My teenage son wants to try Pokemon Go and I would like to give him a chance on it. Are there any parental control apps for iPhone to temporarily lock/restrict Pokemon Go but still allow use of phone to make/receive phone calls and/or text?
When he is home by himself doing homework, etc., I wouldn't want him on Pokemon Go but would want him to have access to call/txt in case of emergency. Anyone know of something that would work like that? Thanks.
Hi blsbrown,
Pokemon Go is a great game alongside being popular and encourages exercise but I understand your concern about your son playing when he is not supposed to. There is no way on ios to disable/enable certain apps but I have thought about one solution. Although there is no way to directly disable a certain app on ios at the moment, you could disable location services in settings when you don't want him to play. This will stop him from playing as Pokemon Go will not work without Location Services. Depending on your sons level of responsibility and age, you could just trust him not to spend all of his time playing Pokemon Go. One thing that I thought you might wan't to set up is a family sharing account for your son. A family sharing account would let you see his location whenever you would want to using find my friends. It would also make him have to send a request to download apps that you can approve or decline. Its a great way to share your purchases with him and manage your sons apple id. I use one (i'm 13) and its great! See: Family Sharing - Apple Support. I hope that I helped you out!
-Todd 😀
How determined are you? You can turn cellular data off, then go to Restrictions and prevent changes to cellular data so it stays off. He can still play through wifi but not far from your router. You could use the parental controls of your router to limit access to wifi by time of day and keep him away from the internet all together. None of this would keep him from making a call. The problem with this is that when you want him to be able to play you would have to reverse the above, go to Restrictions and allow changes to cellular data and then cell data to on.
Seems best to have a talk with him.... 🙂
You may want to research how this app works as well.
From what I can see, if he's home and in the house, Pokemon Go won't be that compelling for him.
It's main feature is how it integrates with the real,world around you using GPS and your camera.
You can use Restrictions right on the iPhone > Use Restrictions on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support
No third party app needed.
That will work with Pokemon Go for sure? I've gotten different answers from other people. I do that now with restricting the app store so he cannot download apps on his own.
No, that will not do what you want. Unless Pokemon Go has restrictions built into their app you will have no way to control his play on the phone (3rd party apps can't do this).
Pokemon Go parental controls?
