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I love my iPhone…I really do. So does my 5 year old. For awhile, I allowed him to watch YouTube videos that we both chose to place on the Favorites list (e.g. old Mickey Mouse cartoons, etc.). But one day I noticed that a comment on one of the videos contained – well – let’s say “explicit” language that I really would not want him using at pre-school. It was then that I discovered “Restrictions”. Under the General settings screen on your iPhone, the Restrictions tool allows you to set a 4-digit password that allows you to turn on and off all/most basic functions/applications on the phone. So – now I disable Safari and YouTube when I hand the phone off to him to play a toddler-safe game. It takes just 5 seconds to turn off the restirctions to allow me to get Safari and YouTube back.

I know at least two other fathers who purchased an iPhone or iTouch for their teenage son’s recently and both have had issues with their children accessing websites that were innappropriate. There are some filtered browsers available on the App store like SafeEyes and X3Watch. While they lack some of the functionality of Safari and do not always integratee perfectly with other apps (e.g. X2Watch will not auto-launch links from emails) you may find that the reduced functionality is acceptable in exchange for peace of mind.

So – if you are a parent that wants to have some control over what your child is accessing – or you are a teacher or Instructional Technologist who is using iPhones in the classroom, here is a short video from a group I love – Butterscotch – on how to use the Restrictions tool on the iPhone. Enjoy!