Apple Admits To Bug in Screen Time Parental Controls (wsj.com) 23
Apple's Screen Time controls are failing parents. From a report: The company's cloud-based Family Sharing system is designed in part for parents to remotely schedule off-limits time and restrict apps and adult content on their children's iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch models. Trouble is, parents are finding that when they use their iPhones to set restrictions on their kids' devices, the changes don't stick. "We are aware that some users may be experiencing an issue where Screen Time settings are unexpectedly reset," an Apple spokeswoman said. "We take these reports very seriously and we have been, and will continue, making updates to improve the situation."
Downtime, found in Settings under Screen Time, is the tool parents use to define the hours each day that a kid's device is limited or completely unusable. But when they check the setting lately, they often see the times they scheduled have reverted to a previous setting, or they see no restrictions at all. This can go unnoticed for days or weeks -- and kids don't always report back when they get extra time for games and social media. Apple previously acknowledged the bug, calling it "an issue where Screen Time settings may reset or not sync across all devices." However, the company had reported the issue fixed with iOS 16.5, which came out in May. In our testing the bug persists, even with the new public beta of iOS 17.
Downtime, found in Settings under Screen Time, is the tool parents use to define the hours each day that a kid's device is limited or completely unusable. But when they check the setting lately, they often see the times they scheduled have reverted to a previous setting, or they see no restrictions at all. This can go unnoticed for days or weeks -- and kids don't always report back when they get extra time for games and social media. Apple previously acknowledged the bug, calling it "an issue where Screen Time settings may reset or not sync across all devices." However, the company had reported the issue fixed with iOS 16.5, which came out in May. In our testing the bug persists, even with the new public beta of iOS 17.
From the "duh" dept (Score:5, Funny)
FTFS:
and kids don't always report back when they get extra time for games and social media
In other news, the Sun is hot and water is wet. Honestly, I'd be shocked if a kid DID report back.
issues for years (Score:5, Informative)
Apple and parental controls (Score:5, Informative)
Apple, as I recall, has a LONG history of its parental controls being half-broken.
Here's an example of all the troubleshooting parents had to do to TRY to get it working right back in 2008:
https://www.macworld.com/artic... [macworld.com]
Re: (Score:2)
It's not just parental controls too. :(
Sure, Apple (Score:5, Interesting)
Sure ya do, Apple. That's why kids with Screen Time have been able to change the date, time, and time zone on iPhone and iPad for the last two years, despite there being a setting that supposedly prevents this.
That also explains why Apple lets kids install VPNs on their devices, bypassing any parental control solution based on web traffic. You sure do a good job caring about the kids, Apple!
Apple quality control again (Score:3)
Given my Mac mini can't even set its date and time properly no matter what ntp server I set it to and this bug has persisted from the first version of Ventura I'm not at all surprised. A previous bug in Monterey had it hitting any USB stick you plugged in so hard with the indexer that you couldn't write anything to it.
It seems Apple fails to do proper testing these days, instead focusing on eye candy features.
wifi restrictions (Score:2)
In my house, the kids have their own wifi network that shuts off from 11pm to 7am. They know they start burning their precious data on the cell plan after that and self-moderate.
Re: (Score:1)
My kids gave them our wifi password!
--
Your neighbour.
Growing up the school computer lab was Apple IIs (Score:2)
Class action? (Score:2)
I hope this goes to class action. The title should be: "Apple undermines parents and lets their young kids visit inappropriate websites."
It's been frustrating the heck out of me. Every single bloody evening I go re-check the parental controls for my three kids and re-enable them once they've been messed up. The UI for controlling this is poorly done, sluggish, and when multiplied by three kids it just takes too long. I wiped the family's Mac laptop and switched it to Windows, because Mac has even worse pare
Still Better Than the Alternative (Score:4, Interesting)
As a parent that has experience with Apple's parental controls, they are nevertheless better than what the competition gives you. Guided access is great for really little ones. And then Screen Time gives you the controls you actually want, they extend across devices, and you can manage them either from the device itself or from either parent device. As they get older you can back off control in a gradual and sensible fashion. All the while family purchases and Apple subscriptions are shared across family members.
It's weird, but the Kindle Fire Kids, which is explicitly designed for child use, isn't nearly as good as using an iPad mini.
Re: (Score:3)
As a parent that has experience with Apple's parental controls, they are nevertheless better than what the competition gives you.
I'm not sure which competition you've looked at? Microsoft's screentime controls on windows laptops+tablets is more intuitive, and doesn't have bugs. It too can be controlled from the device or from the parent's device or from a webpage. Microsoft's screentime controls for xbox gaming are also better.
Seriously, Slashdot? (Score:1)
WTF? A minor bug in a minor feature that is only even used by cheapskates too stingy to fork out for a real MDM solution is headline news? How is this "news for nerds?" (OMG! Apple writes software that has bugs... just like every other software vendor everywhere. And sometimes the bug persists the initial fix... just like every other software vendor everywhere. Stop the presses!). How is this "stuff that matters?" (I'd be curious to see some numbers as to just what percentage of iPhone buyers use thos
Re: (Score:3)
WTF? A minor bug in a minor feature that is only even used by cheapskates too stingy to fork out for a real MDM solution is headline news? How is this "news for nerds?" (OMG! Apple writes software that has bugs... just like every other software vendor everywhere. And sometimes the bug persists the initial fix... just like every other software vendor everywhere. Stop the presses!).
I consider access-control to be one of the cornerstones of any OS I use. The fact that it's broken on iOS does indeed seem important.
As for third-party MDM? I would *never* grant such privileged control to a third-party piece of software on any device. I just don't trust them to be written without security vulnerabilities. Access-control is something I'll leave to control either from the OS, or from a wholly independent thing at the router level. (which I do, in addition to iOS screentime).
Re: (Score:2)
Even when there's a bug, good luck reporting it. (Score:1)
ScreenTime has been a mess for years. I've used it to lock out the ability to change account settings on my phone as an added security measure in case it gets stolen or I hand it to a co-worker lacking common sense (...why I'm using my own iPhone as a test device at work is an entirely different set of grumbles, but I digress). I'd say 50% of the time, settings never stick and it frequently fails to authenticate the ScreenTime PIN correctly... one time it was terrifyingly insistent on requiring a ScreenTime