Here is a step-by-step guide to setup parental control restrictions on the iPhone or iPod Touch with OS 3.0. For a similar tutorial for the iPad, click here, and for iOS4, click here.
Though this page is long, the steps are generally intuitive and easy to follow. This article was also published as part of a popular Google Knol collection. If you prefer, catch the video tutorial on YouTube instead.
Mobicip Safe Browser Setup
Mobicip Safe Browser Setup Mobicip™ offers a best-selling alternate browser for Safari that enables parental controls on your child's iPhone or iPod Touch. It is simple to setup and works anytime anywhere! The Mobicip Safe Browser is protected by a mobicip.com account setup by the parent.
From the home screen on the device, touch the App Store icon.
Touch the search tab, and search for "mobicip"
Select the Mobicip Safe Browser from the search results.
Touch the price button, it will turn into BUY NOW. Touch this button and enter your iTunes username and password.
NOTE: Please make sure you purchase the app from your iTunes account, even though your child may have a separate iTunes account to which the device is regularly synced with.
Once purchased, the app will be installed on your screen.
When installation is done, touch the Mobicip icon to launch the app.
If you don't have a Mobicip.com account already, touch the Create New Account button.
Once the account is created, login into the app. You should see the browser open up like this.
Visit www.mobicip.com from your PC to upgrade to the Mobicip.com Premium web application. Mobicip.com Premium is a web-based parental control application that can be accessed from any browser. The Premium application allows you to setup custom Internet filtering settings and policy, and monitor Internet usage on the iPhone and iPod Touch that uses Mobicip as the primary browser.
General Parental Control Restrictions Setup
From the home screen, select Settings > General.
Select Restrictions
Enter a 4-digit passcode. Make sure you remember this passcode, in case you need to change these settings.
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You will see the restrictions screen. Set Safari, YouTube, and Installing Apps to OFF on this screen.
NOTE: Some parents may choose to allow apps to be installed with age restrictions setup, but be aware that there are still issues with the age-based ratings and browsing the App Store itself.
Scroll down the screen to the Allowed Content area.
Set In-App Purchases to OFF.
Select Music & Podcasts. Set Explicit to OFF.
Select Movies. Select the rating you would like to allow.
Select TV Shows. Select the rating you would like to allow.
Select Apps. Select age-based filtering for apps you would like to allow.
Select Ratings For to change your location if necessary.
Hit the Home button to return the home screen.
NOTE: If you have multiple devices to setup, see this article.
That is it! You can be rest assured that your child will have a safe and secure Internet enabled device that he/she can use anytime anywhere!
Comments
24 comments postedI have put parental controls on it and it doesn't block bad wesites! i was very disapointed!
I wouldn't listen to this, if i were you!
We are truly sorry for the trouble you are having. Can you please let us know the steps you followed in setting up Mobicip? You need to disable Safari and delete other browser apps on the device and use Mobicip app to browse the internet. This is because, Mobicip's filter works only on the Mobicip Safe Browser and not on other browser apps on the device like Safari due to restrictions set by Apple that does not allow us to run software in the background.
If your device is set up correctly, Mobicip should be the only browser available on it to browse the internet. You will not be able to visit inappropriate website on the Mobicip Safe Browser app.
If you still have issues, please send an email to Mobicip Support with your Mobicip-registered email id and we will investigate the issue further.
Priya @ Mobicip Support
I'm trying to figure out a way to word this correctly; but my question basically concerns allowing in-app purchases while disabling new app purchases. I.e. there is a game app that is age-appropriate that we downloaded for one of our iPhones. But you only get the first 10 (or so) levels, and have to download the successive levels in batches. I understand that disallowing buying new apps would disable access from the app store, and keep someone from downloading an app that could bypass the mobicip browser (for example.) But is it necessary, and/or what is the effect of also disabling in-app purchases? If an app is appropriately-rated (which as you've noted, they're not always - but assuming here) then is it necessary to disable in-app purchases (in regards to protecting them from inappropriate content) or is that more to do with basically just not allowing a child who may be using the device to actually make a purchase, period?
