How to set effective Screen Time limits on iOS?

THANK YOU.

It helps.

I did it so: I delete all limits one by one manually. than change the PIN, and than with new PIN add limits again.

:)

The screentime limits and website blocking lists are completely useless. Kids can simply ignore limit or add website to the allowed list at a click of a button. Why this would even be included as an option is beyond me (unless they simply want kids to be addicted to their devices...)

Yes I have tried all the 'solutions'. Signed in and out of all devices hundreds of times. Wasted hours of my life. Looking at the comments it has been a problem for years.

Completely pathetic from Apple.

gwilym227 is incorrect. I am a child and my parents use the screen time limit option. "Ignore limit" can be prevented by changing the settings on your phone with your screen time password. Search on google how to do it. Adding apps to the allowed list is restricted on the child's device because of the screen time limit you have to type in before changing any of the screen time settings. Either you children habe figured out this password, or you put in your settings for them to have access to this. As a child, I have also tried everything to get past the limit. I have even changed the time and date to when there will be screen time, but somehow my parents have disabled this.

I hope these solutions help.

Your best regards, a child with a screen time limit.

One thing I have found helpful is to make their downtime a full 24 hours, so start at 7:01pm and end at 7:00pm. This way when you enable downtime it shuts everything down.

however we are having the ignore downtime option now and I found if I delete app limits they can’t bypass it. I think so anyways.

Sadly, no.

I’ve tried every troubleshooting and talk to Apple every few days.

They know it is broken but do not have a fix.

We just updated to 16.5.1 and it is even worse.

Totally agree about everything said about the screen time UI, pretty shameful that something this important is so bad and disconnected from the reality of parenting kids with devices (and social pressures and hardly any self-control).

Like, why is there not a blacklist option? It's pretty obvious that there are certain apps that a parent might want to block completely. No asking to download, no nothing.

Or here's an other one, instead of "always allowed" how about "only allowed"?

There's also a missed opportunity. Allow the App store to be hidden from a kids device, but offer curated collections of apps that would actually be useful/educational/fun/creative/developmentally suitable for different age groups and installable only by parents. Would be much easier to agree on particular sets of apps among parents/school than the "everyone for themselves" approach going on now.

This thread is from summer 2023 and it is now March 2024, and I and still having issues with my son’s screen time. I have tried everything. I have reset, blocked all apps and made sure block at end of limit is on etc. etc. My son has admitted that he can click “ignore the limit all day” in the first warning and then it works. If he clicks ignore for any other length of time in the first warning (e.g 30 minutes) then the next warning doesn’t give him any options and he has to ask for time. So he must click “ignore the limit all day” for the bypass to work. Then he can play as much as he wants. I am so frustrated. This is going on for so long. I am seriously done with Apple phones for kids

You can see the option to block limits if you have a screen time password enabled — otherwise you won’t see the option.

For a company as Technical as Apple, parental controls that are intuitive should not be a problem.

The fact that they make it so complex for parents makes me think they have a different agenda. I am a computer scientist, and I know how easy it should be for Apple to provide a simple, intuitive interface for the parents.

As a parent, I am now regretting getting Apple devices for everyone in the family.

For a company as Technical as Apple, parental controls that are intuitive should not be a problem.

The fact that they make it so complex for parents makes me think they have a different agenda. I am a computer scientist, and I know how easy it should be for Apple to provide a simple, intuitive interface for the parents.

I've tried this and it didn't work. Software is up to date. Reset all settings on kid's iphone. Logged out of iCloud. Turned off ScreenTime downtime. Then rebuilt it all. No fix. Nada. Nothing.

So as of now Screen Time limits for my kids are totally broken.

Can Apple product team build a product that works as expected?? Set limits and child gets an option to "ignore limit"?? All the ads about how Apple protects you is just BS. All kinds of ways around to get your child addicted to the phone... Predatory practices! I said it.

I was still experiencing the same problem with the possibility of my son to “ignore the limit”. Today it seems to be solved with the new ios update on both phones.

But I really believe that it’s madness for parents to help your child to grow safely without being so exposed so you have to add restrictions on restrictions.

My advise for parents is to avoid as much as possible to buy your child a mobile phone until they are 14 years old, when their brains are developed enough to start to be more responsable.

Same here. All devices updated to 16.5. Screen time is completely broken. I toggle something off and watch it toggle back on before my very eyes.