Parental control ipod

nihicib2

Hi all

I have bought an iPod touch for an eight year old, I want to know if there is an app for restricting her internet usage, I know that you can enable restrictions on the phone itself, but I do want her to be able to access the internet or youtube, but only safe viewing/surfing, any of ye know of such an app?

Thanks

guil

there's no app available from the app store to do what you want, maybe something is available on cydia but you need to jailbreak the ipod first

marley123

Found this... may be worth a read:)

http://knol.google.com/k/how-to-setup-parental-controls-on-iphone-ipod-touch-os-3-0-edition#

Bogger77

avg have a product, it's free on itunes.
haven't used it, so can't comment on it's effectiveness

BostonB

You can't control what's you see on youtube. People put offensive/unsuitable stuff the middle of kids videos' just for a laugh. If you plan on using facebook they keep changing there privacy setting, almost always to make stuff less private. So unless you always monitor them you can't control it. You could block things as the router but then it blocks whole sites. Not just bits of it.

Personally I don't think you can control content on a Ipod/IPad 100% for kids as you are hoping to. I think its either all or nothing. You've some hope on a desktop/laptop but even then I doubt all nanny software is foolproof either.

http://www.netnanny.com/blog/entry/id/106
http://pediatrics.about.com/od/safety/a/109_intrnt_sfty.htm

Eoin

Does she mostly use the home WiFi network to connect with? Maybe your router could be configured to have a filter instead of the device.

mobicip

nihicib2

It is possible to create a safe and secure browsing environment on the iPod Touch. You will need to use the Restrictions feature on the device to disable Safari/YouTube, lock the App Store with a password, and setup other age-ratings. You can then download and setup an alternate safe browser (like Mobicip) to allow filtered access to the Internet, including YouTube.

Please see this tutorial for step-by-step instructions.

Disclaimer: This response is posted by a Mobicip representative who may stand to gain indirectly from it.

BostonB

If you disable youtube how can you also filter youtube. They would seem to be mutually exclusive.

How do you filter youtube content. Since youtube is explicitly mentioned by the OP.

mobicip

BostonB

Good question. When you "turn off YouTube using the restrictions feature", it means the native YouTube app is not available on the iPod Touch anymore. However, you can still access the YouTube website (m.youtube.com) through the Mobicip Safe Browser. Mobile YouTube is based on HTML5 (unlike the regular YouTube which uses Flash) and can be rendered by the safe browser.

Mobicip filters YouTube content by title, meta data and any other text based content associated with the video like comments, discussions etc. You can learn more about this here.

Hope this answers your question.

Disclaimer: This response is posted by a Mobicip representative who may stand to gain indirectly from it.

BostonB

In fairness, quite smart.

But there's still something it can't check, the content of the video itself. So if someone has buried something in it, and comments and such are disabled, you won't pick it up.

BostonB

"Not Appy! Boy of seven runs up £1,300 bill using 'free' iPad app"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2068987/iPads-Jack-Tap-Zoo-boy-7-runs-1-300-using-free-app.html