![]() McKenna, the internet-safety expert, suggests a trust-building approach with clear consequences for violations. No matter how carefully you set up parental controls, children can always find new ways to get around them. Even without a data plan, devices can still get online via Wi-Fi. Some kids scrounge up a burner-either a prepaid cellphone or an old model dug out of a drawer or borrowed from a friend. “There is also no proper way for parents to tell if their children downloaded these sorts of applications if the child deleted their traces." “No one truly knows what these applications indeed do or hold the power of doing," said Joshua Kats, a former Hack Club member who’s now studying cybersecurity at Macaulay Honors College in New York. How well these programs really work-and whether they leave your phone vulnerable to malware-is something I didn’t want to test. One YouTuber advises kids to clear the computer’s browser history after installing the software so their parents don’t know they went to the website. They often require users to make an unencrypted backup of their phone while connected to the computer. TikTok and YouTube are full of tutorials on how to download programs for Macs and PCs that promise to bypass Screen Time limits without a passcode. She’s a high-school senior in Andover, Mass., who leads an online community for Hack Club, a nonprofit coding network for students.ĭownloading software. When you hand it back, there will be a video showing what you typed, says Claire Wang. If you’ve set up Screen Time on your child’s device and your kid hands it to you to type in the Screen Time passcode, he or she can secretly record the screen by turning on the option in the control center. In Settings, go to Screen Time > Content & Privacy > iTunes & App Store Purchases > Deleting Apps. You can prevent this by adjusting app permissions. (This doesn’t work on the latest iPhone and iPad operating systems, based on my own testing, but several people told me it works on older versions). ![]() The app is then accessible until the next downtime period is scheduled. When children reach their time limit on an app, they can remove it from their device and redownload it without parental approval. If that’s not turned on, kids can tap Ignore Limit and keep going. After setting up a downtime schedule, parents sometimes forget to toggle on Block at Downtime. (This might be because he is the admin for his Family Sharing group.)Īn Apple spokeswoman said her team couldn’t replicate the time-zone workaround on an iPhone running the latest software, and neither could I. When he scheduled downtime on his up-to-date iPhone and then changed the time zone to an earlier one, he was still able to access all his apps. I updated the tablet to the latest version of iPadOS, 15.6.1, and the time-zone hack no longer worked.Ĭhris McKenna, founder of internet-safety company Protect Young Eyes, has been informing Apple of Screen Time hacks for years. But when I changed the device’s time zone to Honolulu’s, three hours behind me in California-bingo!-I was able to open any app. At that time, all the apps went gray and I couldn’t open them. I tested it out on my daughter’s iPad Pro, which was running the slightly older iPadOS 15.5.I scheduled downtime to begin at 8:25 a.m. Apple was supposed to have fixed this in iOS 15, but the trick sometimes still works on iPhones and iPads. Setting the device to an earlier time zone can fool Downtime, the Screen Time function that prevents users from accessing a device’s apps after a preset time. Any device or platform’s parental controls could be susceptible to manipulation, so always be on your guard.īased on my conversations, here are some common workarounds children use in their attempts to bypass Apple’s Screen Time restrictions:Ĭhanging the time zone. I focused on Apple because of its dominance of the U.S. Any device Apple doesn’t support anymore could be vulnerable to funny business. Here’s the problem: If the kids are using old, hand-me-down iPads or iPhones, Apple might no longer provide those important updates. And always check that the new software actually loaded. Go to Settings > General > Software Update and make sure the Automatic Updates option is on. ![]() The best way to outwit your children is to make sure their devices run the latest system software. ![]() (See box.) With each software update, it also fixes known hacks-including many that were mentioned to me by online-safety experts, ethical teen hackers and parents. With the launch of iOS 16, expected in the coming weeks, Apple is making Screen Time and Family Sharing setup easier for parents.
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