IOS 12 parental controls give mom, dad a lift
Amid a barrage of tongue-wagging emojis and Siri shortcuts, the keynote for the Worldwide Developers Conference provided a muchneeded boost for parents.
It boils down to two words: parental controls.
Apple’s iPhones and iPads will feature controls through iOS 12, launching this fall, with an app called Screen Time. The app will give parents more information on how their kids use mobile devices, as well as more chances to control how often they are in front of their touch screens.
The iOS 12 update will be available to all devices going as far back as the iPhone 5S and the iPad Mini 2. Here’s what parents can do with the upcoming Screen Time app:
Set app limits
Of any features, this might be most important to parents. It lets them set limits on how much time their kids can spend on any given app.
If you have multiple devices through Family Sharing, the parent can set it up on their phone and have it sync across all other connected gadgets.
The app uses a series of notifications to let kids know when their time is about to expire. For example, they will get an alert telling them they have “5 minutes remaining” to use an app.
Review what apps their children use
Screen Time also includes a detailed breakdown of how your kids (or you) spend time on your smartphone. Users can review how much time their kids spent today and compare it with their average usage. They can also go for a longer seven-day view of how kids use their phones. They can review what apps have set limits and get a detailed breakdown of where their kids spend the most time.
So, let’s say you find out your kid spends way too much time on YouTube, then parents could consider setting an app limit.
Wait, isn’t some of this already available?
Sort of, but not in any organized or thorough way like Screen Time plans to offer this fall. In your Settings, you can go to General, then Restrictions to allow or deny the use of stock apps such as Safari or FaceTime, or limit entertainment options such as movies or TV. But it doesn’t offer the level of control by individual apps that Screen Time proposes. Also, you can get some sense of how your kids use their phone by data usage.
Go to General, then Cellular, to review which apps are eating up the most data. Again, this isn’t complete because it doesn’t account for what apps are used via Wi-Fi connection. There are also third-party apps such as Moment that perform similar options for tracking your kids’ activity.