How to set effective Screen Time limits on iOS?

The screentime limits and website blocking lists are completely useless. Kids can simply ignore limit or add website to the allowed list at a click of a button. Why this would even be included as an option is beyond me (unless they simply want kids to be addicted to their devices...)

Yes I have tried all the 'solutions'. Signed in and out of all devices hundreds of times. Wasted hours of my life. Looking at the comments it has been a problem for years.

Completely pathetic from Apple.

For a company as Technical as Apple, parental controls that are intuitive should not be a problem.

The fact that they make it so complex for parents makes me think they have a different agenda. I am a computer scientist, and I know how easy it should be for Apple to provide a simple, intuitive interface for the parents.

As a parent, I am now regretting getting Apple devices for everyone in the family.

Same issue. screen time never worked. They can hit ignore the limit. Why the heck Apple even gives an option to ignore in the first place if you have a screen time feature?

Just read that this may even be a problem with iOS17 https://9to5mac.com/2023/07/31/screen-time-is-broken/ just posting this in the small chance that Apple cares about parent purchasers - because this is really driving us to Android. We love your hardware, but come on Apple - this shouldn't be so hard to fix!

Can Apple product team build a product that works as expected?? Set limits and child gets an option to "ignore limit"?? All the ads about how Apple protects you is just BS. All kinds of ways around to get your child addicted to the phone... Predatory practices! I said it.

I've tried this and it didn't work. Software is up to date. Reset all settings on kid's iphone. Logged out of iCloud. Turned off ScreenTime downtime. Then rebuilt it all. No fix. Nada. Nothing.

So as of now Screen Time limits for my kids are totally broken.

There are 2 other ways Screen Time limits can be ignored.

1. If allowed, they can delete an app and then redownload from the App Store to reset the limit. The solution is to not all App downloads or deletions. Go to Content & Privacy Restrictions > iTunes & App Store Purchases. Don't allow "Installing Apps" or "Deleting Apps".
2. If allowed, then can change the time zone to give them more time. The solution is to first go to Settings > General > Data & Time and make sure it is set to "Set Automatically", then go back into Screen Time and Contents & Privacy Restrictions > Location Services > System Services and make sure "Setting Time Zone" is toggled off. Now tap the Back button and go to the top of the "Locations Services" page and choose "Don't Allow Changes"

Another thing kids are doing is getting your Screen Time Passcode by setting the screen to start recording, then having you put in your PassCode. If you see a flashing red icon in the upper left, then the screen is being recorded. Of course this can be disable in Screen Time too by going to Content & Privacy Restrictions > Content Restrictions and shut off "Screen Recording".

There is also the case of kids resetting their devices to Factory Settings. Currently the best solution to this is to change their Apple ID password and not give it to them. With Find My turned on they would have to enter the password when reset and you would know what they did.

This will not solve all Screen Time problems and there is still more work that needs done.

For a company as Technical as Apple, parental controls that are intuitive should not be a problem.

The fact that they make it so complex for parents makes me think they have a different agenda. I am a computer scientist, and I know how easy it should be for Apple to provide a simple, intuitive interface for the parents.

The only other thing I can think of is the toggle on the limit that says “block at end of limit. Make sure that is toggled on. I’ve done that before where I didn’t realize. It’s kind of a silly feature because if you are adding a limit then you would think it’s to block the rest but worth a try.

Me too, spending a few days talking to “Apple supports” doing everything and it still can’t fix and Apple support is not escalating to the engineer department. I am going to change to android phone, despite that Apple phone is not cheap but the quality is getting worst.

Totally agree about everything said about the screen time UI, pretty shameful that something this important is so bad and disconnected from the reality of parenting kids with devices (and social pressures and hardly any self-control).

Like, why is there not a blacklist option? It's pretty obvious that there are certain apps that a parent might want to block completely. No asking to download, no nothing.

Or here's an other one, instead of "always allowed" how about "only allowed"?

There's also a missed opportunity. Allow the App store to be hidden from a kids device, but offer curated collections of apps that would actually be useful/educational/fun/creative/developmentally suitable for different age groups and installable only by parents. Would be much easier to agree on particular sets of apps among parents/school than the "everyone for themselves" approach going on now.

It isn’t just a case of toggling the “block at downtime” option in ‘downtime’. If you’ve you’ve also set app limits for specific apps, you need to go to ‘app limits’, select each app and toggle the “block at end of limit” option.

I've had this same problem for over a month. My son's phone is tracking screen time of apps and show they should be timed out from the limit I set, but he still has access. I tried the things mentioned in this string and none work. This is so frustrating since the problem has been hapening for years according to other posts.

Hey there. I had a same problem and I think I might have found a solution.

Go to:

Settings->

Family->

Childs Name/Phone->

Screen Time->

App Limits->

All Apps And Categories

Here make sure you enter in "TIME" 1 minute, every day and make sure the "BLOCK AT END OF LIMIT" option is ON!

The Block at end of limit option was Off after the latest updates amd that.is why kids were able to ignore basically everything.

Hope this helps.

This thread is from summer 2023 and it is now March 2024, and I and still having issues with my son’s screen time. I have tried everything. I have reset, blocked all apps and made sure block at end of limit is on etc. etc. My son has admitted that he can click “ignore the limit all day” in the first warning and then it works. If he clicks ignore for any other length of time in the first warning (e.g 30 minutes) then the next warning doesn’t give him any options and he has to ask for time. So he must click “ignore the limit all day” for the bypass to work. Then he can play as much as he wants. I am so frustrated. This is going on for so long. I am seriously done with Apple phones for kids