Parental control features have grown out of necessity. Without these features, parents cannot monitor their child’s smartphone usage. Apple’s parental control features allow parents to limit their children’s activity on iPhones and iPads. Apart from Apple’s parental controls, parents can use third-party applications to monitor their children’s activity. Also, you can add iOS parental control features to your iPhone or iPad. Some apps offer a wide variety of features; even more than what Apple offers. However, with third-party apps, there is always the issue of user privacy and additional subscription charges. Despite this, there are several parental control apps, such as Xnspy that are among the best parental control apps.

iOS control features

The control features by Apple are called Screen Time restrictions. In addition to the content restrictions, you receive reports regarding the activity on an iPhone or iPad. Screen Time provides insights regarding the time spent on individual applications and app categories such as entertainment, social networking, productivity, and others. To view the reports, go to Settings >> Screen Time and select graph. In addition to setting up time limits for each app, you can monitor the number of time you pick up your phone.

Read Also: Don’t Wait for Apple to Take Action Against Smartphone Addiction, Use Xnspy Instead

Using the features offered by Apple, parents can set privacy, screen time, and other restrictions in place. These are as follows:

• Siri web search restrictions
• Gaming restrictions
• Book restrictions
• Web content restrictions
• iTunes and App Store restrictions

Setting up your child’s device

To set up parental control features, you first need to set up your child’s device as “This is My Child’s Device.” The instructions are as follows:

• Go to Settings >> Screen Time. Then select “This is My Child’s Device.”
• To prevent your child from changing the settings, you can set a passcode. To do so, select Use Screen Time Passcode. Enter the passcode and re-enter to confirm.
• Each time you make changes to the settings on your child’s device, you will be asked to enter a passcode.

Setting up iTunes and App Store restrictions

• On your child’s device, go to Settings >> Screen Time.
• Select Content and Privacy Restrictions and enter the passcode.
• Then, select iTunes and App Store Purchases. You can change the setting for Installing Apps, Deleting Apps, and In-app purchases. You can select either “Allow” or “Don’t Allow” for each of the three actions.
• For example, to prevent your child from installing apps, go to iTunes and App Store Purchases, and select “Don’t Allow” in front of Installing Apps.

Setting up in-built apps and feature restrictions

• On your child’s device, go to Settings >> Screen Time.
• Select Content and Privacy Restrictions and enter the passcode.
• A list of in-built apps and features will appear on the screen. These include apps such as Mail, Safari, Camera, FaceTime, AirDrop, and others. Select the in-built apps and features that you want to allow on your child’s phone.

Setting up content restrictions

• On your child’s device, go to Settings >> Screen Time.
• Select Content and Privacy Restrictions and enter the passcode.
• Select Content Restrictions. You can select the content rating by region, block explicit content, restrict explicit language in Siri, Game Center, and prevent content with specific ratings. These features are available under Content Restriction section.
  • You can view content rating according to the country by tapping “Ratings For” under the Allows Store Content section and then selecting the country or the region name from the list.
  • When it comes to blocking content, you have four options: Music, Podcasts, and News; Movies; TV Shows; Books; and Apps. You can select the highest rating for each of these categories.
  • To prevent the use of explicit language in Siri, go to Siri >> Explicit Language and select “Don’t Allow.” You can also prevent Siri web searches by selecting “Don’t Allow.”
  • To control Game Center features, go to the Game Center. You can control multiplayer games by selecting “Don’t Allow.” Likewise, you can prevent your child from Adding Friends and Screen Recording by selecting “Don’t Allow.”
  • You can also restrict the Web Content on your child’s phone. You have three options: Unrestricted Access, Limit Adult Websites and Allowed Websites Only. You can select one of these options.

Family Sharing

Family Sharing allows parents to change settings on their phones. It means that you can remotely change settings. Family Sharing is not only used for enforcing parental controls, but it allows people in a group to share content such as music, books, App Store purchases, and subscriptions.

