Been using Screen Time on iOS for a year and honestly it's pretty useless. My 13yo just goes into her settings and changes the limits herself. Tried Bark but the customer service was awful. Anyone actually have a good solution that WORKS? I'm open to paying for something legit.
If Bark's customer service was the issue try Qustodio - similar features, better support, not as expensive. Might be worth the switch
13yo changing her own limits is honestly kind of impressive lol. But real talk - at that age you might need to have a different conversation than just blocking apps. What's she trying to access that she shouldn't be?
Screen Time is parental theater honestly. I gave up on the app-blocking and just had a real conversation with my teen about why I'm checking her phone sometimes. She hates it less now
Yeah Screen Time is basically for preventing accidental app opens. She absolutely can change it - that's been a known thing for like 3 years. You need something like Bark or Mobicip that actually blocks at the OS level
Bark was terrible customer service for you? That sucks because it's usually the best option. Did you try their chat vs phone? Phone support has been way better in my experience
Yeah Screen Time is basically a suggestion on iOS once they figure it out. Did you try Bark? I know you mentioned bad customer service but the actual blocking is way harder to bypass than Apple's system
This is the problem with stock parental controls - teens are literally growing up with this tech so of course they know how to circumvent it faster than you can update it. It's an arms race you can't win
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Qustodio actually works pretty solid. Can't speak to customer service since we haven't needed it, but the blocking is legitimately hard to get around without factory resetting. Plus it works across devices
Wait she's just... going into settings and changing them? On her own phone? That's almost impressive lol. But yeah you need something where the restrictions aren't on the device itself but server-side
Have you had the conversation about why the limits are there instead of just trying to tech your way into stopping her? Might be better than a better app tbh