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Show HN: ToddlerLock – An iPhone app that shows a fake home screen for toddlers
Hi HN,
I built ToddlerLock for a very practical reason: my toddler kept grabbing my phone. I tried a bunch of kids apps, but they didn’t really work — he was too young for games. What he actually wanted was to tap on the same things he sees adults use every day.
So I made a fake version of the iPhone home screen with familiar icons like Phone, Messages, and Settings. It looks and feels native, but everything is safe to tap and nothing real can be opened or changed. It also works nicely with iOS Guided Access.
This is honestly the only thing that’s worked for my son so far. I’m sharing it here in case it’s useful to others, and I’d really appreciate any feedback.
- zilvinassebeika 9mo agoA bit more context: the app doesn’t try to be a game. It’s basically a sandboxed version of the iOS home screen that looks familiar to toddlers but doesn’t open real apps or change anything. It relies on iOS Guided Access to stay locked, and everything runs locally without internet access. Happy to answer questions about implementation or App Store review constraints (that part was not straightforward).