How to Set Up an iPhone or iPad for Your Child with Parental Controls

Short answer: two steps.

1. Put your child's Apple Account in your Family Sharing group
2. Install ParentalEdge on their iPhone or iPad and enter the 6-digit code

Screen Time covers basic limits. ParentalEdge adds 31-category filtering in every browser, activity reports and location.

Get your 6-digit code →

Before you start

Your child needs their own Apple Account, signed in on their device and inside your Family Sharing group. Apple requires it. Neither Screen Time nor ParentalEdge works properly with your account on their iPad.

Already sorted? Skip to step 2.

Step 1. The child Apple Account

They have their own

On your phone: Settings → Family. If they are not listed, Add Member → Invite Others. They accept the invite, or enter their password on your phone.

If their account says they're an adult, fix the birthday on their device: Settings → their name → Personal Information → Birthday. You may be asked to approve it.

Only sign out and back in if their device is signed in with your account.

No account, or they use yours

You create it, whatever their age. Apple lets parents create a Child Account for any child under 18.

1. On your phone: Settings → Family
2. Add Member → Create Child Account → Continue
3. Enter their name and real birthday, then follow Apple's steps
4. On their device: Settings → your name → scroll down → Sign Out, and choose Sign Out But Don't Erase
5. Sign in with the new account

Step 2. Install ParentalEdge

On your phone or laptop:

1. Create your ParentalEdge account
2. Add your child's profile
3. Add Device → iPhone / iPad, and note the 6-digit code

On your child's device:

1. App Store, search ParentalEdge, install and open
2. Get Started, Continue, then My child's
3. Answer whose Apple Account the device uses
4. Enter the 6-digit code and tap Connect Device

Then four short screens:

• Permissions. Screen Time Access and Web Protection are required. Notifications and Location are optional
• Screen time limit. All apps, or pick specific ones
• Your PIN. Four digits, protects parent settings on the device
• App rules. Optional, and easy to do later

What Screen Time will not do

Once they are in your family group, Screen Time gives you app limits and an adult-website toggle. It will not block gambling, violence or dating sites, will not show you which sites were visited or what was searched, and will not tell you when something got blocked.

That is the gap ParentalEdge fills. Full comparison here.

What you get after setup

From parentaledge.com in any browser:

• App time limits and bedtime schedules
• 31-category web filtering, 14 blocked by default
• Safe Search forced on Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo and Yandex, including incognito
• Restricted windows for homework, school and bedtime, set per day
• Daily reports of apps used, sites visited and searches made
• Location with geofenced places and arrive or leave alerts
• App requests. They ask, you decide
• Around 260 risky apps auto-blocked: dating, gambling, vaults, VPNs

Start your 7-day free trial →

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to turn Screen Time off?
No, and do not. Keep Communication Limits and Ask to Buy running. ParentalEdge adds filtering, visibility and location on top.

Can I do this if my child and I share the same iPad?
Only if you are happy for the rules to apply to you as well. ParentalEdge supervises the whole device, so the filtering, limits and bedtime cover whoever is holding it. There is no per-person switch on a shared iPad. For a genuinely shared tablet, keep ParentalEdge on a device that is mostly your child's and use Apple's own Screen Time passcode for the family iPad.

My child uses my Apple Account on their iPad. Do they need their own?
Yes. Apple requires a child Apple Account in your Family Sharing group for any of this to work.

What if they try to delete the app?
It uses Apple's Screen Time API to block uninstallation. Removing it needs your Screen Time passcode.

Does it work on older iPads?
It needs iOS 16 or later, which covers most iPads from 2017 onwards. Check Settings → General → About.

Next

What ParentalEdge adds to Apple Screen Time