Kids Are Seemingly Bypassing iOS Screen Time Restrictions

Compared to previous version of iOS, iOS 12 wasn’t about flashy new features and mostly seemed to focus on improvements to existing features, such as grouped notifications, group FaceTime calls, and so on. It also saw Apple introduce digital wellness tools to iOS, where users could manage their screen time on their devices.

This also extended to families where parents could limit the time that their kids spend on games. Unfortunately it seems that kids are smarter than Apple might have given them credit for because in this post on Reddit, it appears that kids have managed to find a way around the screen time restrictions.

According to user PropellerGuy, “When iOS 12 came out I limited my 7-year old son’s screen time through the family share. For a few days I felt like he was playing a bit more than he should, but I couldn’t figure out why. Finally today, my son revealed his hack: When he runs out of screen time and his games get locked, he heads to App Store, downloads a previously installed (but later removed) game through the cloud icon, and it works without limitations! What can I say.. I’m not even mad. That’s impressive.”

Now this isn’t a bug or a hack and can actually be fixed by parents disabling “Install Apps” within Restrictions, but given that it isn’t a particularly obvious feature, it looks like some kids are taking advantage of that for now.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Cellphones, Tablets
Tags: iOS, iOS 12, Social Hit