iPad Child Restrictions

For those families with children in the home, the parental controls feature is often an important one to have on their desktop or laptop computer. There are many programs to protect your child from viewing inappropriate content, chatting with potential predators, and setting time limits for multiple profiles.

With the increase in the number of tablets and smart phones comes the worry that children are falling through the cracks when it comes to privacy and safety. Passing the iPad back to your toddler in the car to watch a cartoon leaves her able to access unwanted movies, TV shows, games, and more if the device is not passcode protected.

While setting up restrictions or configuring software for your desktop or laptop would often require you to contact a professional, the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch offer easy solutions to limiting the content to which your child has access.

The instructions for configuring restrictions on your iPad are listed below; however, the iPhone and iPod touch can be configured using the same instructions.

1. On your home screen, click Settings.
2. Find the General Tab on the left-hand side.
3. Select the Restrictions sub-tab.
4. Select Enable Restrictions. This will open up a pop-up window prompting you to select a passcode.
5. Select a 4-digit passcode that you will remember, but will not be easy for others to guess. After selecting a passcode, the restriction options will be viewable.

Under the Allow section, each program or application can be turned on or off at any time in the following way. Determine the applications you wish to set restrictions on.

1. For each application, select off next to that application’s name if you do not wish for your child to have access to it.
2. If you want to prevent your child from installing or deleting applications, select off to ensure they will no longer be able to access those features without your passcode.

Continue to the Allowed Content section, which allows you to create restrictions on the type of content your child is able to view.

1. Select Ratings and choose the rating format you will be using when determining the appropriate content for your child to view when accessing movies or television shows downloaded to your iPad.
2. Select the Music and Podcasts option. To remove access to explicit music, select off.
3. Select Movies and choose the rating to exclude R, NC-17, or whatever ratings you would like to prevent children from accessing.
4. Select TV Shows and choose the rating for TV shows to exclude TV-Y7, TV-14, or whatever ratings you would like to prevent your children from accessing based on their age and your family’s needs.
5. Select the Apps option, choose the appropriate age level for your child, and restrict access to apps that do not fall within that age range.

In addition to the above restrictions, In-App purchases and Game Center Options are ones that many parents prefer to turn off so their child does not have the ability to make costly purchases without parental permission or to make contact with other parties during game play.

1. Restrict in-app purchases by selecting off to prevent your child from making purchases while using your iPad.
2. Prevent your child from making contact with unknown parties during gameplay, by turning the Multiplayer Option off
3. Prohibit unknown parties from corresponding with your child during game play by turning off the Add Friends option.

There are desktop and laptop programs that claim to integrate with iPads, so if you currently have desktop or laptop software, contact your computer services technician for details about configuring the software for your iPad or other Apple device.