This is also more of a separate question, but I haven't seen it addressed anywhere in your knowledge base yet - but I purchased the premium subscription (well, it was deducted from my bank account) on May 2, yet the browsing history only shows today (May 4.) I know Safari was disabled on the device, and I'm sure the passcode hasn't been figured out - so I'm curious as to why the browsing history didn't start being recorded until today. Thank you so much for your responses!
Good questions!
is it necessary to disable in-app purchases (in regards to protecting them from inappropriate content)
Not at all. We recommend this only to make sure you are not surprised by purchases happening despite having turned off the App Store.
why the browsing history didn't start being recorded until today.
The Reports page shows blocked websites by default. By selecting Allowed or All, you should be able to see the entire browsing history.
The other reason could be that Mobicip's browser was not being used actively until today. Looks like you have already checked to make sure that Safari and other browser apps are not being allowed. In that case, please continue checking your reports and contact us or email support(at)mobicip.com if you continue to have this problem.
Mobicip Support
I let my 2 year old use my iTouch. He does great with it and I use the restrictions feature. The problem is that he accidentaly deletes apps. I know you can restrict installing apps but is there a way to restrict deleting apps? Thanks.
Good suggestion. We believe that Apple has addressed this requirement in the next version of iOS. As developers, we get a sneak preview of the upcoming versions and it looks like the next update has options to disable not only the installation of apps, but also deleting them. It is an update to the Restrictions feature available already. We will post an update here as soon as the feature goes live in the next version.
Mobicip Support
i forget mine iphone 4 passcode..... what can i do about...please help me
You're not going to like what it says, but see this FAQ. Basically, you need to jump through all kinds of hoops, but it can be done.
I caught my son playing on his ITouch last night at 11pm. I was wondering if there is anything set up for the itouch for time resrictions (like the Mac comp - under parental control)?
I'd like to be able to turn the darn thing off at 8pm, but if there's nothing to do than I guess I'll just take it from him every night.
Thanks
This feature has been long in in the making now. We started working on time limits a while ago based on requests from users here and here. It was even rolled out 2-3 weeks ago, but it caused some unexpected stability issues, so we had to pull it back. We are actively testing the feature at this point once again. You should see an update on the threads mentioned above when the feature is launched. Premium users will be able to set time limits for Internet use.
Mobicip Support
I have a major concern and I'm hoping you can help. There are a number of apps that I have noticed have ads in them or links and they open up a browser WITHIN that app. This happens despite the fact that I have Safari disabled. For example, there is an app called "Fast Food" that shows where different restaurants are in relation to your location. If you click on one of the banner ads for "Bing.com" it opens a browser page with Bing.com and you can search away for images or whatever with open browser access. I'm very confused as to how this is happening when Safari is disabled and so is the ability to install any new apps. It appears there are a number of apps where this is a problem including Facebook, Yelp, and an app called "I want" that takes you to nearby businesses, etc... Is there no way to shut down these open browsers completely? These backdoors seem to be a huge problem!! I also noticed that there's no way to set a password to prevent a hard reset to factory settings. I'd really like to be able to prevent the kids from doing that! I'm beginning to think that the iPhone just isn't family friendly if you have a tech savvy child. Any help would be much appreciated!!
You are absolutely correct!
Even if you disable Safari, and even if you set age-restrictions for the App Store to 4+, savvy kids can still try to use the apps that you mentioned to try to get backdoor access. As you might have noticed, these apps have a browser-like page that may allow you to access a search engine. They are very painful to use as browsers, but may be an ok option for someone who is desperate.
Unfortunately, due to the way the software is architected, there is only one option to prevent this.
- Simply disable the App Store by selecting Settings > General > Restrictions > Installing Apps > OFF.
- Since you hold the passcode the unlock the App Store, you can allow access to it on demand for limited periods of time.
- When a new app is installed, try it yourself and check if it allows a backdoor to unrestricted access to web content.
Apple does take its role as a gatekeeper seriously, much to the chagrin of many a disgruntled developer. So it will really help to send an email to appreviews@apple.com and let them know that some of these apps are rated incorrectly. Any app that allows unrestricted Internet access should be rated at 17+. That way, setting an age restriction below 17+ for the App Store will ensure that such apps are not accessible.
