r/parentalcontrols

My 10-year-old has randomly guessed the Screen Time passcode on his iPad twice this summer.

Not hacked it.

Not watched me type it.

Just kept guessing until he got in.

At this point, I’m not sure whether to ground him or drive him directly to Las Vegas.
Apple gives me four digits to protect the household, and apparently I’m raising a tiny safecracker.

Parents: what passcode are you using that your children haven’t somehow cracked?

I guessed the code on my screen time passcode via using her fingerprints and guessing every combo, but im not sure if my mum will get the notification

My mum is the type of person to get annoyed at notifications so there's a chance she's turned it off, and i've never heard a notification when she inputs a password for me, but maybe i'm not observant enough :/

I've turned off the wifi and mobile data on both my ipad and my phone. Do you think it's safe to turn it on or should i wait until she's asleep or something?

if it helps (i'm not sure it will) we're both on different ios, i'm on ios 18.7.9 and she's on ios 26 or something

I just created a YT channel (NOT ADVERTISING) and my parent (my older sister) did something so that it's also supervised. But now, I got this lil guy on my notifications. How can I remove this annoying lil icon? The icon itself is a kite with a string.

I also can't turn off the notifications from Google. It just doesn't let me. Like, the option to turn it off is greyed out.

🥹Is it stuck there forever

My wife and I have restricted a lot of what our child can do on the iPad. We have allowed messaging with a small group of friends. A group was created by one of the friends, but it wants permission to communicate with my child’s own number.

What’s the fix? I don’t think I should have to allow this specifically/explicitly since it is the child’s own device, right?

I’m curious how other parents handle this.

My teen says their phone is private, and honestly I get that. I wouldn’t have wanted my parents reading every conversation I had at that age either.

But phones now are different from when we were kids. A lot can happen in DMs, group chats, gaming apps, Snapchat, Discord, etc., and parents usually find out way too late.

So where’s the line?

Do you ever check your teen’s phone, or is that a hard no in your house? If you do check, do they know ahead of time, or only if something feels off?

I recently 13m recently got 2 laptops taken away by my dad who is a senior software engineer after i was using them to stay up to 11 even though he wants me to go to bed at 9 pm and one of these laptops is mine as I got it for free from a giveaway so now he’s gonna install software and time limits and whilst I can fix that(I know my way around WinRe I’m just afraid on how to get it back as he found my discord account of which I am of legal age and only using it for art and whilst I understand why he put time limits on my pc because he bought it that laptop is mine and so I don’t know how to get it back from him

If you want me to elaborate just ask

So most comments on post here are different so I want to start of by saying im almost 18 and my limits on my phone and other devices have been the same for at least 4 years. If anything, they’ve gotten worse. My parents (mother in particular) are so paranoid that they have basically taken away everything, including siri and even the mail app. Also, dont even get me started on the time limits. there are over 20 and I even have one for camera, contacts, reminders, and notes. The screen time passcode isn’t even shared with my father. I’ve spoken to them about this many time and nothing has changed. Contact me for more info if you would like someone to talk about with your screen time problems as well.

Can someone help? I really need help with getting it off, Ive convinced my dad to give me his password so I could use my laptop and been really depressed.

I' lived in a homophobic country and I'm queer so the internet is the only safe space I could spend my time safely without getting ​flamed or into jail time.

I already end the task for the family but I can't access Google through it, bummer, Google being my primarily source or activity since it doesn't share and my mom refuses to get me out of it.

I'm currently 17, and I have 6 months before I graduate high school before going to college. Please help me, Ive been trying for 5 days now.

Hi everyone,

I'm using a Samsung Android phone,They've installed Qustodio on my device. Talking to them is useless, so please don't tell me to communicate with them — they've set my screen time very strictly.

I'm not worried about web filtering because I don't visit inappropriate sites anyway. My only concern is the screen time limit. I want to know if there's any way to bypass it.

