Comment by visarga | Hacker News Reader

Comment by visarga | Hacker News Reader

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Don't get me started with iPads and iOS 8 - there is no way to set a screen time limit for children by their parents. I would like to keep Wikipedia, Alarms and a few other apps fully open, but to limit Youtube and gaming time. No way to do it with Apple's software or with third party software (iOS does not allow parental apps).

The iPad, as it is, is very tempting for kids (and not only kids). To leave such a toy in the hands of a child is like leaving a big bag of chocolates in their room and telling them to eat responsibly when they are alone. Apple wants parents to police their iPads by hand instead. I have many other things to do than police children's gaming. We are in the age of computing now, if they haven't realized. I want nice stats with total time per app per day, like some parental control apps offer on Android.

In practice I was forced to confiscate their iPads and give them Android phones with big screens and good parental controls instead. Never gonna buy an iPad/iPhone for my kids again.

I am sure Apple does it for self serving reasons like "Don't limit their gaming time in any way, and sales with soar!"

> To leave such a toy in the hands of a child is like leaving a big bag of chocolates in their room and telling them to eat responsibly when they are alone.

This is painful to read. There's very little chance of having a respectful conversation about this topic, so I should just move on silently. Shortly, I will. But not before suggesting that, respectfully, perhaps there's another way to approach the problem?

You currently have one downvote, and it isn't from me, but I feel so strongly repelled by your comment that I can understand the impulse to click the arrow and try to forget what you've written.

> Apple wants parents to police their iPads by hand instead.

I don't think Apple takes a strong position on parenting at all -- but if they did, and it was the position you describe, I would be emphatically in agreement with them. I wouldn't use the word "police" though.

I don't think Apple takes a strong position on parenting at all

Apple's main theme is the 'curated experience'.

This is a great comment - while many people are complaining about Apple adding too many features and introducing bugs, you are asking for more features.

This is exactly the dilemma Apple faces and is the reason that simplistic answers like 'stop releasing every year' are unhelpful.

The real interesting question is - is there a way for Apple to both maintain the pace of development and improve quality simultaneously.

That seems to be a challenge worthy of the most valuable company in the world.

I would like to see a feature freeze for one cycle if that means needed refactoring and annoyances can be addressed instead.

What makes you think it would? Refactoring is generally a precursor to new features being added. If you don't know what is to be added then refactoring is usually counterproductive.

I agree that certain teams might need to slow down and reduce the scope of what they do in a cycle - but I think it would be better for them to calibrate to a sustainable scope rather than skipping a cycle altogether.

See Guided Access.

It really is astonishing how lacking the Parental Controls are on iOS.

To me it sound more like parents are lacking parental control.

It's like they're afraid of confronting their own children.

I am not astonished iOS lacks parental controls but admit they would be useful.

Establishing rules for my toddler is relatively easy when in the context of a physical object (e.g. don't touch the TV, you can only read books or do puzzles during quiet time).

The same toddler has a MUCH harder time recognizing the distinction when dealing with different apps on a single physical device. If I leave two devices in a room and tell him not to touch one, I'll get compliance. If I give him access to a device but tell he that he can't watch movies, compliance drops and he exhibits much less awareness that he broke a rule.

I don't fault apple at all for the lack of parental controls, but do see a use if they were included.

On 8.1.x?

They're not much better in OSX. Even something as simple as disabling printing is totally out of Parental Controls.

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