Apple Adds New 'Families' Section to its Website With Tips for Parents

[Madmic23]

They already have this. It's called guided access

That’s not really the same. Guided access locks you into a single app. This post was suggesting locking them into a specific home screen with a selection of kids apps.

Personally, I want to see user accounts like they have on Android. Let me create a kids account that has all of their games, educational stuff, and Netflix kids profile.

People don’t want to buy one iPad for every person in the house, though I know that’s what Apple would prefer.

 

[supremedesigner]

That's awesome! Thanks for the post.

I have a dumb question... how do you find families page (https://www.apple.com/families/) if you're on Apple homepage? It doesn't show on breadcrumb on bottom of their site? I'm sure there are lots of standalone pages out there. Any advices will be helpful. Thanks!

 

[TreeDude]

Apple has got to do a lot more when it comes to parental controls. Amazon has got the right idea. While you can accomplish a lot of similar things with apples controls, Amazon makes it much easier and more intuitive to set up properly. Apple should have a “kids mode“ that locks down the device and gives it a simpler, more basic interface. The parent should be able to remote in at any time to observe what the child is doing on the device.

They’ve made incremental progress over the years, but I really hope they revamp the entire system in iOS 12.

I bought 2 Kindle Fire HD Kid's editions and was amazed at what I could do. So easy to setup, you get a year of FreeTime which gives them thousands of ad free kids apps, a 2yr no questions asked warranty, and the things only cost me $100 a piece.

They aren't perfect. There is no easy way to close open apps so they get slow and need to be rebooted every so often. The kid's interface does not have media controls, so if they leave a music app open I have to go into the app the stop it. But these are minor grips about a really great product. Apple really has nothing on Amazon.

 

[BornAgainApple]

I have a 12-year old who has anxiety issues and the iPad helps calm him during times of stress. Other than putting a time limit on him and making sure homework and chores are done, we don’t put any parental blocks on him, but we do unannounced checks from time to time. What I did find that I was most upset with (insert sarcasm) was that he’s been learning code with Swift Playgrounds. But I don’t need, or want, to follow him 24/7. We have a family friend who does that with her EIGHTEEN year old and it’s creepy as hell.

 

[BMox81]

It all depends on your stance at the end of the day.

One side of my family wanted find my friends set up so we're all linked. And I'm sure that when my 2 year old daughter is older and she starts getting iOS devices, we'll get her set up as well.

People can stay it's stalking or creepy to know where people are at all times but for peace of mind to make sure our family is safe, I see no harm in having it on.

 

[Krayzkat]

Wi-fi in the family home is a powerful commodity. Give parents the ability to turn on/off their kids access to Wi-fi and/or monitor what sites/they use.

Ie if kid is meant to be studying, turn off ability to use snapchat etc but still able to use safari (but not access snapchat etc on safari either). Also, if kid won’t go to sleep because they spending all night talking to friends online, allow parents to be able to set a bedtime where Wi-fi (or cellular) access is disabled except for emergency calls and calls to parents.

 

[TMRJIJ]

Must be rough being an overbearing parent. I lived with my grandparents for the most part as a child and they didn’t care if my cousins and I bike rided out of the neighborhood just as long as we came back safely at a certain time and knew not to talk to strange people.
Mother gave me a first phone (flip phone not the original iPhone) when I was ten with parental controls which I broke easily and was punished whenever I went over my limits...or ran her bill up.
You have to teach your kids responsibility and allow them to face the consequences of their actions. Don’t blame tech companies for your own stupidity.
I can’t help but feel like these parents are setting their children up for failure in the future.

 

[AmazingRobie]

Know where your kids are 24/7 is creepy AF. I grew up in the late 70’s / early 80’s. Virtually the only times my parents ever knew where I was from grade 1 onwards was bedtime and meal times. Otherwise we were off playing and exploring with our friends who knows where.

Whilst I happen to concur with what you've said...you dint have the Internet then, which makes every kid a target for some kind of trouble, either through predators or "exploring" new drugs or their budding sexualities. And we're not talking weed here, breaking into your parents liquor stash or smoking their cigarettes.

I whole heartedly agree that kids should have the freedom to be kids and spying on them IS creepy, especially if you've raised a smart one, it's easy for them to tell you that they'll be at such and such place then just leave there phone there and forward their calls to a friends phone who doesn't have restrictions to go where they want. A smart kid will work any system and be two steps ahead.

But the music that everyone listens to these days is just egging them on to do the wrong things. Apple can't do enough to protect kids, it's got to be good parenting and being attentive to your child so you know that even if their around trouble, they'll choose to do the right thing. Parents need to educate their own kids, not Apple. I definitely would not want Tim Cook responsible for my child's well being when it's obvious he doesn't even give two flips about his customers user experience. He's just out there trying to sell more gadgets to a wider audience so he doesn't have to deal with the problems they create for the people who buy them over the duration of ownership.

