Parental Controls for Messages???

Question

Level 1

9 points

Parental Controls for Messages???

Does anyone know of a way to restrict access to the Messages App Store and the #images GIF search? We have a child in the house that has iOS 11 installed, and we don't want him to be able to see any of the images that might pop up in either the GIF search or the baked-in App Store.

We have already talked to Apple and filed a suggestion, but we are running out of options... trying to find a device with iOS 9 now, with little luck. 😟

It seems to me that there should be Restrictions for this new App Store just like the main App Store. It's sad that Apple is so bent on pushing their new "Message App" agenda that they would sacrifice the loyalty and trust they have built with us well-meaning parents.

Now our only solution it seems is to find an old device running old software.

Any suggestions other than restricting data access and reporting unwanted GIFs would be much appreciated.

iPhone SE, iOS 11.2, issue present in iOS 10 and later

Posted on Jan 5, 2018 8:42 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

foreverpersephone

Level 1

16 points

Jan 7, 2018 5:50 PM in response to wilsonwebguy

Sorry, but there is no way to make the gif keyboard totally inacesable to your son. But there are a few things you can do to make it very difficult for him to acces it. Hopefully you could have a conversation with him expressing your concerns, and that you'd like for him to not look for the missing feature, and this could put the app out of site and maybe out of mind.

Open the messages app on your son's phone
Open any conversation
When the iMessage app drawer appears, swipe right until you see the icon with three grey dots and tap it
On the new screen that opens, tap edit in the top right corner
Tap the red circle with the minus sign next an app you don't want
Tap "Remove from Favorites" when prompted
Use the switch next to the apps under the subheading "More Apps" to disable any apps you don't want your son to have

The following step is just something I found that help the app drawer disappear

Tap the App Store icon that appears next to the camera icon

This should make the iMessage app drawer disappear. This worked for me and it stays closed. You can open it by tapping the same icon but by closing the drawer when you first open the conversation it's like you've set the default for that feature as being minimized. Let me know if this helps at all.

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Answer 2