Screen Time not working on Tiktok, Snapchat, Instagram?

I figured it out. I had the same situation with my child's phone (iphone 11 ios 15.4): instagram, tiktok, twitter, pinterest.. all these apps where not blocked. Removing screentime, rebooting, changing time limits didn't work. Try the following:

1. Go to Screen time on your child's device.
2. Click on Always Allowed.
3. Approve all the apps that you want to block (in my case I added all social media apps)
4. Once you add all the apps go back to the previous setting screen and then close the window (swipe up)
5. Open again screen time and now go to the Always approve and remove the apps from the always allowed list.
6. Go back to the previous setting screen and close the settings app (swipe up).

This should fix the issue. Hope this helps. This worked for me :)

Solution!!! Parents read carefully

1. check if your kids can change time and date while screen time is active with password.
2. if he or she can change time. Turn off screen time on her devide, go to settings and make sure time zone is automatic, now turn on screen time via parent device with password, time zone settings should be on, but not possible to change it any more. This is mandatory.
3. now set up restrictions like normal.

how kid was bypassing? She or he changed time to tomorrow, used one more minute option, change time back. Result?? She or he gets 24h+ 1 min. Of free time on tiktok.

enjoy.

I've read the entire 11 pages here and tried it all. What worked for me was:

• Disable screentime (on parent phone)
• Enable screentime on kids phone
• Set it up as "my phone" not as my childs
• The negative side of this is you cannot manage it with your own phone
• You can still set a passcode on it, you can only know
• It does restrict TikTok and Snapchat or listens to the screentime limits.

In my case I have an iPhone 14 and my son an iPhone X. Probably due to an older IOS version, the communication is poor.

Totally went mad when he could just use TikTok for as long as he wanted, this works anyway now :)

I have read 11 pages and tried varies of way to control my kid screen: in summary, the “downtime” and “app limits” do not always work, especially for apps like TikTok and Snapchat. Update iOS, put in then move out of “always slow” list, etc might work for a while but may stop work again. Apple never tried to fix the issue.

However, both some posts and my experience shows that “Content and privacy restrictions” always work. So for apps like TikTok or Snapchat ranked as 12+, can change the “allowed store content” of Apps to “9” to permanently block them.

We all agree... something is not working.

The only thing that seems to work is the following config: Content Restrictions / Apps / Don't Allow Apps.

This blocks everything except for Allowed Apps (under content restrictions) or Always Allowed (under the main menu). Painful manual process but at least it works.

Forget about time restrictions and downtime... Snapchat, Instagram, etc... have found a work around to keep the app active.

My question to Apple : Is the data privacy protection facing the same failures?

Spent some time with Apple, we weren't able to solve this issue but we did find a workaround.

Turning off the managed services (i.e. using the parental device to remotely apply screen time controls) and then add screen limits on the local device (i.e. the child's device) worked.

Hope this helps others.

There is/was definitely a problem. I restricted my son to one hour of TikTok and he was able to use it in excess of that time. In my frustration looking through all the options available in screen time I changed his limit to five minutes. And then I saw you can set a second limit (which makes no sense to me) and I set the second limit for one minute. Now he can only use it for one minute. :)

Imgzz -- thanks for this post. In our case, Snapchat, Clash Royale and Clash of Clans weren't working on Screen time. Also, I noticed at downtime, that prohibited apps had an hourglass next to them, but not these three -- they were missing. Moving each app onto the Always Allowed list, swiping out, then moving them out of Always Allowed seems to have solved the problem!

screen time restrictions do not work on Snapchat and TikTok. (Probably others but this is all I’ve tested.)

with Apple refusing to acknowledge this the only work around is to delete the app and restrict App Store.

honestly we could all use less social media anyway especially our kids..

my children have widget smith on their phones. Deleted it and screen time now works for Snapchat, TikTok 😁

I’ve been in touch with apple, they advised me to do a few things that I tried & at first I didn’t think it had worked, I’ve just got home & checked my daughters phone & amazingly the social media apps were locked by screentime. I toggled the time to force them ‘allowed’ & they were on, then reset the time & they locked again! It may have done it!

this is what I did, apple said to carry out a ‘force restart’ this is different to a shutdown & restart. So, ensure the phone is on the latest iOS (16.2 as of today) then:

1/ press & quick release volume up

2/ press & quick release volume down

3/ press & hold the side button until the apple symbol appears (ignore the slide button that comes up, hold for the apple).

then try screen time. As I said, mine didn’t seem though it had worked at first but this morning the phone was locked. I will be keeping an eye on it - I’ll know fairly soon as I’ll get a request for more screen time 🤣

One parent fix is to go into the childs screen time settings and change the APP age permissions to 4+

this setting works to make those older apps disappear!

remember to put the age back when you are permitting them to use those social media apps!

Hi all,

I think I have figured out a way around this. The only problem I have (for now) is that I have to keep doing it every night, so it's a bit messy. Still, it's better than nothing but I'm trying to find a way of making sure the settings stay applied.

Go into 'Screen Time' and at the bottom of the screen, select 'Turn Off App & Website Activity'.

Restart the phone.

When the phone comes back on, go back into 'Screen Time' and under 'Limit Usage', select 'App & Website Activity, then in the next window that appears, select ' Turn on App & Website Activity'.

Then, from the 'App Limits' function, Add Tik Tok and Snapchat (you can just select all Social Media apps or you can select them individually from the drop-down list).

Once you have selected the apps, select 'Next' at the top right of the screen. I think you have to set the availability for at least 1 minute. Make sure 'Block at end of Limit' is on. Then, select 'Add' at the top right of the screen.

Finally, go into 'Downtime' and set the time that you want the phone to lock. Once the phone locks at the selected time, you should see that Tik Tok and Snapchat are now blocked.

Hope it works for you!

Same issue here with TikTok, insta & Snapchat. I am beyond frustrated with this. Our sons iPhone 7, no problem - screen time works. Our daughters iPhone 11, locks everything EXCEPT the apps we actually want to lock. I have been through this conversation & tried everything. Reset screen time, added to allowed, exited the menu, back in, removed from allowed. Rebooted the phone, deleted the apps & reinstalled, nothing - apps still accessible during downtime/after app limit expired. After discussion with my wife, we think we have 3 options 1, delete the apps & police the phone strictly each day 2, allow the apps but strictly control access out of school 3, downgrade her phone to an older model where screen time actually works!

Come on Apple , acknowledge there’s an error, provide an update that fixes this issue please!

Hi, the screen time setting seems to just stop working for tiktok and now snapchat recently. I've tried everything on the parental controls etc and still not restricting time on those apps.

So my workaround for now is, I have paired my daughters tiktok with mine (I just set up an account). Set up a teen/parent pairing and I've been able to set a 40 minute a day restriction in the settings.

Can't seem to do the same for snapchat though.

So this will do until apple sort out what the problem is with tiktok/snapchat being immune to their parental controls - sigh.