How To Lock Your Child Into An IPhone App

We know from experience that all sorts of bad things can happen when a child exits a kid-friendly app. Thankfully, Apple offers an accessibility-related tool called Guided Access. Guided Access gives parents the power to restrict their child to accessing and using a single app. By setting up this feature, you get to decide what you want your child to interact with on the iPhone or iPad and make everything else off-limits unless they come to you for permission. In this resource, we'll teach you how to use Guided Access to your advantage. You'll also learn more advanced tips for restricting your child's movements in the iPhone. So, let's get started! We created a video demonstration of how to set up and use Guided Access on your iPhone with Jellies as an example. While we focus on the iPhone in this demonstration, the process for setting up Guided Access on your iPad is very similar.

Step 1: Locate the Settings icon in your iPhone. Step 4: Toggle Guided Access to on. TIP: You can also set up a password here to make it even more difficult for your child to accidentally turn off Guided Access. Tap “Password Settings” to input your preferred, four-digit password. Step 5: Return to the home screen by pressing the Home button on your iPhone. Step 6: Tap into the app you want your child to use. Make sure the app is ready for your child. For example, if you wanted your child to only watch his or her videos in Jellies, you would need to select “Kids Mode” to open the video player. Step 7: Tap the Home button three times to start Guided Access mode. Step 8: When your child is finished using the app, tap the Home button three times. You'll be asked to input your password if you set that up earlier. Step 9: Tap “End” to disable Guided Access.

You now can use your iPhone and all your apps like normal. Bonus tip: You can use your fingerprint instead of a passcode to turn off Guided Access. This is especially useful if you already use Touch ID to unlock your iPhone or iPad and hate having to remember passcodes. In order to use Touch ID with Guided Access, you'll need to first set up Touch ID on your device. Then, instead of selecting a passcode in the Guided Access settings, simply opt to use Touch ID. Guided Access offers others ways to further regulate your child's iPhone and iPad experience. Here are a few more tips if you want to dive deeper into determining what your children can and can't do on your device using Guided Access. You can enable the following options in the Guided Access Options screen. To get there, open the app you want your child to use and tap the Home button three times to turn on Guided Access. Then tap the Home button three more times and tap “Options” in the lower left corner.

Disable Sleep Mode: If your device is set up to go to sleep after a certain number of minutes, you can bypass that in Guided Access mode. This is useful if your child is locked inside a video app and prefers to watch without regularly touching the screen. Keep in mind, however, that this will drain your battery faster than usual. To disable Sleep Mode, make sure the “Sleep/Wake Button” is toggled on. Lock the Volume: You can prevent your child from turning the volume way up or down by toggling the “Volume Buttons” setting to off. Turn off Motion: This option prevents your device's screen from changing from landscape to portrait mode when your child turns the iPhone or iPad. Turn Off Keyboards: You can also prevent your child from accessing any keyboards. This is useful when your child has access to an app with a search bar or other feature that requires a keyboard to use. Make Certain Areas of an App Off-Limits: Guided Access also allows you to designate different parts of an app as off-limits for your child.