Locking apps on iPad

What does your term mean, and what are you actually trying to do? "Lock down..." is sort of vague.

You can't stop a particular app from opening if it is tapped on. You could try moving certain apps you would rather the little one not open onto the next page and hope that she doesn't swipe across to that page. That will stop the average 3-year old for about 10 minutes.

There are some parental restrictions available on the iPad that your sister may find useful. Details here

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4213

Neither do I. You obviously think there's enough there for others to figure it out, so I'll let them try.

Oh, and yes, by term I actually meant phrase which I mistakenly thought was made clear by the end. Clearly not.

There is a real easy way to resolve this and it's not technical in nature at all!

IMHO ...Your sister should simply keep the iPad out of the three year old's hands unless she is with the child while she is using it. Call me old fashioned. A child that young has no business "playing" -your very word - with a $500.00 "toy" without adult supervision. There are just way too many things that could occur in that scenario, and a bunch of them aren't good.

Demo wrote:
There is a real easy way to resolve this and it's not technical in nature at all!

IMHO ...Your sister should simply keep the iPad out of the three year old's hands unless she is with the child while she is using it. Call me old fashioned. A child that young has no business "playing" -your very word - with a $500.00 "toy" without adult supervision. There are just way too many things that could occur in that scenario, and a bunch of them aren't good.

My friend's 2-year-old has a Thomas game on their iPad. He is allowed to play it as a reward for various good behaviors. He is also allowed to play with it unsupervised if need be, though Mom or Dad is usually sitting next to him entertaining his baby brother. He knows better than to be throwing it, banging on it, etc. It's quite impressive.

To each their own, though!

For the OP:

Placing the other apps in folders is about the best that can be done. Personally, I would also try speaking with the child & explain to him(or her) that he/she can only use those few apps or he/she can't use the iPad for the next day. The child may not understand, but it would be worth trying.

~Lyssa

My apologies to you for coming off that way, but since there is no real "technical fix" to prevent the child from doing as the child pleases (with the exception of the restrictions that can be set up for the iPad), my suggestion seemed like the common sense thing to do.

And indeed, to each his own.

She could always put the iPad in a drawer/and or teach her kid not to touch it.

Sorry to say it but the issue derives from a parenting failure, a well disciplined child would know not to touch.

Your only real technical option is to add a lock/unlock code to the iPad to stop use by anyone other than the adult and ensure its locked whenever the adult isn't using it.

Martin,

It can be quite difficult for young children to understand such things. Yes, it's doable, but it can take a lot of work for the child to understand what the parent wants. It's even harder to disguise between "You cannot ever play with this," and "You can play with this, but only certain things."

The passcode lock is a good suggestion.

~Lyssa

The difficultly seems to be with adults understanding they should a) put things out of the reach of kids b) teach them discipline and c) that iPads aren't babysitters.

It's the same parenting failure which leads to threads accusing games apps of fraud because parents failed to implement parental controls or oversight and allowed their kid access to apps they never bothered to understand despite them being linked, via the iTunes store, to credit cards.

Sooner or later we'll be seeing posts about how Apple should have warned that iPads would break if thrown at a wall by children.

Hello,

I would just like to say that my son is on the autism spectrum and he is 3 years old.

And I bought the iPad primarily for him. The apps that are available on iTunes for individuals with special needs are invaluable.

Not only does the iPad provide an outlet for children / adults to communicate with others it also can help with all kinds of issues. There are apps to help with eye contact, speech articulation, and most importantly for us communication.

I am looking for an app or way to 'lock' certain apps so he doesn't accidentally tap them too.

So, before making statements one should consider that there are factors that would want someone to a)purchase and iPad specifically for their child b)realize that teaching a child with special needs is not easy and c) iPads are not babysitters but invaluable teaching tools and communication devices with those with special needs.

See articles,
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/08/18/helping-autistic-children-with-ios-devices/

iPod Therefore I Can: Enhancing the Learning of Children with Intellectual Disabilities Through Emerging Technologies

http://www.icicte.org/ICICTE%202008%20Proceedings/marks086.pdf

We are full aware that he could break it, so we are careful, but we have had ours 2 months and if it broke today it would be worth it and we would buy another one for him.

So, hopefully I haven't offended... you just never know what a person's reasons for doing something is until you have stood in their shoes.