How to Add iOS Parental Controls on Your Teen’s iPhone or iPad

Whether you’re buying your teen a new iPhone or iPad for Christmas or a birthday or your teen already has an iPhone or iPad, we recommend setting up parental controls.  

It’s always easier to start with parental controls like blocking websites, app use, and downloads, etc. and add more freedom as your teen shows s/he is responsible.  

Many parents don’t know where to start and are remiss in setting parental controls (and a cell phone contract), until their teen has already enjoyed full freedom of the iPhone or iPad.  Trying to take away “rights” later is no easy task.  Nonetheless, it’s never too late to set iOS parental controls.

Apple iOS Parental Controls

With Apple’s iOS Parental Controls (Apple calls them “Restrictions“), there are a lot of options to setting controls and releasing them, as you see fit.  To set up iOS parental controls on your teens phone, go to Settings>General…

Now, click on Restrictions, type in your passcode if you have already set one up, or enter a new passcode.  It’s important that you don’t lose your passcode or you’ll have to reset the phone and start over again.

In the Restrictions section, you will see most of the apps on the phone.  Simply swipe the buttons to the right if you would like your teen to have access and to the left if you want it to appear as if the app isn’t even on the phone.  Below, I turned off iTunes, Apple Music Connect, Installing Apps, Deleting Apps, and In-App Purchases.  We definitely recommend turning off In-App Purchases. 

 All of these programs/functions are still on the device, but your teen can’t see or access them…

To test it out, take off the camera or another app and go to the Home screen to see if it’s there.  You’ll see a blank area on the screen where the app used to be.

You can restrict Internet access (through Safari), the Camera, FaceTime, pretty much any app on the phone….

You can also set iOS parental controls for the types of music Movies, TV Shows, Books, Apps, and Websites your teen can see on their phone….as per preset categories.  For example, you have these options:

• Don’t Allow Movies/Music/etc.
• G
• PG
• PG-13
• R
• NC-17
• Allow All Movies

You can even limit gaming by not allowing your teen to add friends.  If your teen asks you to add a friend, you can access Restrictions using your passcode and temporarily changing that option until you change the restriction back again…

There are more settings you can control under Restrictions, like whether apps can track location, etc.  

What You Can’t Control in iOS Parental Controls

Apple’s iOS parental controls give you, as a parent, a lot of control.  But there are still things you can’t do with the iOS parental controls…

1.  You cannot set time limits on how long your teen can be on their phone or on a certain app.
2.  You can’t see if your teen has deleted text messages (and what they were).
3.  You can limit Safari (Internet surfing) all together or allow it and have Apple decide what sites are appropriate based on the age setting you selected.  But if you want to block websites, like YouTube, you’ll have to turn off Safari altogether.
4. You can see any pictures your teen took with the phone camera, but not the ones s/he deleted.

If you are interested in these types of parental monitoring options, often called cell phone monitoring tools, see our article, Why Parental Monitoring Apps Are Necessary, to learn of a few good apps we recommend.  A couple of them are actually free.

A Mom’s Perspective

We are big advocates of parental controls and monitoring.  Why?  Because your teen doesn’t know what s/he doesn’t know.  There are a lot of adult, bullying, or social situations that occur on in social media and on the Internet.  Your teen has not yet had enough life experience to skilfully navigate these dangers.  S/he may or may not even mention to you that some troubling things are occurring.

Just like you wouldn’t give your child the keys to the car without proper training and advice, the same is true for giving your teen a phone.  Start with more parental controls in the beginning and begin to lift them off one-by-one as your teen shows responsibility and maturity.