How can I audit my son's ipad use?

People seem to not understand the situation. I found this forum because I am also looking for a way to see what apps my child has been using. I would like to be able to go to his ipad and see the apps used during the day or past hours, like the browser history but just the apps used...not anything to do with the Internet, I even bought a couple of the apps that said I could do that from my own ipad, remotely. I really wasn't looking for a remote operation, but would accept it. One product I paid for directed me to download yet another thing, and when I had done all of that was informed informed that I couldn't perform that operation with my device. It seems like such a simple thing to be able to see the recent apps used.

Coolrbreeze wrote:

It seems like such a simple thing to be able to see the recent apps used.

Based on the way iOS software is designed, it's less simple than you might think.

You can look at Settings>Battery. You'll see what apps have used battery capacity in the last 24 hours. Now, some of them may be using it in the background. And, you can't see when in the last 24 hours.

Hi Deepdarklake,

I know this is many years after your initial question and probably not relevant to you anymore, but I have been looking for an answer to this too and my solution "may" help future parents that google this question with your thread coming up on the first google page.

In the end my own son showed me how to find out usage for the past 7 days or 24 hours via the battery icon in settings.

Select the settings icon, then battery icon, this initially only shows percentage battery used, but if you select one of the apps it drills down to the time spent "on screen" for that app. Now, this will not be absolutely accurate, they may leave an app open whilst they go off and play, I understand that, but it may aid parents who are trying to limit screen times on certain apps/ipad in trying to balance screen time with "go outside and play time".

Hope this helps somebody.

In kindness, Hayley

No. There are no such apps. No third-party apps can monitor or control other apps.

Seeing its the schools iPad you can not do anything ,there is no parental control on the iPad. There is restrictions that you can access from settings menu, but that would only stop him from doing a few things. He will still be able to go on the Internet etc. with out you knowing.

Julian is correct. There is no app that can monitor what other apps are doing on the iPad. However, there is a way to setup safe and secure Internet access on the iPad. You can use the built-in Restrictions feature to turn off Safari / YouTube, setup a password lock for the App Store, and setup an alternate safe browser (like Mobicip) to offer restricted Internet access. The optional premium subscription allows you to customize the filtering and monitor the browsing remotely from a web-browser.

See this tutorial for step-by-step instructions - How To Setup Parental Controls on iPad (iOS 4.2 Edition)

Disclaimer: This answer was posted by a Mobicip representative who may stand to gain indirectly from it.

Talk with the school about your concerns. Likely other parents are feeling the same way.

marianfromspringwood wrote:

Seeing its the schools iPad

The OP never said it was the school's iPad. Read his post. What he said was that his son has an iPad for school use. He never said who provided it. The OP may have provided it to his son.

What difference does it make? I kind of got the impression also that it was provided by the school but her answer was not based on who provided just the correct statement that there are no parental control apps and that Restrictions probably would not be of much use.

Same answer applies, unfortunately their is no software available to monitor/audit use of the iPad. Since the school issued it you cannot load software anyway. I would check with the schools and see if they have Restrictions in place for the Internet, YouTube, and installing applications. If they have the latter then there is no way for the students to add games, etc. other than what the school wants to use.

You can send your suggestion to Apple that they add this type of feature here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html

deggie wrote:

What difference does it make? I kind of got the impression also that it was provided by the school but her answer was not based on who provided just the correct statement that there are no parental control apps and that Restrictions probably would not be of much use.

It makes a difference because of who technically owns the iPad. If it is owned by the family personally, there are a greater range of options with regard to how the iPad is used from a parenting perspective. Conversely, if the iPad is owned by the school, they may already have some apps or other custom security features installed that we don't know about.

Barring any unusual circumstances or software we are unaware of, however, Deggie is absolutely correct about the lack of monitoring software. This is clearly something that could be quite useful, and hopefully Apple or an aspiring app developer will come up with something.

But since their original question was how do I monitor the use it made no difference.

Apple would have to be very careful introducing something like this, look how some people are panicing just over the presence of Carrier IQ. Which come to think of it could probably accomplish this.

deggie wrote:

But since their original question was how do I monitor the use it made no difference.

It did, at least to me, because if the iPad was owned by the school, they may have added something to it to restrict use. That's really why I asked my original question about where the iPad came from originally, the parent or the school.

Agreed, Apple has to be careful. Somewhat related in that category is the new Find my Friends app which can be used as a tracking device. How is that info being used???? Not sure if anyone really knows! I can see how it would be useful for parents, but others may see it very differently and as an invasion of privacy. Fortunately you can switch it off.

I think people are approaching this problem in the wrong way. My suggestion is to use a subscription to opendns ... All you do is open an account then change your router at home to point to the open dns servers rather than using your own Internet providers servers. You can then filter any sites you wish for example if you are concerned they are gambling online you can tick the gambling tick box and choose to prevent him having access to all gambling sites, there are many categories for things like swearing, ***********, violence weapons etc. you can also add your own sites etc.

I have used it for my own network at home and think it works really well. I think their is even a method to log and email you whenever anyone tries to access a prohibited site.

I am not affiliated to the opendns site. There is a free account to try before you buy. It works for us as a family and has taken away the worry of wondering what the kids are viewing online. Note for a pc you can customise access for each pc on your network and even have a pc that bypasses all the restrictions if you require that but sadly this is not yet available for the iPad or iphone so those devices will be subject to the full restrictions that you choose to put in place.

www.opendns.org is the site to have a look at.

Hope this helps.