Is it me or is screentime for apple devices rubbish?

[schooloflostsocks]

So yet again DS 13 needed his phone during lesson time at school, I switched off screentime restrictions so he could use it and then forgot to switch it back on. I feel like I need training in how to use screentime better.

Why is it so useless if you switch it off and on again, you seem to have to set it all up from scratch again and put 'block at end' on every single restriction manually. I hate it.

please share your screentime wisdom. Thanks

Buy a cheap Nokia dumbphone.

Yes we did start with a Nokia. It would be pretty devastating for my Y9 not to be on WhatsApp with his friends though, now we’ve finally allowed it I can see how much gets organised on there re their social lives

We've given up with Apple parental controls. They are not reliable.
Youngest has an android with family link. Oldest has an iPhone but can't trust the parental lock. No snap or tik took.

iPad is on a parent account which has it's own challenges, but surprised use only and is currently hidden due to overuse.

There's should be more public outcry about apple's useless parental controls. Including the requirement for another Apple device to manage them.

@Rollercoaster1920 so what do you do with your eldest.

I find it weird how little parents seem to be complaining about this. Not sure how they can in any way be effectively monitoring what is happening online. I have regular training on this as a teacher and it’s horrific what kids are being exposed to.

Eldest is a mid-teen, we still have Apple parental controls but don't really trust them. But do trust our child a fair amount, they are good at going to bed, not glued to the phone generally. They do not have Snap or Tiktok.

So glad I found this thread! My kids don’t have phones yet but they do have access to iPads which is my BIGGEST parenting regret. The parental controls are utterly, utterly shit. I thought it was just that their iPads are really old but maybe not. My eldest just turned 11 and this has made my mind up that he won’t be getting an iPhone for secondary. Sorry no advice op just solidarity. Apple have enough resources to fix the problem they just don’t want to because it keeps kids addicted to their devices.

I’m bumping this again this evening in case anyone else has any recommendations for third party parental control apps. In particular I want all browser access blocked and I want to be able to switch apps on and off as I choose, also to set windows in which access is open (rather than 30 mins per day I want to say between X and X O clock. This is not possible on apple screentime

Just found this pretty horrifying thread

reactions to this kind of thing are always ‘get a dumb phone’ or ‘take it away’ which is not really viable for many reasons

Qustodio will do this.

Hi OP - my eldest is y6 so we are starting to get the requests for a phone and a couple of her friends have them. I don’t have any answers but I have found your thread helpful. One tip I was given was to use AI how to get around phone restrictions - as that is what your teen will do! If AI gives you an answer you teen will be able to do it.
things are changing but I’m worried it’s too slow for my eldest. We are going to explore the hybrid phones that have been made specifically for tweens/teens and also considering a dumb phone.
Could you get rid of Apple altogether and replace with hybrid models? Or is it too late?

Would the BePresent app work for this? I don’t have kids with phones (she’s only 6) but I downloaded it myself to help with my addiction. The app blocker works really well for me, it can’t be changed remotely though, so kid couldn’t be at school asking you to change the access. Might be handy alongside another app / control.

Get Android smart phones.
My DCs have them and the only issue is where we allow access to Chrome for homework and we have to allow the BBC domain and my DS just plays games on there. But we just shut down Chrome when he's done with homework.
Family link is so much better than Screen Time. They have Motorola phones which were £70 or similar.

I'm looking at whether to try family link - but it says the child can manage their own account from 13?? Surely that is the age when you actually need more parental control as they stop thinking you know best!

My ds have a school managed ipad so phones are never needed at school or for homework. The ipad is restricted so it just has school stuff plus netflix/ Disney/iplayer allowed. Parents can choose if they want less restrictions for older teens. This is really helpful - my dc use it for homework/art apps and sometimes watching something. Phone is used for WhatsApp and Spotify mainly. I check it most days to read the messages. However, I'm aware that my dc is only in year 7 and won't always be so obedient.

They get sent an email asking if they want to. We deleted it before DS saw it.