General Parental controls jailbreak app? Or could I write my own?

[sp00d3m]

Hello,

Hoping there's someone out there who could give me a bit of advice...

We have an ipod for my son, and sometimes on a saturday / sunday morning we leave it in his room to get a bit of a lay in. However recently he's been getting up at stupid times and last saturday he woke me up at 5am when the battery was exhausted after 2 hours playing....

I just jailbroke the ipod in the hope of installing an app that could stop the device being used between certain times, say 10pm - 6:30am, however after a lot of hunting round it doesn't look like anything like this exists?

1 - Does anyone know of any app or tweak or anything (anything!) that would stop him using the ipod before 6:30am?

2 - I used to be a developer and it feels to me (although with no experience of ios development!) that if I'm happy to hardcode the times of operation this could be one line of code somewhere - just to defeat the unlock slider based on system time... could anyone give me an idea of what the learning curve might be for someone new to ios development to start diving in and doing something like this myself?

3 - If all the above fails, is there an app I could use to send myself an email when he starts playing on the ipod so at least I could march in there at 3am and tell him to go back to bed?

Thanks in advance for any advice!
Nicola

 

[bandofbrothers]

Look here http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4213

 

[sp00d3m]

Hi thanks for your reply but it isn't things like Game Center or web based things that are my problem (otherwise I guess I could use the scheduling jailbreak app to turn on airplane mode before 6:30am) - my problem is games on the device itself (minecraft!) - so I guess I'm looking for a way to disable the whole device between set times?

 

[HenryLong]

You can set a time based passcode with CleverPin.

 

[bandofbrothers]

Ok,


If after having a talk with your child about being reasonable and they continue to be in your eyes ,un reasonable , then you could remove the device from them until they become adult about how to use it.

 

[sp00d3m]

Hi Henry many thanks for your idea of cleverpin!

Initially I was delighted because it looked like this would be the perfect solution to the problem (using cleverpin to set a pin-free 'allowed time' for my son), but unfortunately due to a quirk of its operation, it always seems to require the pin once even in the 'allowed time'. I played with it for ages trying to get it to work, even trying to get round the problem by using scheduler to turn on and off wifi and telling clever pin that no pin is needed when connected to wifi, but the same problem - the pin is always needed on the first occasion even when 'safe' conditions are met : (

I also tried the alternative to cleverpin (autoprotect) but this has the same issue - (something to do with encryption keys?)

I wanted this to work so much I even tried emailing Fillipo for advice (the cleverpin guy) but I guess he's pretty busy as no response as yet

So unfortunately I'm back to square one. Sorry to be back asking you guys for help once again but can anyone think of any way of disabling a device somehow outside of an 'allowed time'?

(also I'm really looking for a technical solution rather than anything like hide it under a rug!)

Many thanks in advance for any help on this one.....

cheers nicola

 

[sp00d3m]

Hi just thought I'd post how I resolved this one as best I could for anyone with a similar problem....

None of the timed pin / no pin on wifi tweaks that I tried seemed to work as they all need a pin on the first attempt in the pin-free duration so unfortunately no good for this problem.

The best I can come up with is by using SBSettings and SBProfiles to turn the brightness down to minimum and invert the colours at 10pm, and then restore them to normal at 7pm. I then locked the settings app using Lockdown lite.

This isn't an ideal solution because the ipod is still usable, but I backed it up by saying that if he played with the ipod when it was like that, then I Would Know.

Incidentally if anyone knows a better way of disabling the device or locking it down using some SBSetting toggles please let me know. Or infact if there is a way I could make the ipod send me a notification (sms or email?) if he does play with it when 'disabled' that would be even better?

Thanks anyone who can give me any further ideas on this - as you can tell I have been battling with it for a while... : (

 

[ominx]

Use a scheduled activator event.

Example, everyday at 10pm, simulate sleep button or, even more annoying, power down. You can do this in 5 minute increments until morning. So he can play but it would be annoying.