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Steve asked: “We’ve had some issues keeping an eye on my daughter’s cellphone. She has an iPhone. Are there any apps I can put on there so I can monitor closely, like what apps she’s downloading? She downloaded a messaging app and was talking to people I didn’t approve of. I do have the Family base on there, but it doesn’t let em keep an eye on her apps. I don’t want to shut her down completely.”
Apple added a type of parental control specifically to deal with that problem.
To enable it, set up iCloud Family Sharing on your device and hers, obviously set yourself up as the “organizer,” and turn on a feature called “Ask to buy.”
Once that’s turned on you’ll get a notification on your phone any time your daughter wants to download an app, and her download will be on hold until you either approve or decline the request.
Once that’s turned on you’ll get a notification on your phone any time your daughter wants to download an app
If you had already authorized an app and they get it again though, you won’t be notified a second time. You also won’t be notified of updates.
If you don’t respond to the request within 24 hours, your daughter will have to ask again, but won’t be able to download the app because you neglected to act.
If you would like your spouse or anyone else to be able to accept or decline requests as well, you can do that.
If you enable this, you’ll also get the advantage of being able to share purchases with your family, so any movie, song, app, or book you pay for will be accessible to them as well.