But here's the problem — if I do manage to bypass it, I'm afraid they might get a Gmail notification from Qustodio, or they'll see my usage shows 0 minutes for the whole day and get suspicious. So I need a method that lets me switch back and forth — enable it for a while, disable it for a while — without them noticing.

Here's what I've already tried and figured out:

· If parental controls haven't enabled the 'Protect Android Settings' option, you can press 'Disable' and then 'Uninstall' — but that will send a notification to the parents' Gmail.
· Samsung has a Secure Folder feature. If they haven't locked down Android settings, you can use Secure Folder to download games inside it without parents seeing what you're doing. The monitoring app will only show that you're using Secure Folder, not what's inside.
· However, Secure Folder doesn't help with screen time limits at all.
· I've noticed that once your time is up, after unlocking the phone, no matter what you open, there's something covering the screen saying time's up. Even if you just stay on the home screen, the clock keeps running — it shows 24 minutes or 60 minutes left but it still counts down even when you're just on the home screen.

So I'm wondering — is there any hope? Any expert who can teach me how to bypass the screen time limit without getting caught?

Hi!So im currently a 16 year old with a limited screen time of 30 minutes.it gets taken on and off whenever my mother is not in the mood or feels like it(lmao) , and i mean literally.Nothing happened recently-just a day where i spent a whole day at home,having nothing to do and basically doomscrolling and doing my part-work stuff. So today morning i wake up with a notification that i have 30 minutes of screen time. (This is a copy paste message, i have one min extra lol). It's been a debate with me and her since i was around 13. It went from full trust to one hour, then again at 14 i had unlimited screen time for a while (which actually affected my grades and behaviour positively).
And now, im 16- i got my first Iphone right from the store with my mother saying that "im an adult now and i can do whatever i feel like". And not even a month after- whenever she gets mad or a minor inconvenience happens , she uses a tactic of "time off". I hate it very much, it's actually a sensitive topic, because my phone was a big part of me- (when i was 12 there was a huge issue between my family including alcohol and divorce, and i had to be the one to search for my father at nights, talk them through it and etc. So my phone was an only resource i could rely on). It's really stressing me out to the point i stopped talking to her, because she is now not only mean, but violent. When i ignore her i got hit multiple times, slapped and scratched.

Im really worried about my privacy and social life, and i believe im old enough to have unlimited screen time, anything i can do?

Hey everyone,

I’ve been working on a parental control app called Ximdroid to help parents protect their kids online. I just finished the web control panel dashboard (attached in the screenshot) and wanted to share my progress with the building in public community.

To give you a quick idea, here is what the app actually does:

🚀 Key Features At A Glance:

🌐 On-Device Web Filter: Blocks adult content instantly with zero internet lag (runs locally, not in the cloud).

📱 App Management: Parents can block specific apps or set daily time limits for games/social media.

📍 Live Location Tracking: Real-time GPS tracking and geofencing alerts when kids enter/leave safe zones.

📊 Activity Dashboard: One central web panel (shown in screenshot) to monitor everything at a glance.

🧐 Tech Challenges I’m Facing Right Now:

The Android OEM Battle: Keeping background services alive on Xiaomi/Samsung devices due to aggressive battery savers.

Dashboard UI/UX: Making sure the data charts look clean and easy to understand for non-tech-savvy parents.

💬 I'd Love Your Feedback:

Looking at the screenshot, how can I improve the dashboard UI/UX to make it cleaner?

As a developer, how do you tackle the Android background restriction issue?

Your feedback at this early stage would mean the world to me! I'll keep updating this thread as I ship new features.

My daughter has a 20 minute limit for Instagram and yet her daily usage average is 5 hours. How do I put a stop to that?

Hey everyone, Current age-verification systems on major platforms (like Roblox, TikTok, and YouTube) are failing. Minors are easily bypassing 2D selfie scanners by drawing on fake beards with makeup, using dark sunglasses, or using a parent's face for a one-time check. Once verified, the account is unlocked forever.To fix this, I am launching a global movement for a Device-Level Age Token Standard anchored at the operating system level (iOS, Android, Windows). This shifts the burden away from individual apps and onto secure hardware.

