How is my child bypassing screentime limits?

His iPad is on 16.1. Does 16.6 "fix" something? I will update it though.

of course it is all set up properly with me as the family organizer. he does not know the screentime password. some of the info you provide (where is the source) is out of date as it doesn't exactly correspond to current iOS.

for example, under content & privacy restrictions it says "passcode changes" and "account changes" and "cellular data changes" -- all set to don't allow. these are not under any sections that say "other settings and features" but under one that syas "allow changes"

I will try that. But I'm quite sure he doesn't know the screentime passcode. (He does know my normal passcode.) Reasons: 1) he tries (playfully) to see me enter the screentime passcode on my phone. 2) no screentime settings are being changed, as far as I can see on my own phone, while he's bypassing these limits some other way.

Good idea. Not very practical for me (already have like 5 SSIDs on one router, and want to keep kid on same LAN anyway), but possible.

I get they can be bypassed, but it shouldn't be such a mystery how he's doing it. I'm pretty technically inclined and can't figure out the exploit. AFAIK any method that could involve a small budget is something like a jailbreak -- running software tethered to a computer -- and most likely can only be meant to circumvent the passcode security for the parental controls. It would be at the level of a boot injection, and I see nothing amiss in the boot sequence or any other obvious sign of such a hack. Furthermore, it would need to work by allowing him to change the screentime settings, which he's not doing.

IMO someone needs to keep an up-to-date list of exploits that a) parents can take further measures to block or otherwise handle, or b) apple can address.

Thanks. yes, i've seen that, and 50 other blogs that have the same content. Please see my notes above; I've ruled out most of those methods.

See literally one reply up. :)