How to Childproof Your iPad
The world is a dangerous place. No longer can you leave your doors unlocked at night or leave your kids home alone if they are under the age of 12. The world is full of predators, looking to perpetrate evil, both in the physical world and in the online world. The internet is unpoliced; it’s up to parents to police the internet. Luckily, technology companies such as Apple understand this. Hence, they’ve developed tools to help parents police the internet to protect their children from online predators and information they just shouldn’t know and/or see on all their devices, including the iPad. Zugu Case is a leader in iPad cases. We also support many organizations, including Children International, which helps to break the cycle of poverty in children’s lives around the world. Read below for ways to childproof your iPad, and order your cool iPad case today!
How to Child Proof Your Ipad
Turn on parental restrictions. Parental restrictions will allow you to control which apps are allowed on an iPad. You go into General settings from the left-hand menu, and scroll down until you see Restrictions. In Restrictions, you’ll see Enable Restrictions. Here, you’ll set a personal passcode. This is so you will be the only one to change the settings once your child is old enough to figure out how, so make sure it’s not your child or your dog’s birthday that can easily be guessed. This passcode does not have to be the same as the passcode to unlock your iPad, which allows your child to use the iPad when he or she wants without having master control.
Turn off in-app purchases. In-app purchases have taken over the game market in order to make money. An in-app purchase is just that — a purchase you make inside an app, usually a video game or a Freemium game. Freemium games are “free,” but they run these apps to make money. They are often coins or points within a game that allows users to earn rewards, move onto certain levels, or achieve a certain goal. They can be very enticing when your child is playing a game, as to him or her, he or she sees them only as part of the game, not part of your wallet. You can turn off in-app purchases so they won’t appear in games anymore — and you won’t ever have to pay for them again when you get your iTunes bill. Another way to ensure these aren’t charged to your account is to not have your credit card hooked up to the App Store or iTunes. This may be a bit more work when you actually perform a legitimate purchase; however, it will be worth it in the long-run to prevent accidental purchases. Your restrictions must be enabled before you can turn off in-app purchases (which you just did). In the same spot that you turned on parental restrictions (General Settings and then Restrictions), you’ll enter your passcode. It’s a button under Restrictions called In-App purchases.
Turn off the App Store. Following Zugu Case’s last point, you can turn off the App Store altogether, not allowing your child to make any purchases whatsoever. This is a great parental tool, especially if your child is young and could accidentally purchase apps without knowing it. You may also want to turn off the ability to delete apps, especially if this is your iPad 11 Case, and your child is merely borrowing it. The last thing you want is your apps to disappear. Plus, if you didn’t allow apps to be purchased, you’ll have to turn back on the Purchase apps button, so you can download the accidentally deleted app to your iPad again.
Age-based restrictions. Turning off the App Store is a great solution for your toddler — not so much for your pre-teen or teenager who may be allowed to download apps at your discretion. It can be a pain to have your teenager come to you every time he or she wants to purchase an app, so you can enter your passcode, enable, and then disable again. Apple has helped solve this dilemma for parents by instituting age-based restrictions on apps. By inputting in the appropriate age of your children, the App Store will only show apps and allow apps to be downloaded that fall into that age range. As the age goes up, the material grows in maturity from G-rated material in the 4+ category all the way up to realistic violence in the 17+ category. You may have to put the age lower than your child’s actual age if you disapprove of this material altogether. Another cool feature on the iPad is you can implement age-based restrictions for movies, TV shows, books, and even websites.
Safari browser restrictions. You also have full control over the content your child has access to on the Internet. Under “Websites,” click on the “Allowed Content” section. You can set the iPad to “Limit Adult Content”. This will filter most adult-themed websites. Apple says most because new websites are being added constantly to the Internet, and it takes Apple a bit of time to find these and add them in to the banned list of sites. In this setting, you can also block specific websites or allow specific websites, offering you optimal control over what your child views on the Internet. You’ll see the “Specific Websites Only” button here as well. This is the most restrictive form of website restrictions, allowing only a very few sites such as Disney, Discovery Kids, etc. You can add a few more sites in when this designation is selected to offer your child a greater variety.
Disable default apps. The iPad comes with some popular apps pre-installed, including Facetime and the iTunes store. You can disable these apps as well, allowing their icons to disappear as if they never existed. Facetime is Apple’s video-conferencing tool, which is on their iPhones as well. This can be disabled but turned back on if for instance Grandma or Grandpa want to Facetime. The iTunes store operates exactly like the App Store. It will ask for a passcode before allowing a purchase, and you can enable age restrictions here as well, or choose to disable and then enable as needed. Siri (Apple’s voice-controlled personal assistant that can be confusing for little kids) and the camera can be disabled, which may be a good idea for toddlers who can easily snap hundreds of pictures before you know it. Again, you’ll visit the “Restrictions” section on your iPad, and then disallow changes to “Accounts.”
Disabling Wi-Fi. Disabling Wi-Fi will turn off all access to the internet, which is one way to completely control what your child does and doesn’t see on the internet. This can be found under the main Settings page. You can disable only your Wi-Fi or everyone’s. However, if you’ve taken all of the previous steps and measures above, access to the Internet will be drastically-limited and will probably only be used for those apps that you have allowed your child to use.
Downloading the games you want. Besides turning your app download ability on and off to download apps when you want to, you can download apps to your computer and then just sync them to your iPad for your child. Either way works.
Set up an app allowance. Besides removing your credit card from iTunes, and the App Store completely, you can gift apps from your account to your child’s iPad or you can set up an allowance, which restricts the amount he or she can spend.
Zugu Case cares about kids. We support kid causes, and do all we can to help parents. One way we help parents out is by producing the best iPad cases and the coolest iPad Pro 12.9 case for their child’s iPad. Our iPad covers are tested for their strength and durability when dropped, which kids drop things all the time. We’ve incorporated the new wireless Apple pencil into our protective iPad cases so your child doesn’t forget his or her pencil at school. Our soft microfiber interior protects the iPad from scratches that may be caused by the potpourri of items in your child’s backpack. Our sleek iPad cases are perfect to keep your child’s iPad safe when he or she is out and about, while you keep your child’s brain safe. Contact us today, and order your Muse Case online!