I have my kids tictok set on apple parental for 3 hours a day… but for some reason even though it’s also set for 3 hours on Qustodio, Qustodio turn is off at about 2 hours. Qustodio thinks she has been on TT 3 hours when Apple shows she has only been on 2 hours. Does Qustodio track it differently? Maybe if the app is open it’s counting down time where Apple only counts actual screen time? Anyone know?

It's ridiculous that instagram for teens doesn't allow parents to disable disappearing snapchat-like messages from being sent or received nor the ability to keep our kids from commenting on people they don't know/haven't followed them back/aren't friends posts.
Our kids are way too susceptible on this platform and meta isn't doing near enough to protect them.

so my phone has recently just automatically updated to the newest iOS update, and when I unlocked my phone it said that the parental controls were reset. I enjoy going into my parental controls and messing around with the settings, especially now that a lot of websites are now blocked since the update, but I’m not sure what this entails now, will my mother now receive notifications if I attempt or do unlock my parental controls? previously she never received notifications.

ok basically I made an admin account with the Santa app to block all apps except some because my brother was gonna use my laptop and I didn't want him going on weird stuff but now I forgot the admin password and I can't remove the app but I also don't wanna factory reset my macbook

Santa app blocks certain apps and stuff, rn its on Lockdown mode

I’m currently 16 Years old, I normally don’t make posts at all. But I really need help, Every since I broke my android last year, ive got my moms old iPhone 12 and when I first got it, she immediately puts parental controls on my phone and it’s annoying as shit! Also, as I’m typing this This screen distance thing keeps popping the Fuck up. I have to turn off my phone and turn it back on so It can go away, and sometimes it would come back for the 2nd time. I used to this hack where

I go on Settings, I type Mail, and I go on new accounts and go on google and click on privacy and that’s what I use for the longest time. But unfortunately Ever since this new update I’m unable to access this.

So people might Say, Oh talk to your mom about it, The thing is. Before I broke my Android my mom put the Family Link just like she did with my IPhone. I was getting sick of this ”Family Link” So I watched an video on how to disable it, and the the next day I was able to disconnect my Family Link, My mom called my and we got into an argument because I disable my Family Link.

She did try to Reconnect my Phone to Family Link, but due to my mom havibg to going to work and she was in an bit of an rush, she was unable to.

I tried everything to disable this Stupid ass Parental Controls On my IPhone but I need a Screen Time PassWord for EvErYtHiNg! And my mom blocked certain things, like changing the pass word or chan the date or the time. I could ask my mom for the password but She probably don’t even know it because She often forgets that I even have screen time on my IPhone.

Is their anyone out their that can at LEAST give me some tips, I know were running out of options but still… if you can give me some useful advice I’ll be forever grateful!

P.S Sorry for my Language, and my apologies for making this post more like a school English Essay LOL! I'm just running out of options and I need some useful tips.

So, for context im 15M. I don't normally share this, because I grew up on this internet, and witnessed its enshittification from an early age. recently i came home from a large test and my parents installed Microsoft family on my pc whist I was asleep. I paid for my pc, and everything in my steam library. i did not do so for my phone, which has controls. I just want to know if i would be an asshole for uninstalling their stuff. I already know how and don't really have much an issue, as they use it as leverage against me constantly ("YOU SPENT 20 HOURS ON SYSTEM?? WHAT IS SYSTEM?" note I rarely shut my pc down. I run a small streaming channel on twitch and a bit of game dev and coding on the side but I mostly play games such as Trailmakers, Primordialis, and No Man's Sky.) I have recently overcame a massive addiction to porn, somehow. which they never knew about. just like they never spoke with me about adding these controls, which took me about 10 minutes after booting my pc to find every file related. I knew because my stepmother left her accounts on full display on the login page, and immediately called a friend to tell what was going on. TL:DR am i an ass for uninstalling their controls on my machine?