Parental Controls

The U.S. and many other countries have rating systems for video and audio media to let parents know if the material is explicit or otherwise suitable/unsuitable for their children based on age. If your child uses your iPhone/iPad/Apple TV/Mac and you are concerned with what content they may be viewing, you probably want to restrict it somehow. This can be a headache considering how many sources there are.

iOS has extensive settings that allow you to control and restrict what content your kids are allowed to see, what they are allowed to purchase, what apps they can use and even how much screen time per app they are allowed. The Apple TV doesn't have quite the same amount of parental controls, but you can still certainly block in-app purchases, restrict viewing content and set some other boundaries.

There is an easy way to block websites on the iPhone or iPad. Whether it be on a child's device or for some other reason, Safari on iOS delivers a few ways to limit access to adult content in general, or prevent visits to specific websites. Blocking websites is possible using the built-in Restrictions on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Whether you're a parent of an existing iPhone owner, or you've recently decided to give in to your kid's incessant pleading for a new iPhone, you may find yourself wondering if you can leverage your son or daughter's shiny gift to keep tabs on him/her. The answer is that, yes, but you will need to convince them to give you the password to their Apple account, or accept your location requests through Find My Friends.

Now, before we go on, let's go over what we know about kids and parents. Kids, especially teenagers, are astoundingly moronic, impulse driven idiots that are typically completely ignorant of their own mortality who spend their time traveling in packs looking for opportunities to trump each other's stupidity. Parents, especially American ones, are overwhelmingly paranoid, obsessive, overbearing blowhards that misidentify harmless coming of age behavior and experiences as threats to their child's well being while ignoring real threats to their mental and physical health such as television and run-amok consumerism.