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• iPhone Parental Controls Not Working? Here’s What To Do

There’s even a list available online to teach our young ones how to disable iPhone Parental Controls.

When the phone becomes the apple of their eye.

Their phones are everywhere they are. Known as the digital generation, children of the 21st Century have grown up surrounded by technology and are constantly connected to the internet. In Singapore alone, the smartphone penetration share has reached 78%. Our children are adopting smartphones more adeptly and quickly than previous generations.

Wi-fi is their oxygen and some may exhibit an obsessive, pressing need to use their phone all the time. In spite of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) screen time recommendations, children and teenagers alike are surpassing the daily screen time limits. According to reports, children are spending up to 23 hours a week on their digital devices.

Just think about it – how many times have you seen your child scroll through social media sites for hours on end? How many hours does your child spend playing games on their phone? How often does your child whip out their phone at the dinner table? And, does he/she use their phones in the bathroom too?

So naturally, we use iPhone parental controls to limit their screen time. After all, it’s for their own good. More often than not, however, our tech-savvy children find a way to circumvent these controls which frustrates us further. We parents have probably thought about what more we could do too.

A new approach.

Before we begin to understand what more we could do to limit our child’s screen time, we must first understand why our children react the way they do.

When our children lose their connectivity, they experience heightened anxiety. Research has shown that at least 50% of teenagers experience nervousness if they don’t check their phones. They then pour their energy into finding loopholes and caveats in these iPhone parental controls to bypass them.

So when we think we’ve got ’em, before you know it, we’ve lost to ’em again. Truth be told, it’s an endless cycle. But here’s what we can do:

1. Listen to their woes

Open up a healthy, serious conversation with your child to find out why your child is constantly finding ways to bypass these iPhone parental controls. There could be more than just childhood rebellion. It could be a result of peer pressure, self-esteem issues, and more. Once you begin listening to them, you can begin tackling the root cause of their phone obsession.

2. Allow your kids to create their own rules

You may be the parent, but your child is still his/her own person. In addition to listening to your child’s woes regarding screen time, guide them to set their own boundaries. Dr Taylor, a psychologist, has reported that when children are given the autonomy to make their own decisions, it teaches them responsibility and accountability. Letting your child set his/her own screen time rules will give them room to take ownership of their device use.

3. Use more carrot and less stick

It’s easy for us to punish our child when they misbehave, or sternly enforce new rules on them. But if doing so proves counterproductive because your child is able to maneuver around the iPhone parental controls that you’ve set, you might want to rethink your approach. Instead of punishing them or trying to take control of their phones, try incentivising them to spend less time on the screens.

The plano App helps to monitor your child’s screen time, while also taking care of their eye health. You can use the app to set no-device time schedules, and block apps*. The app also reminds your child to take a break from their phone every 30 minutes to rest their eyes. If they follow these reminders, your child can earn points that can be used in the plano Shop! With those points, he/she can exchange them to request for a fun toy to play with, or participate in outdoor sports classes like football lessons!

Not only is this a good way to incentivise your child to limit his/her own screen time, it also allows him/her to learn a new sport or pick up a new hobby!