Manufacturers offer some help
- Parents are calling for new restrictions, rules and advice on children’s phones, amid increasing concerns over the damage they could be doing.Both Apple and Google do already offer some tools, on iPhone and Android, that are intended to make it easier for parents to manage their children’s phone use, however.
Google refers to its tools as “Family Link”, and they are accessed through an app that has the same name. Apple refers to its tools as just parental controls, though they are accessed through the “Screen Time” settings on the iPhone. Once that is switched on, a variety of options present themselves. Parents can limit access to purchases in iTunes and the App Store, specific apps, to explicit content, particular websites and more – all of which can be found from that Screen Time menu.
These same options can be turned on when setting up a device, using Apple’s Family Sharing options. If that is used, then the child’s phone will join the “family” on Apple’s services, meaning that parents can use tools such as “Ask to buy”, which allows children to make requests for purchases.