IPad for teenager, screen time, Google family link

pep.fermi

Thinking of buying iPad for our teenager, for art drawing mainly.
Never used Apple so far.
Want to limit screen time, too much is bad.

What's a good way to limit screen time on iPad?
Would Google family link still work? Like it works on Android?

Thanks,
Alberto

wallace_and_gromit

My offspring are nearly 21 and 20 respectively now and appear to be well balanced, have lots of traditional interests (e.g. swimming, dancing), are able to focus on important tasks (be it work or school) and are highly articulate. We never went for screen time limits as they're nigh on impossible to enforce (kids simply have more time than parents to "dig in" to fight that battle in my experience) and would actually be very hypocritical from a parenting perspective, as both Mrs W&G and I enjoy a lot of downtime either surfing nonsense on the internet or watching toss TV.

What we found worked well with our offspring was no limit on screen time so long as homework was done, domestics tasks done etc. and phones were left behind at family meals and charged overnight out of bedrooms. We could "lead by example" on these, free of potential charges of hypocrisy.

No idea on the technical side of things. We went down the Apple route as I have an iPhone via work and a single platform seems to be most convenient for various shared family things without getting into being techie.

pangolin

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/ipad/ipadb15cb886/ipados ?

Do like W&Gs approach though

joeyhalloran

"Want to limit screen time, too much is bad." I think this is a bit simplistic,

lots of artwork on an ipad is still preferable to less time but being bullied on social media for example. Screen time is just as easy metric to measure but the content of that screen time is incredibly important.

I'm basically quoting the Science Weekly podcast by The Guardian on teen mental health released recently.

wallace_and_gromit

joeyhalloran said:

Screen time is just as easy metric to measure but the content of that screen time is incredibly important.

I was worried that our pair would be uncommunicative or bad communicators through exposure to iPads etc. but the stuff they encountered on Instagram etc. was often the basis for lively debates round the dinner table. As parents, we had no interest in why one Kardashian / Jenner was better than another (etc.) but such debates were probably better for development debating skills than another round of "What did you do at school today?" "Nothing much." I was hard work though, as "celebrity culture" isn't really my thing!

drhaggis

pep.fermi said:

Thinking of buying iPad for our teenager, for art drawing mainly.
Never used Apple so far.
Want to limit screen time, too much is bad.

What's a good way to limit screen time on iPad?
Would Google family link still work? Like it works on Android?

Thanks,
Alberto

Irrespective of ideologies/approaches, iPads come with an adequate set of screen time controls. You can:

• set per-day screen time (e.g. 1 hour on weekdays, 3 on weekends),
  
• set on/off times on top of that (no iPad before 8 am, or after 7 pm)
  
• set age limits in known content (Apple TV, books...)
  
• add filters to Safari (Apple rules the only iOS web engine to be Safari, so all others are reskins that call Safari)
  
• whitelist some apps from the screen time limit (so the phone always works, or the ebook reader)
  
• share family purchases
  
• if you have Macs at home, the screen time may actually be shared between computers and other devices
  

To be honest, I can't compare with Android directly, even though I'm an Android user. Never have used the equivalent ones in anything other than a Kindle, which is substantiallly modified by Amazon. Maybe once I get my eldest a phone I'll find out...