Managing your child’s digital privacy on their iPhone is crucial for their online safety. With Family Sharing, you gain valuable tools to oversee and adjust important settings. Before diving into specific privacy settings, it's important to set up 'Family Sharing' on iOS. For a detailed guide on how to set up Family Sharing, visit Apple's official support page. This feature allows you to create an Apple ID for your child, enabling you to manage their purchases, downloads, and privacy settings. Here’s a breakdown of the essential privacy settings you should be utilizing.
Actions on the Parent’s Device:
1. Ask to Buy (Family Sharing Feature):
What It Is: A feature that requires children to get permission before making purchases.
Why: Prevents unauthorized purchases and allows you to monitor app downloads.
Parental Action: Enabled by default for children under 13. For teens, you can turn it on in Family Sharing settings (Settings > Family > [your child’s name] > Ask to Buy)
2. Screen Time Management (Family Sharing Feature):
What It Is: A feature that sets limits on app usage and monitors screen time.
Why: Essential for balancing screen time and controlling app access.
Parental Action: Configure through Settings > Family > [Your Child’s Name] > Screen Time.
2. Content & Privacy Restrictions (via Family Sharing):
What It Is: Restricts access to explicit content and manages privacy controls.
Why: Ensures age-appropriate content and secures privacy settings.
Parental Action: Manage under Settings > Family > [Your Child’s Name] > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions.
3. Game Center Restrictions::
What It Is: Manages settings for multiplayer games and adding friends in Game Center.
Why: Controls social features in games to protect your child’s privacy.
Parental Action: Manage settings in Settings > Family > [your child’s name] > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions.
In particular restricting who they play games with is useful with selecting these settings:
Under Multiplayer games select ‘Allow with friends Only’
Under Private Messaging select ‘Don’t allow’ to prevent them from sending custom messages to other players within the games platform
3. Apple ID Purchase Sharing:
What It Is: Controls sharing of purchases among family members.
Why: Monitors and manages content being downloaded or purchased by your child.
Parental Action: Adjust in Settings > Family > [Your Child’s Name] > Purchases.
Actions on the Child’s Device:
1. iCloud Settings:
What It Is: Controls what is backed up and how your child’s data is stored and shared in iCloud.
Why: Ensures privacy by allowing only necessary apps to back up data.
Parental Action: Adjust in Settings > [Child’s Name] > iCloud.
2. Location Services:
What It Is: Allows apps to access and use your child's location data.
Why: Limiting location access is crucial to prevent unwanted tracking and sharing of your child’s whereabouts, especially in social media apps.
Parental Action: Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services to manage these settings.
Turn on for “Find My” app “Share My Location”: Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Share My location
Under Location Services there is a list of apps using location functionality. Click on each one and set the access limitation to “Allow location access” for each app. Most should be set to ‘Never’, but for apps that need your location, such as Maps, Compass, Weather - these can be switched to “While using the app”
Go into System Services > Product Improvement and turn off iPhone Analytics, Routing & Traffic, and Improve Maps
3. App Permissions:
What It Is: Apps may request access to the camera, microphone, contacts, or photos.
Why: Controlling app permissions helps protect your child’s personal information from being accessed by apps that don’t need it.
Parental Action: Go to Settings > Privacy & Security. Every app that has requested access will be listed. Tap into each one and turn off the access for apps that don’t need the functionality. Example in Microphone it might list Google Maps - but if your child doesn’t use the microphone to interact with Google Maps, the app doesn’t need access to the Microphone - turn it off.
4. Advertising Preferences:
What It Is: Manages the delivery of targeted advertisements.
Why: Reducing ad tracking limits the amount of targeted advertising your child may receive based on their online activity.
Parental Action: Turn off ‘Personalized Ads’ in Settings > Privacy & Security > Apple Advertising.
5. Safari Privacy Settings:
What It Is: Settings to safeguard browsing activities in Safari.
Why: Ensures safe browsing and protects against malicious websites and online trackers.
Parental Action: Enable necessary protections in Settings > Safari.
Search Engine - we recommend a default engine that doesn’t track your browsing history. I love StartPage, as it is anonymized Google results, but it’s not a default option in iOS. The next best option is DuckDuckGo
Make sure ‘Block Pop-ups” is turned on
Under Privacy & Security Turn on the following: ‘Prevent Cross-Site tracking’, ‘Fraudulent Website Warning’, Privacy Preserving Ad Measurement’, ‘Check for Apple Pay’
Under ‘Settings for Websites’ tap Location and select ‘Deny’
6. Messages Privacy:
What It Is: Privacy settings for iMessage and SMS.
Why: Filtering messages from unknown senders can protect your child from spam and potential online predators - all these messages will be in a separate folder in the Messages app.
Parental Action: Turn on “Filter Unknown Senders” in Settings > Messages.
7. Photos Privacy:
What It Is: Regulates which apps can access the photo library.
Why: Prevents apps from accessing and potentially uploading photos without consent, safeguarding personal and family images.
Parental Action: Adjust permissions in Settings > Privacy > Photos. We recommend settings to be ‘None’ or ‘Selected Photos’, when it’s the latter a prompt will be shown when your child tries to upload a photo asking them to select certain photos the app can then access, only when the child selects the photo to upload
8. Bluetooth Sharing:
What It Is: Controls which apps can use Bluetooth.
Why: Some apps use Bluetooth for location tracking or data collection, which can be a privacy concern.
Parental Action: Manage access in Settings > Privacy > Bluetooth. Turn it off for apps that don’t require bluetooth functionality
9. Airdrop:
What It Is: Controls if the device can be discoverable from other iOS devices nearby to instantly share data.
Why: Anybody with a device in the area can send something to your child’s phone if you don’t put restrictions.
Parental Action: Set it to “Contacts only” in Settings > General > Airdrop.
10. Tracking (13+ yrs old):
What It Is: Allows apps to track activity.
Why: Apps and websites track your activity - that can be sold to other companies or used for showing relevant ads .
Parental Action: Disable “Allow Apps to Request to Track” in Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking.
As a parent, leveraging Family Sharing features and managing settings on both iPhones are key steps to ensuring their digital safety. Regularly go through these steps to review and update settings on your child’s iPhone. Additionally, having open dialogues about responsible online behavior, will help your child navigate the digital world securely.
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