Category Archives: Apple Stuff

Apple Devices and software.

New Parental Controls For Apple Mac P.C’s Catalina

New Parental Controls For Apple Mac P.C’s Catalina

Apples latest operating system “Catalina” for P.C has a new parental controls feature which carries over from the mobile “Screentime” settings introduced in Apple iOS12. The new “Screentime” feature on Catalina can be used to monitor your own computer usage or to set up the included “Sceentime” parental controls on an Apple P.C. Screentime features include Usage Reports, Scheduling “downtime” to restrict time use, Managed contact lists, app limits and adult content filters. Apple are also soon including parental controls for messaging to limit contact and set times for messaging during “downtime”. You can also monitor your child’s use from your own device.

Where To Find “Screen Time” on P.C?

First find out if your family or child’s Apple P.C is eligible to be upgraded to Catalina. Catalina is just over 8 Gigabyte download and depending on your internet may take some time to download and set up. See how here: https://www.apple.com/au/macos/how-to-upgrade/

Set Up Family Sharing And Your Child’s Apple I.D First.

To set up Screentime on your child’s login after downloading and upgrading to Catalina, first ensure your child has their own Apple I.D and is included in your family sharing group. How to set up Family Sharing and your child’s Apple account Here: https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT201084

Create A Child’s Login

  1. Create a new P.C screen login for your child or children if they do not already have their own, especially if the family all share a laptop or iMac, so that the main admin login is not set with parental control restrictions.

2. Under the main adult administrative login go to “System Preferences” via the “System Preferences” icon in the dock or via the apple logo menu top left of the screen and then scroll down to “System Preferences”

3. Click on “Users & Groups” (see pic above) and then click the lock lower left, (see pic below) enter your password and click the + sign lower left of window to add a new “Standard” login.

4. Create a new password for your child’s login that they can remember to use when they/you login (not too simple!). Exit out and then log out of your main admin account and re-login with the new child’s account.

Log In To Your Child’s Account

You can set up “Screentime” when first logging into the new account, or skip the set up when you log in to your child’s account for the first time and set it up following the instructions below. Be sure to enter your child’s family sharing Apple I.D as part of the set up. After everything has loaded and you have clicked through all the set up. Click on “System Preferences” via the preferences icon in the lower dock or go to the “apple” logo top left of any screen. Then scroll down to “Screentime” Click set a parental control (hard to guess) passcode and set up your preferences for your child, through “downtime” “app limits” “Always Allowed” and most importantly “Content and Privacy”. Go through all the tabs and set as required. If you have already done this for your child’s mobile device you will recognise the interface as it looks very similar.

What Should I Set Up?

This depends on the age of your child. You may want to have a very restricted account for a younger child under 12 years of age, but set more moderate settings for a younger teen.

Important preferences are “Limiting adult websites” or “Allowed Websites Only” for younger children, or disabling all internet browsers like Safari and Chrome completely if your child is too young to “Google”. Limiting in-app purchases to prevent your child spending up big in games, and changing passwords or downloading apps without your parental passcode is also essential for younger users.

Can Kids Get Around These?

Where there’s a will there’s a way …..these Screentime settings are only as secure as your child’s willingness to comply with the boundaries. Setting good passcodes that they cannot guess or find, is very important. But positive reinforcement for using their devices responsibly is also essential. A child who is determined to push boundaries may lie about their behaviour online to get around your rules, or find other resources to find what they want access to, even by looking over your shoulder or recording your passcode keystrokes!

You cannot set these parental control settings and leave your younger child alone. Your child may come across something you hadn’t counted on, and they certainly need your involved supervision and help with navigating the internet right up until early teens.

Keep all internet connected devices including “Screentime” protected devices in areas where there is supervision. If that means you need to lock down devices until there is a responsible adult near by, then that is the safest option.

Full Disclosure

Make sure your child knows that there are parental control limits on their their device, if it is age appropriate, (under 3years or 4 might be too young to explain), building trust with your child demands transparency around monitoring and restrictions. If your child strongly wants access to something you have not allowed, explain why – within their limits of understanding – in the same way you would explain any boundary or restriction to your child. Reward responsible behaviour and give reasonable consequences for irresponsible behaviour, understanding that you may not always be aware of every little thing they do on any device they have access to.

