Best way to set an iphone up for kids...

[Dan_1981]

We've got a couple of old iphones that we want to let the kids use - these will be first phones for them and only as they're a couple of old phones that we've got hold of.

Won't be taken out of the house - so use on wifi only.

Mainly used for facetime with family / friends.

Some games to be played.


I've learnt in the past on their Switch that setting them up with dedicated kids accounts can sometimes be counterproductive - i.e they can't use in game chat to talk to their friends.

So to avoid any issues such as that what's the best approach to take with the phones? Can you use without setting up an apple account or do you need to do that?

I'm an android user, haven't had an iphone for year, but do still have an old Apple ID so I can use that as a 'parent' account if required? or my wife has an iphone but she uses only basic fuctionality on it really.

[cobra kid]

You could set up with a passcode/fingerprint/face id needed for new apps to be installed? Then you control what goes on there from fresh.

[popegregory]

Our ten and five have each got an old phone and a now iPad. What apps are really good for them at those ages? Splash math and the CBeebies ones are quite good, plus found an amusing translate one the older one has fun with

[simon_harris]

you can do some kind of linked account with your apple ID that shows everything they do on the device and bars certain apps from being installed

[popegregory]

Sorry, never actually helped. You set up an apple family account, you set yourself as the parents. You give their ages and it works really well. Yes it’s how they get you bought into apple very early, but it’s actually quite good that you can share things, they have an email address (with no spam as no one else knows it), and they get tech savvy. Quite a few things online if you Google it and it runs through the process. They can’t download anything without going through you, you can set app times very easily.

[popegregory]

If you make them a gmail email account it also means you can set up Google drive and YouTube kids accounts for them

[Craikeybaby]

Another recommendation for Apple family accounts. In a lot of cases it means that purchases can be shared - e.g. both my boys can have Minecraft of their iPads, despite only buying it once.