When Kids Get Around Screen Time: What Parents Can Do

Apple’s support page “Set, change, and manage a Screen Time passcode on your child’s device” says to choose a passcode your child won’t guess, and to avoid birthdays, phone numbers and obvious patterns like 1234. It also says that if you think your child knows the passcode, you can change it at any time.

So Apple itself expects that children sometimes learn the passcode. Even with Screen Time set up, children do sometimes slip past the limits. This post covers what parents can do when that happens.

I’ll say up front that this post does not describe how to get around the limits. It’s the children who want the steps. What parents need is how to close the gaps.

Three kinds of workarounds

The ways children get around limits can be sorted into three kinds.

• Learning the passcode. Watching an adult type it, or guessing.
• Using a door that isn’t managed. Another device with no limits, another account, or a parent’s device.
• Using a gap in the settings or the OS. Most “tricks” that spread online are this kind.

There is something a parent can do about each.

Protect the passcode

Don’t type it in front of your child. Children watch hands more closely than adults think.

Make it different from the device passcode. The Screen Time passcode is separate from the passcode that unlocks the iPad. If they are the same, learning one opens both.

Manage from your own device. If your child’s account is managed through Family Sharing, you can change Screen Time settings and the passcode from your own iPhone or iPad. In Settings, tap Family, choose your child’s name, then Manage Screen Time, then Change Screen Time Passcode. There are fewer moments when you need to type it on the child’s device at all. How to set up a child account is in How to Create a Child Apple Account with Family Sharing.

Check “Last used.” The same screen shows when the passcode was last entered. If you see a time you don’t remember, it may be known. Change it.

Change it too often and you’ll be the one who forgets. If you forget your child’s passcode, you can change it from your own device. The steps are on Apple’s page “Change your Screen Time passcode on an iPhone or iPad.”

Close the unmanaged doors

Screen Time limits apply to that account on that device. Any door outside that is wide open.

Don’t share your child’s Apple Account. Apple’s parental controls guide also says it’s important that a child has their own account and doesn’t share it with others.

Check the other devices at home. An old iPad or a parent’s former phone sometimes sits in a drawer with no limits at all.

When lending your own device. A parent’s iPhone has no child limits. When you lend it, stay nearby, or use Guided Access to lock it to one app. How to use it is in How to Use Guided Access on iPad.

Require approval for app installs. Ask to Buy and the App Store’s Installing Apps setting stop a child from installing apps on their own. Where to find them is in How to Set Up Screen Time on an iPad for Your Child.

Keep iPadOS up to date

Most tricks that spread online exploit a bug in the OS or a gap between settings. Those gaps are often closed by OS updates. Keeping both the child’s and the parent’s devices on the latest iPadOS or iOS is a low-effort fix.

Talk before you chase

However many measures you add, a child may find another way. There is also the view that, at some point, it is better to stop chasing with technology and put more weight on talking with your child.

Finding a workaround is, in a way, the result of watching carefully and thinking. Before blaming, ask why they wanted more time. They wanted to see how a video ended, or they had promised a friend. Once you know the reason, sometimes it’s the rule that needs another look.

In my developer interview, asked why Kinder Browser has no way for a child to request a new site, I said:

Problems that can be solved by talking should be solved by parent and child talking directly. I don’t believe in doing everything through an app.

Limits are tools that make agreed rules easier to keep. They don’t replace the rules themselves.

Kinder Browser’s parental gate

Kinder Browser is a children’s browser that opens only the sites a parent has added. The parental gate that protects its settings is separate from the Screen Time passcode. Knowing the Screen Time passcode doesn’t open Kinder Browser’s settings, and the other way around.

With the custom PIN turned off, the gate asks a random multiplication question. That’s a real wall for a small child, but a child who has learned multiplication can get through. In the interview I said, “As children get older, parents can use a custom PIN.” Once your child starts learning multiplication, turn on Use CustomPIN and choose your own number. The default parental passcode is “0000,” so be sure to change it. As with Screen Time, don’t type it in front of your child.

If you also want the gate before bookmarks open, turn on Enable Parental Control for Bookmarks on the parents’ page.

Kinder Browser has no time limits. You can let Screen Time decide how long, and Kinder Browser decide which sites. It’s a one-time purchase of $9.99 in the US and 1,500 yen in Japan, with no in-app purchases, subscription or ads. A comparison with other options is in Kinder Browser vs Other Ways to Keep a Child’s Web Safe.