>children have quickly found workarounds for such measures, such as asking friends to message them links, which can bypass restrictions when opened

I was very surprised of this by my own kids find workarounds like l33t hackers. Apple's restrictions are a joke. The app store is full of things they can mess with. My daughter mentioned some way to get around screen time.

I've ended up just taking the iPads away.

Archived https://archive.is/LV6Cw

Long back Xiaomi Phones used to have soemthing like this. That one feature was how I migrated my in-laws to Smartphones from their Nokias.

The key content from the article;

Here's how you set it up: Head into Settings, tap Accessibility, scroll down to the General section at the very bottom, and tap Assistive Access. Now, tap Set Up Assistive Access, then Continue. It will then ask you to select your preferred appearance: rows or a grid. I suggest choosing a grid. This is how you get those super-large tiles. Now the OS will ask you to select allowed apps—tap the green plus icon next to the apps you want to allow.

> My son only gets Calls, Messages, Maps, Camera (so we can video call, but I've ruthlessly turned off selfies), Photos, and Music. Nothing else.

I get that the internet is an addictive scary place with lots of content potentially dangerous to a young person.

But why would you care if your child took a selfie? That seems pretty draconian.

Assistive access is the feature being referred to by tfa

MDM is the only effective way to restrict idevices.

All you need is a macbook and Apple Configurator.

You can remove safari, blacklist or whitelist websites, block installing apps, block deleting apps. It's really customizable.

This might be just the thing for my elderly mother. She's used an iPhone for many many years, but struggles lately with motor dexterity, vision, and a bit of cognitive challenge making phone usage difficult. Lots of things I'd like to just hide she doesn't need to get to (like Settings).

This seems like a much more comprehensive solution than screen time

It's like At Ease for mobile. Neat!

While living in Japan, our kid used a cellphone with 3 buttons.

1. Call mom, 2. Call dad. 3. Call Auntie.

These kid's phones were very common, inexpensive and worked great.

>Yes, it's odd that Apple doesn't train all its store staff on this laudable feature, but it's baffling that it doesn't shout about how good Assistive Access is for making a kid's dumb phone.

My guess is that its a bad look for PR to essentially say that a feature designed for disability assistance = children.

His kid doesn't need a phone and doesn't need to be tracked to walk to school. Get over it.

"You must disable SIM PIN to enable Assistive Access..."