Apple’s Screen Time gets a handy new feature plus updates to Family Sharing

Image: Apple

There is a new feature coming to Apple's Screen Time that I am excited about. My kid will get a pop-up notification on her Apple device when she wants that extra 15 minutes.

What makes this exciting? If you miss the Screen Time notification, you have to use the settings app to address the request. It takes a lot of time when you are in the middle of making dinner. With the request sitting in my Messages app, I can approve for 15 minutes, an hour, all day, or my favorite, don't approve, so I can handle the demand on my time instead of hers.

Image: Apple

This feature will be included in Apple's newios 16 software update this fall, which will work with the iPhone 8 and later, the iPad (fifth generation and later), the iPad Mini (fifth generation and later), the iPad Air (third generation and later), and all iPad Pro models It was announced at Apple's conference this week, along with a few other improvements to Family Sharing.

The features many parents want to make sure their children are using their devices safely has felt a bit like pulling teeth due to the fact that parental controls go against Apple's privacy first ethos. It was possible to see how long your child was on their device, limit the time they could use it, specify which apps they could access and for how long, thanks to Screen Time.

Image: Apple

Amazon's parental controls for its services and Fire tablets, which include activity reports so you can see exactly what your child has been doing, are more robust than Apple's Screen Time. Apple's options are less confusing than Family Link which is a pain to implement and manage.

Existing Screen Time settings can be transferred to new devices and Apple will provide guidance for selecting the right types of content restrictions based on your child's age when setting up their first device in the newios 16

Image: Apple

The new Family Checklist feature that Apple showed during the keynote appears to be a one-stop shop for parents to better understand the tools Apple offers and how to modify them as their child ages. Family Sharing means you don't have to buy the same apps multiple times, which is Apple's biggest selling point. A lot of people don't realize this, based on my unscientific survey of my kids' friends' parents who are always asking for my help to figure it out This will hopefully be helped by the Family Checklist.

The shared photo library is a new feature. Up to six users can collaborate on and contribute to the photo library, and while it is not clear exactly how it will differ from the shared albums feature, I am intrigued by the automatic sharing feature that can beggled on in the camera app. It would be great if this were a feature that you kept turned on for your kids, as seeing exactly what your child has been taking pictures of is a feature some parents might appreciate.

Image: Apple

All of these are useful. I want Apple to give me more control over my child's devices when they are a little older and want to explore more of the internet. I know about the dangers of the internet. I want my children to be protected from bad experiences. I would like to know about it when they run into a problem.

Bark, Net Nanny, and Qustodio are paid third-party services that can monitor your child's online activity and alert you to potential issues. I'm frustrated that none of them work on Apple devices. The green bubble is too powerful for my son to switch back toAndroid.

Privacy advocates say that you should trust your child. I always talk to them about why I have controls set up and what they should be watching out for when they are online. I don't trust others. You can teach your child to be the safest, most courteous driver, but you can't control the other drivers.