A How to Guide: iPhone Parental Controls

Your child having an iPhone opens up many great opportunities: you can see where each other are via Find My friends, you can use an Apple Music Family Plan to save money, you can keep in contact with each other, etc. The benefits are endless, but the huge capabilities that an iPhone brings can also create a great deal of concern for parents. This is a How to Guide, showing you the ins-and-outs of Apple's comprehensive Parental Controls.

Settings -> General -> Restrictions -> Turn On -> Choose a Passcode

This Passcode will ensure that any features put in place can only be turned off by you or anybody that you share the 4-digit code with. There are 5 key elements to parental controls, and we will address them individually as each offers a different safety feature.

Allowed Applications:

This section allows an overall control over the key features/applications on an iPhone. You can control your child's ability to access Safari, camera, Siri, FaceTime, AirDrop, CarPlay, iTunes Store, music, Podcasts, News, App installation, App deletion and in-App purchases. Each of these features has benefits as well as drawbacks, for instance, by turning off CarPlay you are able to limit their ability to use their phone whilst in the car (through the in built system).

Allowed Content:

This category specialises in the ratings of Music, Podcasts, News, Films, TV apps, Siri and Websites, allowing you to ensure that they can only see age-appropriate content. Not only are you able to change the ratings by country, but you are also able to individually select ratings for the categories outlined above, e.g. for film you have the following options: Don't allow films, U, PG, 12, 15, 18, Unrated and Allow all films.

Privacy:

This section is all about ensuring that you have control over your child's interactions with location services, contacts, calendars, reminders, photos, share my location, bluetooth sharing, microphone, speech recognition, adverting and media & Apple music. This allows for total control over how data/information is stored, shared and used.

Allowed Changes:

This part of IOS parental controls is exactly what it says, it prevents/allows your child to make unapproved changes to accounts, mobile data, background app refresh, volume limit, TV provider and do not disturb while driving.

Game Centre:

This is one of the smaller features in Parental Controls, but it allows parents to prevent Multiplayer games, adding friends and screen recording. Whilst some parents may not see these as necessary features, it shows how compressive Apple's Parental Control features really are.