Persistent Kids Finding Loopholes in Apple's Screen Time Limits

[MacRumors]

Apple is currently engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with persistent kids looking to circumvent Screen Time restrictions, but the company has been receiving some criticism for not moving quickly enough to lock down some of the loopholes, reports The Washington Post.

A few of the loopholes and ways for parents to shut them down are documented on the site Protect Young Eyes, while these and others are frequently shared by kids through various social channels.

"These are not rocket science, backdoor, dark web sort of hacks," says Chris McKenna, founder of the Internet safety group Protect Young Eyes. "It blows me away that Apple hasn't thought through the fact that a persistent middle school boy or girl can bang around and find them."

Although Apple has been making tweaks and improvements to Screen Time since its launch, some of the loopholes kids have been using to work around Screen Time limits have gone unpatched. And while Apple declined to address specific issues related to Screen Time, the company noted that it's committed to improving the feature.

Apple spokeswoman Michele Wyman, in an emailed statement, said the company is "committed to providing our users with powerful tools to manage their iOS devices and are always working to make them even better." Wyman did not comment on specific bugs and workarounds in Screen Time or the speed with which Apple addresses them.

Apple rolled out Screen Time last year as part of iOS 12, and brought it to the Mac just last week with the release of macOS Catalina.

Article Link: Persistent Kids Finding Loopholes in Apple's Screen Time Limits

 

[Mutepointer]

Where there is a will, there’s away. ?

 

[PhyrePhox]

Can I just say ***** "One more minute"!

 

[Cyberpower678]

People complain about everything these days. I'm more concerned about loopholes to exploit system security. So what if a kid is discovering ways around Screen Time. Desired? No. Will it impact device security? Unlikely. Will the device explode? No. Will it crash? No. Is the device going to suddenly change it's language to Russian or Chinese and start sharing data with those countries? No. Is this an inconvenience that prevents you from earning an income, getting somewhere that requires a GPS, or preventing you from doing important matters such as call, text, make reminders, or calendar entries? No.

 

[nvmls]

Sorry kids, unless you were born in China they have to fix Safari first. Thanks for understanding.

 

[mrongey]

Kids would be more effective than many QA engineers if it weren't for pesky labor laws. 😝

 

[TMRJIJ]

Well duh... They're kids. They have all the time in the world to figure out these loopholes. My friends and I used to mess around with the school computers all the time when we were done with our classwork.

 

[ctrlshft]

Kids who are clever enough to circumvent these restrictions shouldn't have them enforced.

 

[Unity451]

It's not rocket surgery... If your kid is abusing the freedom... take the device away!

 

[Cartoonkid]

I know I'll get bashed by parents of young children for saying this, but what happened to actually monitoring what kids are doing instead of expecting Apple to put a time limit on the electronic babysitter?

 

[Elyzien]

people are dumb set up normal restrictions to go along with screen time.

 

[iapplelove]

Screen time has been toggled off since day one for me. Obviously I don’t have kids.

 

[Cyberpower678]

Well duh... They're kids. They have all the time in the world to figure out these loopholes. My friends and I used to mess around with the school computers all the time when we were done with our classwork.

The good ol' days. I remember when I was able to figure out the administrator password to all of the computers in my school.

 

[willmtaylor]

Where there is a will, there’s away. ?

You rang?

 

[ikramerica]

Well, once it’s out there even the dumbest miscreant can do it too.

 

[TheSkywalker77]

Kids will be kids.

 

[willmtaylor]

Kids will be kids.

If only parents would...parent.

 

[Canezmd]

Clearly none of you people have kids....

There are competing apps that work far better than screentime, unfortunately they require an admin profile be installed on the device.

Screentime is legitimately the worst stock Apple app. (flamesuit on!) It's horrible and doesn't do what it's designed to do.

For instance, you can set Games to 1 hour... but it doesn't work for Fortnite, which is all the kids play. You look at the device and you're like "how did you play 9 hours of Fortnite today??"

I know... "take away the phone"... but then you can't call them or track them on the bus or see where they're driving, etc.

 

[TheSkywalker77]

If only parents would...parent.

Welcome to 2019.

 

[bydandie]

Personally, until they stop using a 4-digit PIN to make changes then it'll be hard for the parents to think of a secure authentication mechanism. Security is only as strong as the weakest link, in this case it's only 4-digits. Until more people raise it with Apple support then it'll not change.

 

[macfacts]

If apple can't get screentime working correctly, what makes people think apple is doing security and privacy correctly? Faith.

 

[miami.best21]

Where there is a will, there’s away. ?

Kids just have the time and the addiction. They have nothing else to do during the day.

 

[keysofanxiety]

It's not rocket surgery... If your kid is abusing the freedom... take the device away!

I love performing rocket surgery!

- Dr. Keys M.D.

 

[69Mustang]

Kids find ways around electronic restrictions.
"Have you met kids?"
- every parent ever

 

[Ethosik]

Clearly none of you people have kids....

There are competing apps that work far better than screentime, unfortunately they require an admin profile be installed on the device.

Screentime is legitimately the worst stock Apple app. (flamesuit on!) It's horrible and doesn't do what it's designed to do.

For instance, you can set Games to 1 hour... but it doesn't work for Fortnite, which is all the kids play. You look at the device and you're like "how did you play 9 hours of Fortnite today??"

I know... "take away the phone"... but then you can't call them or track them on the bus or see where they're driving, etc.

How about giving kids flip phones until they are older? Why do they need an iPhone?