ApplatchKids
ApplatchKids
An iPad is different from an iPhone in one way that matters for parents: it is usually shared. A child’s iPhone has one owner and one account; the family iPad is used by a 5-year-old at breakfast and a parent at night. That changes how you set up controls. This guide covers both situations, the shared iPad and the child’s own iPad, and the iPad-specific settings that the iPhone guide does not.
Situation 1: A child’s own iPad
Treat it exactly like a child’s iPhone. Create a Child Account in your Family Sharing group (Settings, your name, Family, Add Member, Create Child Account), sign the iPad in with that account, and turn on Screen Time for the child from your own phone. Our iPhone parental controls guide walks through every setting, and all of it applies to iPadOS 26.
The short list: Downtime, App Limits, Content & Privacy Restrictions, Ask to Buy, and a Screen Time passcode.
Situation 2: A shared family iPad
iPads do not have separate user profiles for families, so you cannot give a child their own space on your iPad the way you can on an Android tablet. You have three options, from simplest to strongest.
Option A: Guided Access (for young children, one app at a time). Guided Access locks the iPad to a single app until you enter a passcode. Settings, Accessibility, Guided Access, turn on and set a passcode, then open the app you want, triple-click the top button (or home button), and tap start. The child cannot leave the app, and you can disable touch on parts of the screen, such as an ad banner. This is the right tool for a 3 to 6-year-old with one game or one video app.
Option B: Screen Time on the shared iPad itself. Settings, Screen Time, turn on, and choose “This is my child’s iPad” if prompted. Set App Limits, Content & Privacy Restrictions and a Screen Time passcode. The limits apply to everyone using the iPad, so you will enter the passcode to get past them yourself. For most shared iPads used mainly by children, this is the practical setup.
Option C: Sign the iPad in with a Child Account. If the iPad is mostly the child’s and only occasionally yours, give it the child’s account, with all the Family Sharing controls that brings. You can still use it, within the limits, or switch accounts when needed.
iPad-specific settings worth knowing
- Hide the App Store: Content & Privacy Restrictions, iTunes & App Store Purchases, Installing Apps: Don’t Allow. New apps then come through you.
- Web content on Safari: Limit Adult Websites, or Allowed Websites Only for under-8s, which turns Safari into a short whitelist.
- Siri: turn off web search content and explicit language under Content Restrictions.
- In-app purchases: Don’t Allow, and require a password for every purchase under Require Password.
- Multiplayer games and screen recording: both can be restricted under Game Center in Content Restrictions.
- Allow Changes: lock Passcode, Account and Location changes so settings cannot be undone.
Protecting the iPad from the child, and the child from the iPad
A rugged case with a handle is not a parental control, but it prevents the most common iPad tragedy. On the other side, the iPad’s biggest risk for young children is not content but duration: it is the device most likely to be handed over “for ten minutes” that becomes an hour. Set App Limits even if you plan to supervise, because the limit holds when you are distracted.
Learning first on the family iPad
Because the iPad is where most early learning apps live, it is also the easiest device on which to build a learn-first habit. Applatch Kids locks games and video on the iPad until the child has finished a short, age-matched quiz, then opens them for a set window. On a shared iPad, this means the child’s session always starts with learning, whoever handed it over and however busy they were.
Frequently asked questions
Can I put parental controls on an iPad without an Apple Account? Yes. Screen Time and Guided Access both work on the device itself, without Family Sharing.
How do I stop my child deleting apps? Content & Privacy Restrictions, iTunes & App Store Purchases, Deleting Apps: Don’t Allow.
Can two children share one iPad with different limits? Not through Apple’s own controls. Use one set of limits for the stricter child, or a third-party app that supports profiles
Download Applatch kids now on the Google Playstore and the Apple store.