Help with setting screen time limits for child

Question

Level 1

8 points

Help with setting screen time limits for child

This question concerns my child's MacBook: I have created an Administrator profile, and he has a child profile on his MacBook.

I have logged in as Administrator and set a number of limitations: Inactive times (when the computer should not be used) and screen time limits for a number of applications.

However: He simply gets a warning 'Time expired' which he can simply ignore over and over. Also, he can still use his computer outside of the hours that I have set. And when I log in, I get no information on the time he has spent on each program.

What am I doing wrong? Thank you so much in advance for any assistance.

PS - As background info, we first created his user profile, and I created my profile several weeks later. Maybe the computer does not 'see' him as an underaged user?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Dec 18, 2020 10:05 AM

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Answer 1

K Shaffer

Level 8

36,196 points

Dec 26, 2020 5:06 PM in response to RobGrace2

There is a path to enable the features of Family Sharing that should be followed.

And could be some were not correctly applied to persons added to the account.

• Set up Family Sharing - Apple Support

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201088

from "Family and Friends" in Table of Contents help user guide

{Each user in Family Sharing has to have their own Apple ID.}

There are plenty of details, so should you have missed something important

could be those are among items you'd need to know & set up Family Sharing.

(And there are other Support pages with more info about this topic, too.)

Good luck & happy computing!

🌞🌿⛵️🎣🌻🐢⛄️🌤🚀🌎

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Answer 2

Dec 21, 2020 3:57 PM in response to RobGrace2

Hello RobGrace2,

Thank you for participating in the Apple Support Communities! We understand that you've set up Screen Time on a Mac shared with your child, however the limits aren't being followed. You've come to the right place for help.

Let's start by double checking that Screen Time has been set up on the child account on the Mac as follows:

Set up Screen Time for a child on Mac - Apple Support

Also, are both of you part of the same Family Sharing group? This can affect the different ways you can view device usage for your child:

Track app and device usage in Screen Time on Mac - Apple Support

Let us know what you find and we'll go from there.

Take care.

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Answer 3

Dec 26, 2020 4:12 PM in response to RobGrace2

Hi RobGrace2,

Thanks for getting back to us. We'd like to have you reach out to Apple Support to take a closer look at the behavior with you. You can reach them here:

Get Support

Take care.

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Answer 4

RobGrace2 Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 25, 2020 10:02 AM in response to MichelleT18

Hello. Yes, I checked the two questions, and I believe that I have set up Screen Time for my child, and I believe that we are both part of the same Family Sharing group. I can see his child profile when I log in, and then I go and set up screen limits etc. It could be that I set something up incorrectly...

My child created his account first (with the help of his sister, so I wasn't present). And later I heard of Family Link and created an Administrator profile. Maybe it's something he did at the start.

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