iPhone Kid Safe Phones
Are iPhones good phones for kids?
Apple & their iPhone is a market leader for a good reason, but does that make it a good kid’s phone? Short answer is… not really. While Apple does offer some basic parental control options, they aren’t extensive enough for many families and don’t have the monitoring features other kid’s phones have. There are 3rd party parental control apps that can be used on iPhones and work very well; however, Apple’s privacy rules make complete monitoring of the device very difficult.
More on parental control apps can be found here.
Do iPhones have parental controls?
Parents can create Apple IDs for their children where you can set some parental controls like screen time, blocking or limiting apps, and various features on your child’s device.
Apple’s controls are nice but feel like they were added as an afterthought & leave a lot to be desired. There is no monitoring or alerts for parents – so if you’re concerned about messaging and more detailed content blocking – you’ll be disappointed. Apple not allowing 3rd party apps for parents to monitor their kid’s phones is also unfortunate and makes Apple products a no-go for many families.
You can read more details on Apple’s settings on Apple’s site here.
Can I add parental controls to an iPhone?
Yes. There are great parental control options available. These apps provide an additional layer of support for parents wanting more control over their child’s devices.
However, Apple’s privacy rules make it difficult for these parental control apps to monitor all activity on iPhones. For example, Android devices allow parental control apps to monitor Snapchat, but Apple doesn’t allow for monitoring of Snapchat. This is not a parental control app problem – it’s an Apple problem.
Our kid already has an iPhone, what now?
Hand-me-down iPhones (and other devices) are common first phones for kids. You already have the phone, so it’s easy to just add it back to a family plan.
If you’re unable to get a phone specifially designed for kids, we strongly recommend adding another layer of parental controls. We recommend the Bark Parental Controls app as the best option for your kid’s iPhone.