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Apple parental controls

Setting up Family Sharing and Screen Time on your child's iPhone or iPad.
iOS 27 and iPadOS 27, 8 steps, about 25 minutes, not yet verified on a device

Draft. These steps are written from Apple's own documentation but have not yet been walked through by hand on iOS 27 and iPadOS 27. Menu names may differ. We will mark this guide verified, with the date, once every step has been checked on a real device.

Both phones Apple calls this: Software Update

1. Check every device is on iOS 27

Apple's new controls do not appear until every device in your family group is updated. This is where most parents get stuck without realising why.

  1. On your iPhone: Settings › General › Software Update
  2. Do the same on your child's iPhone or iPad
  3. Check any other device in your family group, including an old iPad in a drawer or a grandparent's Mac

What your child will notice. Nothing changes for your child yet. This step just unlocks the rest.

What this won't stop

iOS 27 will not install on anything older than an iPhone 11. If their device is older, most controls still exist but sit in different menus.

Your phone Apple calls this: Family Sharing

2. Put their device under your Apple Account

This is what makes everything else stick. The controls live under your account, so they cannot be switched off by whoever is holding the device.

  1. Settings › tap your name at the top › Family
  2. Add your child, or accept their existing Apple Account into the group
  3. Confirm their date of birth. iOS uses the age to decide which protections apply
Screenshot coming
The Family screen. Tap the child's name here to reach every control in the rest of this guide.

What your child will notice. A teenager with an existing account gets told they have joined a family group, and who their parent is. Have that conversation before you do this, not after.

What this won't stop

It does not reach a tablet that is not in the group, or a second account they use on a friend's device.

Your phone Apple calls this: Content & Privacy Restrictions

3. Block over-age apps and adult websites

The widest net you can cast, in one screen.

  1. Settings › Screen Time › tap your child's name
  2. Content & Privacy Restrictions › turn on
  3. Set Apps to their real age: 4+, 9+, 13+, 16+ or 18+
  4. Set Web Content to Limit Adult Websites
Screenshot coming
Content & Privacy Restrictions. Apps sets the age rating, Web Content sets the website filter.

What your child will notice. Over-age apps stop appearing in App Store search at all, rather than appearing and refusing. Expect a question about one specific game within a week.

What this won't stop

App age ratings are declared by the developer, not tested by Apple. A 13+ rating does not mean a 13 year old will be fine in it. And it does nothing about what happens inside an app you have allowed.

Your phone Apple calls this: Account Changes

4. Stop them undoing your settings

Thirty seconds, and it is the difference between controls that hold and controls that last a week. Most guides bury this one.

  1. Stay on the same screen and scroll down
  2. Account Changes › Don't Allow
  3. Passcode Changes › Don't Allow

What your child will notice. They cannot remove themselves from the family group, or wipe the device and set it up as new.

What this won't stop

None of it holds if they already know your Screen Time passcode. The last step deals with that.

Your phone Apple calls this: Ask to Buy

5. Approve every download before it installs

Catches the app you have never heard of before it arrives, rather than after.

  1. Settings › Family › tap your child's name
  2. Ask to Buy › turn on

What your child will notice. A download pauses and a request appears on your phone. You approve in about four seconds. They can also ask for a one-off exception to a limit, which turns a blanket block into a conversation.

What this won't stop

It covers the App Store only. It does not cover purchases made inside an app they already have.

Your phone Apple calls this: Communication Limits & Safety

6. Control who can contact them

Stranger contact is the risk parents worry about most, and the one these controls cover least completely. Worth knowing both halves.

  1. Settings › Screen Time › tap your child's name
  2. Check Communication Safety is on. It is on by default under 18
  3. Communication Limits › set to Contacts Only
  4. Turn on approval for new contacts
Screenshot coming
Communication Limits. Contacts Only is the setting most parents are looking for.

What your child will notice. A message from an unknown number comes to you for approval first. Sensitive images get blurred with a way out offered, now including violent content and during live FaceTime calls.

What this won't stop

This covers Apple's own apps only. It does nothing in WhatsApp, Snapchat, Discord, Roblox or any in-game chat, and most of those have weaker controls than Apple's. Communication Safety blurs images. It does not alert you and it does not stop the sender.

Your phone Apple calls this: Game Center

7. Limit in-game chat

Multiplayer chat is a route into your child's device that the main content filters do not touch.

  1. Screen Time › Content & Privacy Restrictions › Content Restrictions
  2. Scroll to Game Center
  3. Set multiplayer and messaging to Allow with Friends Only, or Don't Allow for younger children

What your child will notice. They can still play. They just cannot be messaged by someone they have never met.

What this won't stop

Game Center covers Apple's own multiplayer layer. A game with its own chat system, Roblox and Fortnite included, has its own separate settings.

Your phone Apple calls this: Screen Time passcode

8. Lock the controls behind a code they do not know

By a distance the most common way all of this gets undone. A child who has watched you type your unlock code has everything.

  1. Settings › Screen Time › Lock Screen Time Settings
  2. Choose a code that is not your phone unlock code and not a birthday
  3. Add a recovery Apple Account so you can reset it if you forget
  4. Leave passcode activity notifications on

What your child will notice. If they start trying combinations, you get told.

What this won't stop

Nothing here stops them using a friend's phone. That is the most common route to harmful content for a UK child, and only conversation addresses it.

Check it actually worked

Five minutes with their device in your hand. If any of these fail, the setting did not save. Go back to the step it came from and check it again.

  • Search the App Store for an over-age app. It should not appear.
  • Try to download a free app. You should get a request on your phone.
  • Text the device from a number not in their contacts. You should get a request.
  • Open Settings › Screen Time on their device. It should ask for a code.
  • Try Settings › General › Transfer or Reset iPhone. It should be blocked.