Hotspot and VPN Screen Time parental controls? *revisited*

Someone previously asked these questions/suggestions and received a wrong answer: Hotspot and VPN parental controls? - Apple Community:

2 questions related to Parental Controls where we have had challenges:
1) is it possible to disable usage of a hotspot on your child's device
2) is it possible to block changes to VPN settings on your child's device


Nicholas_B2 replied:

Thanks for reaching out to us with these inquiries about using parental controls on your child's device. We're happy to provide you with some insight into this. You are able to disable the wireless hotspot usage with the parental controls. Go to Settings > Cellular, and make sure that the hotspot is disabled. Then go to Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions, and enter your passcode if prompted. Scroll down to Cellular Data Changes, and switch that to Don't Allow.

As far as the VPN settings, that if not a feature that can be blocked using the parental controls.


Regarding the former, this response is incorrect. This Screen Time setting does not affect hotspot usage. It only affects the ability to enable/disable cellular usage for specific apps. It should affect hotspot usage for a number of good reasons.


Second, regarding the latter, the VPN settings should be a feature that can be blocked. There are parental apps that rely on VPN settings (particularly problematic is being able to turn off "Connect on Demand" for specific VPNs in the General > VPN settings). Not allowing parents being able to restrict VPN usage for children is indefensible. Why would a child need to be able to control these VPN settings without a parent's permission?


Please and thanks for giving these issues attention.

iPhone X, iOS 15

Posted on Apr 25, 2022 2:38 PM

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Hotspot and VPN Screen Time parental controls? *revisited*

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