Ipad/Iphone content restrictions for pre-teens
 

I am just setting up an new IPad for my 10 year old son and have enabled the restrictions and set up permissible content.
Just want to make sure I haven't missed anything and am wondering if the brain trust has any advice on this.
Have set him up as a family member on my Apple account.
Thanks!

Monitor him. Stuff gets through. Even if you or he aren't looking and if you have some sort of parental control on, stuff will get through.

You can do pretty good parental control with a DNS service. They would not be able to go to undesireable web sites. You control the DNS with your computer.

At an early age I simply turned off safari access. Careful thought they figure other ways to get to the internet like down loading a different browser.
Warm him and monitor the history and don’t let him erase it!

I have signed up with https://www.opendns.com (free) and have setup DNS restrictions for inappropriate content.
So even if they navigate to the wrong site (for whatever reason) it just shows that you're not allowed..
"This site is blocked due to content filtering."


Very simple and pretty safe, also safe for your day to day to protect you from DNS phishing..

Good luck!



Here are the filtering levels so you get the idea:

High
Protects against all adult-related sites, illegal activity, social networking sites, video sharing sites, and general time-wasters.

Moderate
Protects against all adult-related sites and illegal activity.

Low
Protects against pornography.

None
Nothing blocked.


Custom
Choose the categories you want to block.


In the moderate level (as an example here are the categories:
Adware
Sites that distribute applications which display advertisements without user's knowledge or choice. Does NOT include sites which serve advertising.
Alcohol
Sites about alcohol use, commercial and otherwise.
Dating
Sites for meeting other people.
Drugs
Sites about illegal or recreational drug use.
Gambling
Sites that offer gambling or information about gambling.
Hate/Discrimination
Sites that promote intolerance based on gender, age, race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation or other group identities.
Weapons
Sites about weapons, commercial and otherwise.
Tasteless
Sites that contain information on such subjects as mutilation, torture, horror, or the grotesque. Includes Pro-Anorexia and Pro-Suicide related sites.
Lingerie/Bikini
Sites displaying or dedicated to lingerie/bikini that could be considered adult-only.
Proxy/Anonymizer
Sites providing proxy bypass information or services. Also, sites that allow the user to surf the net anonymously, including sites that allow the user to send anonymous emails.
Sexuality
Sites that provide information, images or implications of bondage, sadism, masochism, fetish, beating, body piercing or self-mutilation. This category is not intended for LGBT related sites that do not fall under the aforementioned criteria.
Nudity
Sites that provide images or representations of nudity.
Pornography
Anything relating to pornography, including mild depiction, soft pornography or hard-core pornography.

The best policy is always eyeball supervision. They are allowed to use the ipad in the family room during the hours of ______ weekdays, and on weekends during the hours of ____ only. All devices get stored and charged in a locked cabinet in parents bedroom. Break the rules and lose the privilege.

As you may have guessed I am not a fan of kids flying solo on the net under the age of 16. Even after 16 with carefully controlled access. No reason for internet access in their bedroom ever, as long as they are a dependent under your roof. It is Pandora's box and there is evidence now that it is changing the way teen brains develop.

We Need to Talk About Kids and Smartphones | Time

I have a 12 year old and an 8 year old sharing an iPad, and yes, they can't use it in their room.

But I did lock it down fairly well (unless they have figured out my passcode). I used most of the instructions here: https://www.howtogeek.com/177366/how-to-lock-down-your-ipad-or-iphone-for-kids/

At one point they couldn't even YouTube... I had to turn it on so they can see those instructional videos on how to bleed brakes. :)

Good stuff.
Thanks for your input.
Not a big fan of having him connected either and have already put the parental controls on the Ipad.
That being said, I want to make sure all of the devices he is logged onto prevent him from being in places he shouldn't be and I am not all that confident that the parental controls on the Ipad are the end all be all.
Some of the other suggestions I will look into during the week.
Cheers,

It is much better to make a white list than try to keep an up to date black list.

Since anything new won't be black listed...

Opendns is a great place to start.