Making the iPad child-friendly

[JoeyLysergic]

A friend of mine has purchased two iPads for her daughter and son for Christmas, both are under the age of 11. She has asked me to install some apps (not a problem), and also something to stop her children visiting websites with adult content.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? What's the best solution for making the ipad child friendly? Are there default parental settings I can use?

I don't own any Apple products myself (nothing against the company, but I'm a student and can't currently afford anything from Apple), so I have very little experience with iPads.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[twerppoet]

You will find the parental controls (such as they are) under Settings > General > Restrictions (don't forget the 4 digit passcode, it's a pain to recover the iPad if you lose it). Explore this and experiment to see what you can and can't do.

To browser safe the device it is best to disable Safari altogether and get one of the the several child safe browsers in the App Store. The only one I remember off the top of my head is K-9 (something or other). I don't use any so I can't make a personal recommendation. But is it s good to remember that a clever (or just curious) child can bypass almost any browser's restrictions, and what some have determined as child safe other parents may not. Supervision is still the best safeguard.

 

[JoeyLysergic]

Brilliant, thanks.

I'll read up on those child-friendly browser apps, I never knew they existed.

She knows how clever kids can be when trying to bypass parental filters, but she just wants the best of what's possible.

Thanks for the reply, I'll post how it goes.

 

[twerppoet]

No problem.