids iPhone? Am more of an android man but will be getting a refurbed iPhone 7 for my daughter (apparently they are "better" than Samsung)

mixedCase 6y ago
You sure you don't want to give them a fallible sandbox they could reason their way out of?
- RandallBrown 6y ago
  One of my coworkers did that with his son. He had his carrier's tracking app installed on his son's phone so he could see where he was. The son figured out how to disable it. So he wrote an android service that'll send him the location whenever he needs it and installed it on the phone. His son doesn't know about it... yet. He fully understands this is an "arms race" of sorts and I think he feels like if his son is smart enough to outsmart his dad, he's probably smart enough to handle himself with a little less supervision. (I think the kid was in about 8th grade at the time.)
marceldegraaf 6y ago
Not OP, but I do this too. You can configure Screen Time on an iPhone. There you can limit the total time the device can be used each day. It's also possible to limit usage to certain apps, or block access to certain categories of apps, and allowing only certain people (e.g. family members) to be contacted or messaged. If your child has their own Apple ID, Screen Time works across any other Apple devices linked to that Apple ID.
- 35fbe7d3d5b9 6y ago
  Exactly this. It's extremely effective, as Apple gives you a ton of constraints you can set: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201304 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201304 In my case, we've turned off all web access, have certain educational games available for a limited amount of time, and only allow outbound texts to grandma. It's extremely robust – most of the hacks I've read about (or heard from parents with older children!) involve trying to record the screen while you type in the unlock code to change a restriction. Physical attacks are also popular: shoulder surfing is a given, but one coworker said their kid put a tiny layer of hand lotion over the screen to capture where they touched and then attack the code. Clever.
  - smabie 6y ago
    Really got to applaud the lotion attack.

by retube 6y ago

Hi - how did you lock down your kids iPhone? Am more of an android man but will be getting a refurbed iPhone 7 for my daughter (apparently they are "better" than Samsung)

mixedCase 6y ago

You sure you don't want to give them a fallible sandbox they could reason their way out of?

RandallBrown 6y ago
One of my coworkers did that with his son. He had his carrier's tracking app installed on his son's phone so he could see where he was. The son figured out how to disable it. So he wrote an android service that'll send him the location whenever he needs it and installed it on the phone. His son doesn't know about it... yet. He fully understands this is an "arms race" of sorts and I think he feels like if his son is smart enough to outsmart his dad, he's probably smart enough to handle himself with a little less supervision. (I think the kid was in about 8th grade at the time.)

marceldegraaf 6y ago

Not OP, but I do this too. You can configure Screen Time on an iPhone. There you can limit the total time the device can be used each day. It's also possible to limit usage to certain apps, or block access to certain categories of apps, and allowing only certain people (e.g. family members) to be contacted or messaged. If your child has their own Apple ID, Screen Time works across any other Apple devices linked to that Apple ID.

35fbe7d3d5b9 6y ago
Exactly this. It's extremely effective, as Apple gives you a ton of constraints you can set: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201304 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201304 In my case, we've turned off all web access, have certain educational games available for a limited amount of time, and only allow outbound texts to grandma. It's extremely robust – most of the hacks I've read about (or heard from parents with older children!) involve trying to record the screen while you type in the unlock code to change a restriction. Physical attacks are also popular: shoulder surfing is a given, but one coworker said their kid put a tiny layer of hand lotion over the screen to capture where they touched and then attack the code. Clever.
- smabie 6y ago
  Really got to applaud the lotion attack.