HELP, my kids locked my phone with password and restoring did not work

Question: Are you referring to the passcode lock or your Apple ID password?

If it's your passcode lock, the following instructions will delete everything off the phone, so I am hoping you have a back up before the incident with your kids occurred.

1. Connect your phone to your computer.

2. Press and hold the home button and power button at the same time until the screen goes black and the Apple logo comes up. (Wait about 5 seconds when the Apple logo appears)

3. iTunes will recognize the phone is in DFU mode and will reinstall the software back to factory settings. If you have a backup (locally or on iCloud) make sure you select restore.

If it's your Apple ID password, then things can get more complicated. First try iforgot.apple.com. If that link does not resolve, then you will need to call the Apple Account Security team. Contact Apple for help with Apple ID account security - Apple Support.

Hope the above resolves your issue!

*edit to update info per Lawrence

Much of that is wrong. Those steps will NOT put the phone in DFU mode. This is the right way: Forgot passcode for your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, or your device is disabled - Apple Support

You do not call AppleCare for help with account access. You contact the Apple Account Security team, for which there is no charge. See: Apple ID: Contacting Apple for help with Apple ID account security. And the charge for telephone support after the free support period (90 days or 2 years, depending on whether you bought AppleCare or not) is $29, not $50. Even if you call rather than use the support mechanism I linked to there is never a charge for account security problems (or hardware problems or activation problems).

But before you do that you can probably fix it yourself at https://iforgot.apple.com

I have updated my response as Lawrence's info is correct on price and contact, but the DFU instructions I provided are absolutely correct. Refer to:

http://www.iclarified.com/1034/how-to-put-an-iphone-into-dfu

Lawrence, you may be referring to recovery mode "If you can't update or restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support", but that is different than a DFU restore.

You do not need to restore from DFU mode for this problem. Recovery Mode is sufficient.

And your link contradicts the instructions you posted. If you wait until the Apple logo appears it will NOT be in DFU mode. As the link that you posted says.

Ack, you're right. I forgot about holding down the home button and just releasing the power button. My mistake.

Also, who are you to say a DFU mode isn't necessary. For an iPhone 4, maybe a firmware/iOS sweep would help him a bit. In any case, thanks for the correction.

You're welcome. I wasn't out to get you, just to make sure the thread has correct information. There are very few problems that require DFU mode. Undoing a jailbreak is one, and restoring a corrupted iOS installation is another. The difference is that a normal recovery mode restore uses the current iOS to install the new one over it. A DFU restore ignores the current iOS and uses a primitive boot ROM on the phone, ignoring the current iOS. DFU mode is much harder to master, so I only recommend it if a normal restore fails.