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

Short answer: two steps, about five minutes.

1. Put your child's Apple ID 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 ID, signed in on their device and inside your Family Sharing group. Apple requires this — neither Screen Time nor ParentalEdge works properly with your Apple ID on their iPad.

Already sorted? Skip to step 2.

Step 1: the child Apple ID

Pick the path that matches your situation.

Child is 12 or under

1. On your phone: Settings → your name → Family
2. Add Member → Create an Account for a Child
3. Enter their name and birthday (this sets age restrictions), confirm with your Apple ID password
4. Apple creates an iCloud address — set a password and 4-digit passcode
5. On their device: Settings → Sign in → the new Apple ID

Child is 13 or older

1. At appleid.apple.com, create an Apple ID with their name, birthday, email and password
2. On your phone: Settings → your name → Family → Add Member
3. Invite that email address
4. They accept on their device
5. Check their device is signed in with their Apple ID, not yours

They already have an Apple ID

Settings → your name → Family. If they're not listed, Add Member and invite them. Then confirm their device is signed in with their own ID.

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
4. Note the 6-digit registration code

On your child's device:

1. App Store → search ParentalEdge → install and open
2. Tap Set Up Child's Device
3. Enter the 6-digit code → Connect Device

Then four short screens:

• Permissions — Screen Time Access (usage and limits), Web Protection (blocks harmful sites), Notifications (so they see your approvals), and Location if you want arrive/leave alerts
• Screen time limit — all apps, or pick specific ones
• Your PIN — 4 digits, protects parent settings on the device
• App rules — optional, and easy to do later

What Screen Time won't do

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

That's the gap ParentalEdge fills — the full comparison is here.

What you get after setup

Signed in at parentaledge.com from 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 in incognito
• Restricted windows for homework, school hours and bedtime, set per day of the week
• Daily reports — apps used, sites visited, searches made
• Location with geofenced places and arrive/leave alerts
• App requests — they ask, you decide
• Around 260 risky apps auto-blocked: dating, gambling, vaults, VPNs

Start risk-free for 7 days →

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to turn Screen Time off?

No, and don't. 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're happy for the rules to apply to you as well. ParentalEdge supervises the whole device, so the filtering, limits and bedtime it enforces cover whoever is holding it — there's no per-person switch on a shared iPad.

For a genuinely shared tablet, the workable setup is to keep ParentalEdge on a device that's mostly your child's, and use Apple's own Screen Time passcode for the family iPad. If your child is heading towards their own device soon, it's worth waiting for that.

My child uses my Apple ID on their iPad. Do they need their own?

Yes. Apple requires a child Apple ID in your Family Sharing group for any of this to work properly. The steps above take about two minutes.

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