Create a Family Sharing Group

To create a Family Sharing group, you need an Apple ID. The parent or guardian can set up Family Sharing from their iPhone or iPad. Go to Settings >> [your name]. Select Set Up Family Sharing and then tap on Getting Started. Follow the instructions to add members to Family Sharing.

You can invite members to join the group. On your iPhone, go to Settings >> [your name] >> Family Sharing >> Add Family Members. Enter the name of the family member or enter their email address. Follow the instructions to send an invite.

Setting up Screen Time on Family Sharing

If you want to put Screen Time restriction on your child’s phone, select set up Screen Time for Family. Follow the instructions as you go along to enable restrictions on your child’s phone.

If you have a Family Sharing Group, go to Settings >> Screen Time and select your child’s name. You can then change the settings on your child’s phone remotely.

To use Family Sharing for Screen Time restrictions on an iPhone, your child must be under the age of 18. In addition to this, the person enforcing these restrictions has to be a parent. Moreover, you can only have six people using Family Sharing.

Family Sharing allows parents to monitor their child’s device remotely. In addition to this, you don’t need to gain access to your child’s device every time you want to make changes to the content restrictions. But there are limitations to using Family Sharing for parental control. Firstly, the number of people in a group are six, including the parent/guardian. It means that you can change the settings for five other people only. However, you can change settings on the device if you want to use parental control features on iOS devices. In addition to this, Screen Time features are only for iOS device. For instance, if a child uses an Android device, the parent will not be able to monitor their device.

Alternate to Apple’s parental control features

The parental control features offered by Apple only allow parents to set restrictions in place. When it comes to monitoring an iPhone, these features are not sufficient. Parental monitoring apps allow parents to restrict activity and monitor their child’s activities on a smartphone. Parents can download apps such as Xnspy on their child’s smartphone. Monitoring apps collect data and upload it to a web-based account. Parents can monitor their child’s activity in real-time by logging into the account.

Monitoring features

These features ensure the safety of a child by giving parents access to a child’ device. A monitoring app allows parents to access the following:

·      Call Logs and Contacts

Parents can view the list of incoming, outgoing, and missed calls on their child’s phone. You can also gain access to the contact list on your child’s phone. It allows parents to monitor who their child contacts.

·      Text Messages

Parental monitoring apps allow parents to gain access to the iMessages on an iPhone.

·      Social Media Activity

Parents can access their kids’ social media activity, too. Most monitoring apps allow parents to monitor various social media apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and others. In addition to this, parents can also monitor incoming and outgoing messages on instant messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Viber, LINE, Kik, Tinder, Facebook Messenger, and others, when they have Xnspy.

·      Online Activity

Most parental applications record online activity on a child’s phone. The monitoring app allows parents to access internet browser history, bookmarked webpages, and emails. The app uploads the data is to the account in real-time. Hence, the app informs parents regarding the child’s activity.

·      Location tracking

Location tracking is an essential feature of monitoring a child’s activities. Parents can monitor the real-time location of their child’s device. The app provides the address, longitudinal, and latitudinal coordinates of the location. They can also use the geofencing feature and mark locations as safe or unsafe. Hence, the app notifies the parents when the child enters or leaves a marked location.

·      Multimedia Files

Parents can view the photos and videos stored on the child’s device. Monitoring apps allow parents to view and download these files as well.

Remote Controls

In addition to this, parents can also control their child’s smartphone remotely. In this, a parental control app allows them to perform the following:

·      App Blocking

From their account, parents can block apps on their child’s phone. In addition to this, parents can view the list of apps installed on a device, view the installation details, and view the app activity.

·      Locking the device

In case, parents want to restrict activity, they can lock, their child’s device.

Hence, many parents prefer these apps as opposed to the in-built features offered on iOS devices. However, parental control apps are not free; you have to subscribe to them for a fee.

iOS parental control features allow parents to restrict the content that their children consume. While it provides excellent features for restricting activity, there aren’t any features that allow parents to monitor their child’s online and offline activity.