Warning for parents- apple parental control is total disgrace

ttnov77

So I wished I did more research before buying our teenage daughter iphone. As long time iphone user myself, and 0 issues with android parental control through my wife`s phone the last thing I expected from apple is disgraceful negligence and abandonment of parental needs.

Its been only 3 months since we got the her the iphone and there has been just problems after problems. From ability to access phone after downtime, to ability to go on apps after the limit and lately no screentime data whatsoever showing on my iphone.

I had contacted apple support on several occasions and while they are always polite and do their best, no real help or solution was provided.

And before anyone want`s to use "bad parenting" as excuse to justify total lack of interest to this issue form apple (as I have seen from similar posts) take a good & hard look into mirror! If you are not parent, dont even think about judging one! We had bought the iphone with knowledge there is parental control system, and you have absolutely no idea what parents are going through! You don`t give them phone- bad parent, you give them phone with limits- bad parent, you give them phone with no limits- bad parent! We are talking about teenagers here, not 8 year olds! So unless you have something constructive to say dont even bother.

NO this has nothing with bad parenting. Smart phones are great tools but they also provide access to addictive apps, and thats why there are suppose to be CONTROLS and limits working! No amount of good parenting or education will avoid it completely!

We are talking about company producing high end & expensive products not some crappy cheap phones. This should not even be a topic, let alone serious issue like this! And its very shortsighted from apple as they can forget I will be buying iphone for my second kid, they can stuck it up their greedy a…s! I will never recommend apple anymore after this experience.

So if you are a parent looking the get phone to a teenager, my recommendation is AVOID IPHONE at all costs.

Ash.J.Williams

Ok

triggermortis

You don't give too many details about the actual problems you're experiencing, but one suggestion could be to have a physical parental control. We take phones off our (teenage) kids on school nights and they get limited use in evenings sometimes and weekends. It varies depending on our work schedules as we both work shifts, but they don't have their phones 24/7

BP_RS3813

A few points, mainly regarding the following paragrapgh

"Its been only 3 months since we got the her the iphone and there has been just problems after problems. From ability to access phone after downtime, to ability to go on apps after the limit and lately no screentime data whatsoever showing on my iphone."

Firstly, it is really not that hard to access devices after whatever parental restrictions are in place. Kids will find a way and I'm willing to bet she can use the phone far more proficiently then you can. Would also put money on her blocking that data being sent to you via a setting in the phone.

Secondly, they want you do addicted to the phone. Apps/screens etc will keep you glued to the phone, knowing that kids will want to get into the phone - why on gods green earth did you expect apple to actually make a proper effort? User monitisation, profits etc are far more important to them then your child not accidently seeing something inappropriate. That is an extremely worrying level of naivety.

Thirdly, literally every phone has to use either IOS or android operating systems as everything goes through their eco systems. So if you don't want to be constantly bitten in the arse when trying to do literally anything online, you will need either a samsung/Iphone. (This is a major exaggeration I know but bear with me). So its not as simple as just avoid Iphones.

ttnov77

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123505802#Comment_123505802

Thanks for suggestions. As I mentioned there is downtime during which the phone should be blocked completely but its not. This worked perfectly on android. I have set apps limit so there is only certain amount of time she can access the apps at any day. But she does needs access to messages and phone itself as for the obvious reason so that we can contact her when she is out and about and out of apps limit, but this means she can access these after downtime. So the solution for now is take the phone at downtime.

Another recent issue is I`m not getting any data on her screen-time usage. As I said we did not have any issues as this on the android phones so has been very unpleasant surprise.

ttnov77

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123505837#Comment_123505837

1. She did not block data as that was checked by the apple support but of course there could be some way around it
2. If you read my post properly you will see that she already had an android (samsung) before and we had no issue whatsoever which should address your second and third comment

So if you have nothing else constructive I will wish you nice day

Tipp1991

Nice rant. 8/10. Could do better

_Kaiser_

I'm not really sure what you're looking for here OP. IOS/IPhone isn't giving the level of control you want over her phone… there's not much anyone here can do about it to be honest.

For me your options are…

• Buy her an Android phone as you seemed happier with the control options on it
• Educate and establish physical boundaries by taking her phone off her after "screen time" if needed as someone else said. Trying to monitor and control what she does remotely isn't working anyway and kids will find a way around it. Better to build a environment where she will come to you if she sees anything worrying so you can discuss it rather than trying to control everything
• On that last point.. you can't control what she sees/accesses on her friend's phones. Another reason for education and conversation.

And yes I'm a parent of a teenager myself, but my lad already knows what to avoid/look out for and will come to his parents if he needs to. Technology is everywhere. You can't hide them from it forever.