Set up Screen Time for your child

Use Screen Time to gain insight into the time your kids spend on their devices. You can receive weekly activity reports, set app allowances, and schedule device downtime to help your child find the right screen time balance.

The activity report screen in Screen Time. The top of the screen shows buttons for Week and Day. Week is selected. In the middle of the screen is a chart that shows how much time was spent using games, entertainment, and social networking for each day of the week. Below the chart is a weekly total.

Find out what’s happening

With Screen Time, you can access real-time and weekly activity reports that detail how your child uses iPod touch. You can see how much time is spent using certain apps, when those apps are used, how often your child picks up iPod touch during the day, and more.

The Choose Apps screen in Screen Time with a list of app categories. The categories, listed from top to bottom, are: All Apps & Categories, Social, Games, Entertainment, Creativity, Productivity & Finance, Education, Information & Reading, and Health & Fitness. To the right of each category is an arrow to select the category and set a time limit. Checkmarks to the left of a category indicate that a limit is set for that category.

Set app and communication limits

Based on your child’s activity report, you can set daily time limits for specific apps or app categories like games or social media. Your child receives a notification when their allotted time is almost up. When they run out of time and can no longer use an app or website, they can ask you to approve more time. You can also block incoming and outgoing communication on your child’s device—including phone calls, FaceTime calls, and messages.

The Content Restrictions screen in Screen Time. The setting options are listed from top to bottom on the screen and show that the ratings for Music, Podcasts, News, & Workouts are set to clean, Music Videos and Music Profiles are set to On, Movies is set to PG, TV Shows is set to TV-G, Books is set to Clean, Apps is set to 12+, and App Clips is set to Allow.

Block inappropriate content

Adjust the content and privacy restrictions in Screen Time to limit what your child can view and download on iPod touch. You can change the settings to ensure content is age appropriate, allow or disable in-app purchases, and more.

The iPod touch Lock Screen showing a downtime notification that screen time is limited until 4:30 p.m.

Help them unplug

Schedule downtime to help your child take a break from their device to focus on homework or ease into bedtime. You can customize downtime for each day of the week depending on your child’s schedule.

A setup screen of Screen Time showing the option to select This is My iPod touch or This is My Child’s iPod touch.

Set up from your device—or theirs

To manage your child’s Screen Time from your device, set up a Family Sharing account in Settings > [your name] > Set Up Family Sharing, then add your child to it. Open Screen Time on your device, then tap your child’s name.

You can also manage your child’s Screen Time settings from their iPod touch by going to Settings > Screen Time, then tapping “This is My Child’s iPod touch.”

Want to learn more about the Screen Time features that you can use to customize iPod touch for your child? Check out Set up Screen Time for a family member on iPod touch.

Helpful?

iPod touch User Guide