Mobicip Support
How do I restrict Google and Google images
If you have a basic Mobicip.com account, you can set the filtering level to Elementary. Google images is blocked for this level by default. Google will still be allowed, but SafeSearch is enforced and Mobicip filters the results automatically. So you can be assured that inappropriate content will be blocked. If you find objectionable content being allowed, please let us know and we will investigate immediately.
If you are a Premium user, simply login at www.mobicip.com, select Settings > Websites > Block, and add
google.com
to the list. Please add the domain exactly as above and do not add it as www.google.com or any variation thereof. This will ensure that Google is completely blocked.
Mobicip Support
I've upgraded TWICE and added google and yahoo to the blocked lists and also denied search engines under catagories and I still can access google and google images. The problem is that not all words indicate bad material and get in under the radar.
Is there another way to keep this from continuing?
Thanks
We apologize for the delay in getting back to you. We addressed this issue by replying to the email you sent us. Please note that it will take up to 30 minutes for the changes you made on the web monitor (to your customized settings) to be picked up by the device. This could be the reason why the blocked websites (google & yahoo) were still accessible on your device. Also, when you change your Category settings, please make sure that you hit the Save button on the top so that your changes are saved.
Please send an email to Mobicip Support if your problem persists and we will investigate further asap.
I recently locked down my son's IPOD Touch. This weekend i was perusing the IPOD and i happened to notice that my restrictions were no longer enabled. I spoke with my son, his brother, and older sister and of course, no one did anything.
Now my concern here is basically this. Either i have a child, or children that are full of ...Stuff, or the thing miraculously glitched out and everything is reset. I have seen several ways to reset a password but i am thinking that is if i have the IPOD locked down similar to a keyguard on my phone; and not the password on the general settings screen.
Can something like this happen? If i cannot, with peace of mind, lock this thing down then it is going to have to go away. Tonight i intend on have a come to [insert god name here] moment with the children and finding out if someone discovered the password, or if big sister "helped" little brother with some internet over rides, or if they really are purely innocent and this thing can just glitch out or what not.
Any assistance would be appreciated. I will continue to search the net on this.
One of two things must have happened here.
- One of the kids somehow knew or figured out the restrictions passcode and disabled it.
- Someone intentionally reset the device to factory settings. Now if it was reset and restored from a backup, which is what you do for normal troubleshooting, the restrictions will come with it and you don't have to worry about it. However, if you reset the device to factory settings and did not restore from backup, all data on the device would have been lost including settings and restrictions. You can verify if this is the case by looking at the history in iTunes. Launch iTunes and select Preferences > Devices. You should see a list of backups and when they were created. You may want to setup restrictions on iTunes as well in addition to the device. To do so, select Preferences > Parental and setup your choices.
Please let us know what you find as it may help other parents as well.
Mobicip Support
I tried to do this and when I open iTunes, I don't see anwhere to select Preferences. I have searched all through it. Please help. Thanks.
If you are using a Windows device, launch iTunes and go to Edit on the menu bar. You will see 'Preferences' here.
If you are using a Mac computer, launch iTunes and you will find 'Preferences' under iTunes on the menu bar (next to the Apple icon).
My son had already set a password code to the Resitrictions page. I know what it is, but there appears to be no way to change it. MOBICIP can be neurtalized if children have access to Safari, right?
1. Is there a way to re-set the Restrictions page Passcode?
2. Can Safari be uninstalled and can Mobicip prevent it from being re-installed?
I appreciate feedback on this.
-Steve
You are right. It is not obvious as to how the restrictions passcode can be changed.
1. On the device, go to Settings > General > Restrictions and enter the current passcode.
2. Go ahead and select Disable Restrictions. Now press the home button to exit.
3. Go to Settings > General > Restrictions and select Enable Restrictions.
4. You will be asked to enter a passcode now. Go ahead and enter a new passcode and confirm it by entering it again.
That is it. Your restrictions are now enable by the new passcode. Please make sure to remember the passcode as resetting a forgotten passcode can be a painful process.
There is no way to remove default apps like Safari from the device. Even if it were possible, we recommend against it because you never know, you may need it at some point in future. It is fairly easy to use the passcode to restrict Safari anyway.
Mobicip Support
I set everything up and promptly forgot the passcode i used on my son's Touch. How do I change it???
You're not going to like what it says, but see this FAQ. Basically, you need to jump through all kinds of hoops, but it can be done.