Apple Screen Time app limits not working

I am ready to switch too. My son needs to have a phone to connect to his life saving medical device but this is a constant battle. I check that the time limits are in place regularly now but he has also figured out how to access YouTube and other apps through his messages (which we need for medical necessity as well). This seems like an easy fix for a tech company. It does seem like they just don’t want to enable a safe environment for our kiddos sadly. I will be looking into Google. I’m glad there is an option

My daughter's tablet just started doing this last week. She'll play on it for about 30 minutes then the screen time locks up her tablet even though she has plenty of time left. Turned it off and back on from my iPhone screen share app for her tablet and restarted everything. All devices up to date. Still having the issue. I'm not factory resetting everyone's device just to fix this this is ridiculous. We were thinking about getting her a larger iPad Pro/Air (she has a Mini 6) next year but maybe not with these issues.

I don’t understand why so many posts are getting scrubbed from this discussion? I get notified of a post via email, click the link to join the discussion and that post is gone. This makes it very difficult to collaborate on community-based resolution.

The screen time limits apparently mean nothing anymore.

”Safari” is set on 1h, yet the daily average is 5h 3m! 😱

The set daily limit for “Social, Entertainment & 6 more” is 1h 30m, but he’s already spent 5h 22m on it according to screen time. I obviously confront him about this and he says that it’s not true. But how can I know!?

The limit for “YouTube” is 15m - but the daily average says 3h 34m!!

How can I even trust that the age restrictions are working?!

We tried everything to solve this and I think we figured out some reasons

for distracting the app limit and solutions:

Restrict the time and date change.

do not allow to change the account.

put app limit to age.

restrict change passcode

the kids can use some other apps to navigate the internet. My kids used to use bus app and The Times (news app) to access instagram, YouTube and other websites despite Safari is restricted.

the latest issue I had was that the phone was resetting itself and allow all after few hours from the restriction. That was because my beloved child find a trick by putting emoji as phone name (rather than their name) so iCloud get confused to apply the restrictions.

Also, they found out that VPN can stop restrictions from accessing the phone.

i am not high tech person but these things which we found so far, I hope apple will work to fix these issues.

A fundamental and very important feature is buggy for years and Apple is ignoring that. My child is using tiktok as much she craves and app limit doesn’t work. More over, if I remove tiktok from her device, she can easily install it without my approval as the app was previously installed.

I just don’t know how to control that and I know it’s harmful. Apple employees, do you have kids? Are you ok with these bugs?

I've had the same problem for a while now. I have spent hours on the phone with 3 different Apple Support reps. Going over every setting, signing in and out of both our icloud accounts, making sure both phones have the same iOS version, change my pass code for screen time, searched my kid's phone for any hacker apps like Any Unlock (but now were found), etc. etc. I know it happens every time there is an update to the iOS if you don't update the phones at the same time, which is annoying enough. But it also happens randomly! I've tried everything, including taking my kid's phone at night, setting ALL the Screen Time settings correctly, then locking it in my safe overnight. When I retrieved it the next morning, all the settings had changed on their own. I reported that to Apple Support and they said that's not possible. I noticed since the update to iOS 17 it's a little better. Some of the settings stay put but not all. And now, I've found kids can get in and change the settings easily. Recently I've tried it on my kid's phone (after making sure all the screen time settings were correct) and I could change them without even being prompted for a pass code!!!! So what the heck kind of security is that? I love my iphone but it's insane that Apple doesn't care enough to fix this. I guess I am going to have to get my kid an Android phone and if I'm getting him an Android I might as well switch mine over too. Very disgusted with Apple about this.

APPLE SUPPORT: you need to care and fix this issue. Screen time keeps turning off. All my son has to do is keep the settings open running in the background and suddenly the screen time will turn off and all the restrictions are gone and us looking at what he’s watching is gone. Your system is built on family and sharing and yet you’ve been doing nothing to fix this issue!!???

No, this doesn't work. I did it a couple of times and the problem always returns. I can't even disable Safari. That switch does nothing on one of our child phones.

We have finally decided to stop using products from Apple, because they doesn't care. I bought a bunch of cheap Google phone and everything working. I'm also going to switch my own phone to Android and never use overpriced iPhone again!

I’m a loyal Apple user but the screen time issues have caused me to lose faith in the company. 6 months ago I bought my 14 year old son an Iphone for his first smartphone. I’ve had nothing but problems getting Screen Time settings to apply and work correctly. I finally got fed up and decided to take my money elsewhere. I bought him a Bark (Android) phone to replace his I-phone and it’s a vast improvement. The Bark phone actually works to protect him from dangerous internet content and I can monitor his activity like a reasonably concerned parent should be able to do.

Apple is so far behind the times in regards to internet safety and kids. It’s blatant disregard because the technology to do better is absolutely attainable. I don’t think I’ll continue supporting Apple by buying its products any longer.

When discussing this with my college age computer science majoring son this is his theory. Apple could fix it but those who have created the system are at where they are because they had more access and learned how to game the system.

However I did want to mention a third party all that I am having success with limiting apps and access. It is called Qustodio. I can see which apps are being used and turn off access to the internet, individual games, etc.

This is a major problem as my child’s phone is a medical devices and we are now locked out without a way of fixing it. I just put the screen time password back on yesterday. When I set it up I made sure her medical apps were always allowed. tonight was the first time trying to open her medical app and we had to enter the screen time code. This is where things became a real problem as the brand new passcode I just put in now doesn’t work. And now we are locked out. ABSOLUTELY A MAJOR PROBLEM!

I've to teenage daughters and I constantly have problems with inconsistencies and silly bugs. Google software works so well and flawlessly. It's ridiculous that such an important feature is developed so poorly. We are all switching to android phones.

What am doing wrong. I reset all my daughters (14) screen time settings from my phone last night. Checked it several times. This morning they were all wrong with some option enabled like downloading apps which we have never allowed. Also, her screen time is no longer showing up on my phone but in hers. I have done all updates and can’t figure out this issue. The screen time issue not working for so many families is a health hazard to our kids. Apple needs to fix this. Any help would be appreciated!

I've done all the steps (updates, sign out of both iClouds, sign back in, factory resets, etc) at least 10 times now and every time it works for a week or so then it reverts back to not working again. Apple said my son must be doing something to hack it so on several occasions I took his phone after he went to sleep, made sure we both had the same iOS with no updates needed, set all his Screen Time settings the way they should be, turned off his phone and put it in my safe overnight. Then next morning, almost all of the ScreenTime settings were off! I've spent countless hours on the phone with at least 6 different Apple Support Reps to no avail. I'm done with Apple.