iPhone and iPad · free · built in
Setting up Screen Time properly
Screen Time is capable and it is already on the phone. It fails almost entirely because people turn on three things and stop. This is the whole list, including the four settings that hold the rest together.
- 1
Open Screen Time and make sure it is actually collecting
Settings › Screen Time
If it has never been used, turn it on. On a device already in use, check that App & Website Activity is on — without it, none of the limits below have anything to act on.
Do this on the child's own phone, physically in your hands. Setting it up remotely through Family Sharing works too, but doing it on the device the first time means you see exactly what he sees.
- 2
Set a passcode he does not know — and get the recovery right
Settings › Screen Time › Lock Screen Time Settings
Choose a four-digit code that is not your house alarm, not his birthday, and not the phone's unlock code. This one code is what holds everything else in place.
Apple then asks for an Apple ID to recover the passcode if you forget it. Enter YOUR Apple ID, not his. This is the single most commonly botched step in the whole process.
Do not skip this. If he knows the Apple ID password on that phone, he can reset the Screen Time passcode and undo every other setting on this page. The account password and the Screen Time passcode must both be yours.
- 3
Turn on Content & Privacy Restrictions
Settings › Screen Time › Content & Privacy Restrictions
Flip the main toggle at the top. Everything below is greyed out until you do, which is why plenty of people set a few things and assume they are on when they are not.
- 4
Limit adult websites
Content & Privacy Restrictions › Content Restrictions › Web Content › Limit Adult Websites
This is Apple's built-in filter, and it is decent at the obvious material and unremarkable at everything else. It is not a substitute for a real filter — it is the free floor underneath one.
The stricter option in the same menu is Allowed Websites Only, which blocks the entire internet except a list you type in. Severe, but for a young child it is genuinely the right setting and almost nobody knows it is there.
- 5
Stop apps being installed and — crucially — deleted
Content & Privacy Restrictions › iTunes & App Store Purchases
Set Installing Apps to Don't Allow so nothing new arrives without you. Set In-app Purchases to Don't Allow while you are there.
Then set Deleting Apps to Don't Allow. This is the one people miss, and it matters more than it sounds: deleting an app wipes its Screen Time history, so reinstalling it hands back a fresh timer. Blocking deletion closes the most-used workaround on the phone.
Do not skip this. Blocking app deletion is what makes app time limits mean anything at all. Without it, a limit lasts exactly as long as it takes to delete and redownload.
- 6
Lock the settings that unlock everything else
Content & Privacy Restrictions › scroll to Allow Changes
Set Account Changes to Don't Allow, so he cannot sign out and sign in with a different Apple ID.
Set Passcode Changes to Don't Allow, so the device passcode cannot be changed out from under you.
Set Cellular Data Changes to Don't Allow if he has a data plan — otherwise turning wifi off and cellular on skips straight past your home router filtering.
- 7
Set app limits, and turn on Block at End of Limit
Settings › Screen Time › App Limits
Add limits for whichever categories matter. The limit itself is the easy part.
Inside each limit there is a Block at End of Limit switch. Turn it on. Without it, the phone shows an 'Ignore Limit' button when the time runs out and the whole limit becomes a suggestion. A passcode alone does not remove that button — only this switch does.
Do not skip this. Every parent who says 'the limits do not work' has almost always left Block at End of Limit off. Check it on every single limit you create.
- 8
Set Downtime for the hours nothing should be happening
Settings › Screen Time › Downtime
Schedule the overnight hours and seder times. During Downtime only the apps you have explicitly allowed will open.
Turn on Block at Downtime as well, for the same reason as the step above.
- 9
Walk through the phone once, as him
Open Safari and try to reach something that should be blocked. Try to install an app. Try to delete one. Let a limit run out and see what actually happens.
Five minutes here catches the settings that silently did not save, and it is the difference between believing the phone is set up and knowing it.
How it gets worked around
None of this is secret — every one of these is a search away, and any teenager who wants to know already does. You are better off knowing which ones you can close and which ones you cannot.
Delete the app, then reinstall it. Screen Time's counter for that app resets to zero.
What closes it: Under Content & Privacy Restrictions, turn off 'Deleting Apps'. Then the app cannot be removed in the first place.
Tap 'Ignore Limit' when the timer runs out and carry on.
What closes it: Turn on 'Block at End of Limit' for the limit. A passcode alone does not remove the Ignore option — this setting does.
Change the date or time by hand in Settings, and time-based limits stop applying.
What closes it: Leave 'Set Automatically' on under Settings › General › Date & Time. Be aware that Screen Time does not offer a hard lock on this — it is worth glancing at now and then rather than assuming it is sealed.
Take a screenshot during Downtime, tap share, and message from inside the screenshot editor.
What closes it: No clean fix — Apple has left this open for years. Know it exists rather than assuming Downtime is airtight.
Use the Apple ID password to reset the Screen Time passcode outright.
What closes it: Never share the Apple ID password with the child. This single mistake undoes every other setting on the phone.