Apple has their deceptive business practices down to a science now. Make something cheaply which will start to display problems over a period of time to make purchasing a warranty mandatory, have the warranty only last until just before the problems show themselves, then wait until the very last minute after enough time has passed and most people either move on or have the gadget fixed on their own, then implement a product repair program to handle the stragglers who's device will soon be considered obsolete by them. And just in case they missed anyone, issue an update to make the device unstable or malfunction just enough to where it's irritating to the user so they'll want to replace it.

 

[neutralguy]

Apple, you want to help kids? Ban Snapchat and Instagram from the app store! Those two apps are most detrimental to the future generation!

 

[brinary001]

I still think this is ridiculous... But to be fair I don't know what it's like to be a parent (or a kid for that matter) in this new age, so I can't really say more than that.

 

[erinsarah]

This kinda p*sses me off. There are still no parental controls that come remotely close to what we have on macOS. Where can I limit the hours per day of phone usage, or the times when the kids can use the phone?

Amen. It drives me crazy that I can buy all sorts of gizmos that, say, shut down the WiFi during dinner hours, but that's pretty useless when the phones still have a cell signal. I want the ability to temporarily "brick" a family member's phone for a set amount of time. No texting, no snapchat, no calls until I turn it back on. Only available with family sharing set up. And it would have to be time allotted so that it eventually turns back on by itself, to minimize abuse and or forgetfulness.

And to those who say "well, don't get your kids cell phones", personally have two very responsible kids, 14 and 17. Having a smartphone is pretty much crucial to our existence as a family, and the 17 year old pays for part of it. But I still want the ability to manage usage at times.

 

[franzkfk]

Choose what they consume.
Know where they are.
Manage their lives.
Built them from scratch.
You know what is best for your kids.
Because there is nothing like a paradox in a parenting.

 

[s15119]

That isn't the same thing as they can still go to other pages and access apps already installed. As an example, Maybe I have YouTube installed on page 1. All the kids apps on page 2. If I don't want him to access YouTube, he can still go to page 1. If you could lock down a certain page it would secure other installed apps on the iPad.
[doublepost=1521082778][/doublepost]

Harsh. Our son uses the iPad to learn counting and early letter recognition. The iPad is a fabulous tool for that but most parents would rather there wasn't complete access to everything and are at least given the choice. It may not even be X rated, something as simple as not wanting them to access your contacts and delete them. Granted, supervised usage is good, but it is nice to give them some freedom as well.

I learned to count with books and paper and pencil. Great tools for that. The iPad is a toy and an internet device.

 

[JP79]

That’s not really the same. Guided access locks you into a single app. This post was suggesting locking them into a specific home screen with a selection of kids apps.

Personally, I want to see user accounts like they have on Android. Let me create a kids account that has all of their games, educational stuff, and Netflix kids profile.

People don’t want to buy one iPad for every person in the house, though I know that’s what Apple would prefer.

With Boomerang Parental Control this is possible - it's called Encouraged Apps - but only possible today if the child's device is Android Parents with iPhones, can control Android or iOS devices. Learn more useboomerang.com.

 

[Williesleg]

If only Apple built more tools for creating content they wouldn't have to pretend to work so hard on limiting consumption.

 

[UniquelyUnique]

That’s not really the same. Guided access locks you into a single app. This post was suggesting locking them into a specific home screen with a selection of kids apps.

Personally, I want to see user accounts like they have on Android. Let me create a kids account that has all of their games, educational stuff, and Netflix kids profile.

People don’t want to buy one iPad for every person in the house, though I know that’s what Apple would prefer.

This feature needs to be expanded. There should be a parental app. One that allows the device to be locked/unlocked.. Locked to an app etc. Remotely.
[doublepost=1521210978][/doublepost]
[doublepost=1521211194][/doublepost]One word. Messages. Parents have no visibility into messages unless they take the device away from the kids and look at them. Delete texts, dick pics etc won't be there.. Also, no way to disable/restrict Messages.

There needs to be a way to get visibility into the whole device. Apple controls the keys used to encrypt messages. If you have three devices on your apple ID, all signed into Messages, then anyone who sends you a message, encrypts the message using all three public keys. Should be a simple matter to have the Parent's apple device's public keys added to that list.

 

[Wonder Warthog]

Apple has got to do a lot more when it comes to parental controls. Amazon has got the right idea. While you can accomplish a lot of similar things with apples controls, Amazon makes it much easier and more intuitive to set up properly. Apple should have a “kids mode“ that locks down the device and gives it a simpler, more basic interface. The parent should be able to remote in at any time to observe what the child is doing on the device.

They’ve made incremental progress over the years, but I really hope they revamp the entire system in iOS 12.

Parental controls are really good on macOS. I don't understand for the life of me why they can't bring that feature set to iOS.