Over time you should be allowing more autonomy and trust when your child displays their readiness for more responsibility. Sticking with age ratings and researching all apps your child uses may ensure that your child is using safer apps and games, but the age ratings sometimes do not really reflect true safety or appropriateness. www.commonsensemedia.org has reviews for most software and apps.

Designing Their Space

Encouraging your child to help design their P.C login with a profile picture, screensaver design and desktop pictures and selecting appropriate apps helps them to feel included in how their computer is set up.

Finally ….Keep the conversations and interaction around digital devices ongoing, with enthusiasm and positivity paramount. Have fun with your child on their device, join in!

NEW Parental Controls For iPads iPhones iPods iOS12

NEW Parental Controls For iPads iPhones iPods iOS12

The latest software update for Apple mobile devices like iPods, iPhones and iPads is iOS12. This new operating system has a new centralised moderation and parental control system called “Screen Time” this replaces the former parental control system known as “Restrictions”. “Screen Time” settings include all the previous parental controls and filtering you have previously… Continue Reading

Parents Need To Watch Out For Apple’s Game Centre

Parents Need To Watch Out For Apple’s Game Centre

Apple’s default “Game Centre” app has been around since 2010. It’s a sort of social media gaming app, where your child can link up with other game players also using Apple devices and be part of leader boards, check achievements and scores and connect to play games online together like Clash Of Clans, Minecraft and more.… Continue Reading

iCloud Celebrity Photo Hack, Who’s Fault Is It? What Should You Do?

iCloud Celebrity Photo Hack, Who’s Fault Is It? What Should You Do?

  100 Female Celebrities had their intimate photos stolen from their iCloud accounts this last week. These photos were then put up on a forum called 4Chan for all the world to see. There are now many questions from Apple users about the safety of iCloud, and a lot of concern around whether it’s safe to… Continue Reading

How To Disable 15min Delay For Password Purchases on Apple Devices

It was announced today that Apple has to refund at least $32.5M for unauthorised kids’ in-app purchases after tens of thousands of complaints about unauthorized in-app purchases by children. As part of an agreement with the FTC, Apple must change its billing practices to gain consent from consumers before charging them for in-app purchases. Password Problems… Continue Reading

How To Make Mobile Safari Safe For Kids

How To Make Mobile Safari Safe For Kids

Updated July 2021 Adult Content Via Safari With school iPads being introduced now in primary schools, schools are doing all they can to filter the internet within school grounds, but too many parents are not aware how important it is to enable filters and parental controls on any device their child uses at home as well.… Continue Reading

How To Block Unwanted Phone Calls And Texts

For years we’ve been wondering why it is so hard to block unwanted mobile phone calls and text messages. With Apple’s new mobile operating system iOS7 you can now block messages texts and calls very easily. You can’t unfortunately block any calls from “Blocked” or “Unrecognised” callers, meaning when you see a call coming in,… Continue Reading

Safety Settings For Kids on Apple iMessage And Skype

Messaging apps are hugely popular. No more paying huge SMS bills, and its fun to be able to text and send emoticons, photos and videos to friends in one to one messaging or in a groups. Kids are using messaging apps now more than ever because of the popularity of mobile devices that they may… Continue Reading

THIS Is Why Parents Need To Disable In App Purchases

  You’ve read the stories, kid racks up $$$$ of In-App purchases on their  iTunes account using parents credit card, parent then tries to get the money back from Apple… This game review from Justin and Brian from IGN Entertainment (video shown below) of this iPhone game shows parents exactly why you need to disable… Continue Reading

Parental Controls For iPad, iPhone, iPods

Parental Controls For iPad, iPhone, iPods

Predictably there will be a huge amount of Apple mobile devices given as gifts to kids of all ages in a few weeks time for Christmas. It’s quite likely that kids as young as 4 years old will be given iPad Minis or iPods. It is so important that when setting up these mobile devices… Continue Reading