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Can you recommend an App to manage screen time?

ROSES5682

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Jun 16, 2011
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Hi All,

One of the features I love about Windows 10 is the ability to set daily limits on my children's screen time and receive a detailed weekly report about what sites they have visited and how much time they have spent in each application. Is there an app you could recommend that could provide similar information and controls for an iPad? I have checked the app store but most apps I come across don't have many reviews.
 

ksassy

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Mar 9, 2017
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You may want to check out Screen Time Parental Control. I haven't used it personally but I do know several friends who use it regularly for monitoring their kid's internet activity. Hope that helps you :)
 

bydandie

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Nov 7, 2016
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There are many screen time apps, but all of them that I've looked at scramble apps grouped in folders after a block (due to issues with the MDM profiles used). Apps like OurPact have great promise, but the workaround isn't pretty and involves connecting the devices up to a computer and using a program to group apps together.

This is one of the big issues I have with the iOS ecosystem. Parental controls rely on Apple Family (which works well for controlling app installs) and restrictions (which has a 4-digit PIN that was declared insecure about three years ago by Apple themselves), but none of them give the same level of control you get with a Mac.

Microsoft family is certainly the benchmark, and even Google are doing the same thing with their US-centric beta. Isn't it about time we discussed this more within the Apple blog sites?
 

bydandie

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Not an app specifically but I like Circle:

https://meetcircle.com

It's more specific to internet time, so if you're trying to get them to stop playing Angry Birds past 10pm, you'll need to take the iPad away. :)

Hi,

Just checked this out, and the website wasn't clear on whether this scrambles apps or just controls network connections from the apps themselves. I'm guessing from you comment that it's the latter, but at least the latter is better than the current situation.
 

Rob Phillips

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Hi,

Just checked this out, and the website wasn't clear on whether this scrambles apps or just controls network connections from the apps themselves. I'm guessing from you comment that it's the latter, but at least the latter is better than the current situation.

It just controls the network connection. You’re not likely to find anything that effectively scrambles apps. Apple’s closed ecosystem limits system-level access to developers so you’re pretty much limited to whatever stock controls that are built into iOS.
 

robertk328

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It just controls the network connection. You’re not likely to find anything that effectively scrambles apps. Apple’s closed ecosystem limits system-level access to developers so you’re pretty much limited to whatever stock controls that are built into iOS.
Right. Just controls access, whether by time or by app control.
 

bydandie

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It just controls the network connection. You’re not likely to find anything that effectively scrambles apps. Apple’s closed ecosystem limits system-level access to developers so you’re pretty much limited to whatever stock controls that are built into iOS.


Thanks, all current parental control systems on iOS that monitor apps will mess up app folders. That's what I meant by app scrambling.

Sounds like Circle may deliver a half-way house until Apple deliver a decent system.

Even if they allowed complex passphrases in restrictions it'd be a start 😢
 

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