Restrictions

iOS has extensive settings that allow you to control and restrict what content your kids are allowed to see, what they are allowed to purchase, what apps they can use and even how much screen time per app they are allowed. The Apple TV doesn't have quite the same amount of parental controls, but you can still certainly block in-app purchases, restrict viewing content and set some other boundaries.

There is an easy way to block websites on the iPhone or iPad. Whether it be on a child's device or for some other reason, Safari on iOS delivers a few ways to limit access to adult content in general, or prevent visits to specific websites. Blocking websites is possible using the built-in Restrictions on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Whether you're a parent of an existing iPhone owner, or you've recently decided to give in to your kid's incessant pleading for a new iPhone, you may find yourself wondering if you can leverage your son or daughter's shiny gift to keep tabs on him/her. The answer is that, yes, but you will need to convince them to give you the password to their Apple account, or accept your location requests through Find My Friends.

Now, before we go on, let's go over what we know about kids and parents. Kids, especially teenagers, are astoundingly moronic, impulse driven idiots that are typically completely ignorant of their own mortality who spend their time traveling in packs looking for opportunities to trump each other's stupidity. Parents, especially American ones, are overwhelmingly paranoid, obsessive, overbearing blowhards that misidentify harmless coming of age behavior and experiences as threats to their child's well being while ignoring real threats to their mental and physical health such as television and run-amok consumerism.

Anybody who has young children (and probably most who don't) knows that one of the quickest cures for restlessness is to hand over your iPhone so they can, depending on their age, immerse themselves in games, surf the web, check their social media or just tap randomly and watch the results. You hope that it isn't handed back to you with hundreds of dollars of in-app purchases, screwed up settings, inappropriate sites in your browser history or strange new "friends" on Facebook. Fortunately Apple has built "Restrictions" into iOS that are often updated to stay current.

Apple has a strict no adult content policy for the App Store, but the recent increase of social sharing services is making it impossible for the company to police every app available for iOS devices. Apple recently pulled the popular photo-sharing app 500px because users were able to access nude images. The app was eventually allowed back into the App Store, but its removal prompted Apple to makes its App Store age ratings more visible to users. Some apps like the video sharing service Vine, have also been slapped with a 17+ rating due to people uploading adult content to their profiles. Luckily for parents there is a way to block children from downloading mature rated content, however, parents should still monitor what their children are doing with their mobile devices.

For example, Snapchat allows users to send pictures and texts that are deleted within seconds after being seen. The app has been criticized for misleading kids into thinking it's safe to send compromising photos because they will eventually disappear. However, anyone who knows how to take a screenshot can easily save an image sent to them through the app. Snapchat does alert the sender if a screenshot has been taken, but by that point the damage has already been done.