Screen time limit and app limits for family

I am in the same boat as you. I have been trying to limit my son’s screen-time on his iPhone for months now. I physically went to the Apple store to get help. I was told that it just doesn’t work for all. It appears to work but then kids can bypass without knowing screen time password code - I’m beyond frustrated!!!!!!!

Why can’t Apple help parents — Android does which means we are about to cancel Apple and go with Android

Thank you, but you are missing the issue (at least as it arises for me). I do these things and all restrictions show properly on my device for my children's profiles. Everything set up perfectly. A day passes; I note my children are using their phones after hours, log back on to my device and find that the "block at downtime" toggle has just turned itself off with no intervention by me. Same for "block at end of limit". It's as if there is some hidden step required to save the settings that I am not taking - but to my knowledge there is none.

Screen Time feels like a cruel joke, because Apple has claimed in each of the last major updates to fix it (the last two iOS 16 point releases and then in iOS 17, if I recall correctly), and it still works NOT AT ALL.

I thoroughly appreciate at least seeing the confirmation on here from real people that it's also not working for them either.

I've got a zillion Apple products, but how can I buy another when this critical family-management feature is such a perpetual mess?

(And I'd happily detail the exact symptoms, products, configurations, and steps taken, but I don't feel like it'd make a difference. I'm just here, looking for hope, and confirming for the next person that yes, Screen Time for many people is absolutely currently broken beyond repair.)

Does anyone have a solution to this problem? I have three children, all with phones, and set their downtime and app limits remotely from my MacBook using family sharing; and yet they are all able to bypass them. When I go back into settings on my MacBook I find that the "block at downtime" option has just toggled itself off, with nothing done by me. Likewise "block at end of limit" for the app limits. It is beyond frustrating, as a parent who wants his children to have phones but use them safely and responsibly.

Please engage with this, Apple. It is the kind of issue that would make me think seriously about switching.

You should pay attention to two commonly overlooked aspects...

1. Configuring device restrictions for your child's device.
2. Setting up a screen time passcode on your own device for your child.

Set Screen Time Restrictions for your Child in your Family using Parental Control.

Please see the pic below which is self-explanatory.

Set Screen Time Passcode for your child's device through your device.

Please see the pic below which is self-explanatory.

Go to Settings and tap Screen Time. Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions and enter your Screen Time passcode. Tap Content Restrictions, then tap Web Content. Choose Unrestricted Access, Limit Adult Websites, or Allowed Websites Only.

Use parental controls on your child's iPhone, iPad, and iPod ...

Set up parental controls with Family Sharing on iPhone

1. Go to Settings > [your name] > Family Sharing > Screen Time.
2. Tap the name of a child in your family group, tap Turn On Screen Time, then follow the onscreen instructions.

Set up parental controls with Family Sharing on iPhone

There is even worse flaw in screen time that allows to bypass content restrictions (allowed sites only) in few seconds.

This should be no brainer for every kid.

1. Go to screen time and enable content restriction (allowed sites only)—> add google.com
2. To access any site include  “google.com” somewhere in the URL placed after site where you want to go.

For instance to access twitter.com:

https://twitter.com/google.com

There - that’s all there is to it. 

Agree, having the exact same issue and I’ve seen nothing from Apple to address this bug. It’s worked well for the last couple of years but not at all for the past several months.

Same issue. I just cannot get screentime to work for my kids devices. And it used to work before. Now it keeps locking me out.

i cant even “stop managing” screen time for my childs devices.

The “recommended” response from apple is accurate steps to setup/manage screentime but not the solution for this question.

additional data points, i tried to do this via my iphones/ ipad/ macbook, it does not work.

Contacted Apple about this and the guy was really helpful, quick to reply etc etc. But they couldn’t come up with a solution despite software updates being applied etc. Contacted them again regarding the same ticket…radio silence, guess that’s what I should expect from Apple when something isn’t working on their end. Really disappointed given this appears to be an iCloud issue and I pay the highest tier One plan to access all the features (I know screen time isn’t a paid feature, but given they are still touting it as a feature in iOS 17…it had better work as expected).

I’m with you. Same problem and sadly no solution.

FYI check the setting for “Always Allowed apps” as my tween/ teen put things on there to bypass their time limits. This is not password protected which is incredibly stupid… it’s an easy loophole for kids.

Im still having issues with downtime kicking in sometimes.