Photo by Phil Campbell

Back in 2010 when I got my first iPhone, I gave my iPod touch to my then 7 year old with instructions to only download free apps. One $21 iTunes bill later, I discovered the world of “in-app purchases”. I wrote an article for Mom Logic about the experience and despite my 78 Facebook likes, a few moms were less than gracious about my ignorance. Well after having several iProducts for the last 2 or so years I have learned a thing or two about how to use all of the awesome settings to a) make sure the thing doesn’t do things that annoy me like group message (grrrr!), b) make sure my son doesn’t inadvertently purchase virtual “stuff”  during game play, and c) make sure my son isn’t able to view content that I wouldn’t let him view on TV, in movies, or on our home computer. You see, besides a vehicle for playing Angry Birds, an iPod touch is basically an iPhone without a phone contract. On the newest generation you can Facetime and text (iMessage) in addition to the older features like playing games (beware of those in-app purchases!), YouTube, and surfing the web. Yes surfing the web. That means they can see everything out there that the world wide web has to offer and if you aren’t monitoring the thing, you have no idea what they are doing. Scared yet? Well steve jobs (lowercase because that’s how he wrote it. RIP) and the geniuses at Apple had the devices programmed with optional restrictions that you can activate to protect your young ‘uns’ precious eyes and ears. If you have already done this, good for you, if you have not, read on.

How to enable restrictions:

1. Go to Settings ->then to General
2. Go to Restrictions (default is “off”) and enable, it will prompt you to enter a passcode. Now, make sure this password you choose is not the same one used to unlock the device or junior can undo everything you are about to do. Don’t worry about needing to remember it unless you plan on changing your mind about those NC-17 ratings.
3. Once you are in the Restrictions Menu, you will see a variety of apps listed. Turn “on” the ones you want to restrict (this should be all of them).
4. Now scroll down to “Allowed Content”. Make sure the Ratings are for the US (default unless you bought it on eBay…haha just kidding…maybe…).
5. Select Music and Podcasts and turn Explicit off. When you go back, it should now say “clean”.
6. Next, select Movies and select your maximum rating. The choices are Don’t Allow, G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17, and Allow All. If you select G, they will only be able to watch G movies.
7. Do the same for TV Shows and Apps (4+, 9+, etc refer to age)
8. While you are there, go ahead and turn off “In-App Purchases” (unless you like surprise iTunes bills)
9. You can also set a time limit for your iTunes password to expire, lest they sneak in after you authorize a free purchase and buy the whole store. Do this even if you trust your kid. Weird stuff happens sometimes.
10. If you don’t want your kids playing Multiplayer Games, you can shut that off as well. Why would you not want that? Because who has time to learn what, how, and who they can communicate with in these games. Better safe than sorry.

A few other thoughts:

1. If you are iCloud enabled your kid may be able to see your pictures and contacts, your songs will appear et cetera. The restrictions will not block them unless they fall within the parameters above. You can shut this feature off by going to Settings->iCloud and turning those functions off. Unless you want your kids listening to the gangsta rap you loved in high school. No judgements.
2. Location Services: Just turn this off. Your kid doesn’t need to “check in” anywhere. Leaving it on will enable a geotag on the pictures your kiddo takes. They don’t need it so be safe not sorry and turn it off.
3. You may just want to set up an entirely different iTunes account for your kid. Especially if you don’t want every version of Angry Birds or Battle Bears popping up on your device.

That’s all I have for now. If I left something out that you have done to make your child’s iPhone safer, please leave a comment!

Photo courtesy of Phil Campbell used through Creative Commons License-Attribution