Parental control, kid is able to block his parents

Parental Controls is not the "end all" for managing a misbehaving child and one determined to do so is able to bypass many of the controls offered by Screen Time with very little effort. In my opinion, I would take the phone away from my child until they are able to respect the decisions I make and follow my clear instructions. When given the alternative of a $20 "dumb" phone, you may find that they are much more understanding.

You can also send feedback to Apple or contact Apple directly.

• Product Feedback - Apple
• Contact Apple Support - Apple Support

Even with a restriction to prevent a child from blocking a contact, they don't have to answer the phone when you call. And the ability for a phone to transmit their location can be blocked by wrapping the phone in Tin Foil, using a Faraday Bag, removing the SIM, or leave it in another location just to name a few methods. The point being that Screen Time is not always going to be the answer.

nesy273 wrote:

Hello, I've set up parental controls on my 9-year-old son's iPhone through a family account.

The problem is that the Telephone• app gives him the option to block the contact numbers and stop sharing his location, even with his parents ( not the Contacts app, but from the Telephone one -> Contacts)

Is there a solution?

There are no technical solutions to a people problem.

You will lose this battle, when pitted against any suitably-inclined youngster.

Why? Because the phone will be left behind. Because the phone will be lost. Because the phone is in a Faraday bag. Because whoops sorry the cellular is turned off how did that happen. Because a friend borrowed the phone. Because the battery is depleted. Because your passcode or your Apple Account password was compromised.

Because youngsters have agency*, and youngsters will learn more about us and ourselves and about our limits than might be realized or might be preferred, and efforts here must accept and adapt to that.

Mishandle this relationship badly enough, and within ten years, your relationship with this person may be low contact, or no contact. You might never see this person’s friends and family. Or maybe you’ll be “managed”. Yeah, they’re young and often stupid, we all were and we often still are, but at nine yours is already clever and learning fast.

*”Having agency means having control and independence over your actions and decisions.”

To me it is now looking like this is not a matter of a child getting apps they should not be using, or getting around age restrictions. It is a matter of the child blocking a parent contacting them the way they would a spammer or scammer. In that case my mother had a solution 50 years ago. If we did not provide a telephone number where she could contact us every half hour, or we called her every half hour, then we would be grounded. This is along the lines of what contributor Mac Jim ID was proposing. Apple's system provides for reasonable monitoring and control of a child's device but is not a prisoner style ankle bracelet. ;-)

Use parental controls to manage your child's iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

I do not use Screen Time but is there not a way to prevent a child from making any changes to Contacts at all, or prevent number blocking?

Right, but this is a fairly simple feature that appears to be a gap in functionality. I can prevent a child from editing contacts, it seems like this fails to address a case where the child can block the managers of the account.

And if I was asking for parenting advice, I'd do it somewhere else than a technical Apple support forum :)

As I said, I don't use it. Does it override the basic design functions of Parental Controls? If all it is means is your child prevents you from messaging or calling you then that isn't what Parental Controls covers.

Yes, it does override the "Disallow Contact Editing" when that's enabled.

In any case, it's clear you didn't read the initial post here as it was pretty well described, and you anyway don't even use this feature. So why are you commenting on this thread?

I’ve got exactly the same issue. Any solution?

Yes you can turn off the “Allow Contact Editing” for a child, but they still are able to block accounts