Parents worldwide have been drawn to Apple products that have built in parental controls because they allow them to manage and filter content and backup healthy screen time habits.
Over the years, Apple have continued to develop their parental control offerings to meet the needs and demands of the parents who purchase their products for their children to use.
- We disovered that 9 times out of 10, the settings were lost when an iOS update was installed.
- We discovered that the intricate setup meant that if one box wasn't checked, a function didn't work and 'hey presto' our children were able to continue to use their screen or see content we thought we were protecing them from.
- We got smart and figured out all of the little idiosyncracies so that we could tick all of the right boxes to protect our kids.
- Parents punished their chidlren for tampering with the settings so they could use their screen when it was meant to be downtime.
If you are a parent using Apple Screen Time, it will likely come as no shock to you that, even after updates that contain 'fixes', we know now that Apple Screen Time just isn't working effectively and it's not because you didn't set it up properly or that your kids had a sneaky go and changing them.
For those of you who have been around the traps here for awhile, you will have heard me say umpteen times........
"Layer your Parental Controls"
Why?
Because no piece of software is 100% fail proof.
Layering your parental controls means that you are creating one more gate for your child to open to access what you have decided is inappropriate for them.
Here's the trick though.
You don't want too many complicated layers. That creates a technical web of frustration when you need to make a simple change.
What you need is to be clear on why you are using parental controls (what is important to your family) so that can implement the right parental control tool (and there a loads out there to choose from!).
I'm not saying don't use Apple Screen Time - absolutely you should even if we know it isn't 100% perfect.
What I am saying is that you need to do your homework and research so you can select a suitable parental control to use WITH it.
Did that last sentence make you feel overwhelmed?
Selecting the right parental controls for individual family's is my SUPERPOWER.
I know all of the right questions to ask to lead us to the parental control that works for your family.
Take one tiny step and reach out to me for help. You can find me here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2863100507303767
#parentalcontrols #internetsafety #onlinesafety #digitalparenting #screentime #keepkidssafeonline #cybersafety
