These days, most kids have access to technology. However, whilst it’s not uncommon for a child to have an iPhone, it might worry some parents, who fear that their children could access things they shouldn’t, download apps that will cost money, or spend too much time on their phones.
Apple is aware of parents’ worries, so they allow parents to add “Parental Controls” to their children’s iPhones. This will restrict children from using many features or apps on iPhone. What if you want to remove the parental controls? Keep reading.
Parental Controls and Screen Time
How do parental controls work? They are implemented through “Screen Time” in the Settings app.
Screen time is a feature that lets parents set time limits on how long their child should spend on each app, for example, if parents decide their child spends too much time on YouTube.
Parental Controls allow parents to block the iPhone from accessing things that parents don’t want their child exposed to, for example, pornography or music with swearwords.
But what happens when you don’t want these restrictions on your phone? Here is how to disable parental controls on your iPhone.
How to Remove Parental Controls on iPhone without Passcode
If you want to turn off parental controls, it’s easier if you know the Screen Time Passcode.
However, if you don’t, you can still disable it.
Use screen time passcode recovery feature
If you want to disable Screen Time without a passcode, you will need to know the Apple ID and Password that is used to set up screen time passcode recovery.
Please note that the Apple ID could be the Apple ID you are using on this iPhone or a different Apple ID. If you choose “This is My iPhone” when you set up the screen time, you can use the same Apple ID on your iPhone to recover the screen time passcode. If you choose “This is My Child’s iPhone”, you will be asked to enter the Apple ID that is different from the one on this iPhone.
If you have access to the Apple ID with its password that is used to recover the screen time passcode, here is how to do it.
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone, and select “Screen Time“.
- Scroll down and select “Change Screen Time Passcode“.
- Then you will see 2 options “Change Screen Time Passcode” and “Turn Off Screen Time Passcode“. Tap “Change Screen Time Passcode“.
- Now you will be asked to enter the old screen time passcode. Obviously, you are not able to do that., so select “Forgot Passcode“.
- Enter the Apple ID and Password. Please note that it needs to be the same ID used when the passcode was created.
- Enter a new passcode. You may need to enter it again to confirm.
Now you’ve recovered your password for the Screen Time. You can check this guide to disable parental controls on your iPhone.
Use a tool to remove parental controls
But, suppose you’ve forgotten or you don’t know the Apple ID and password for your iPhone. In that case, you will need to use external software. There are many different choices online. Just choose the one you like. Here we recommend Tenorshare 4uKey.
- Download Tenorshare 4uKey onto your computer, and then, open the program.
- Connect your iPhone to your computer with a cable.
- If your iPhone asks if you want to trust this computer, select “Trust”.
- On Tenorshare 4uKey, click Remove Screen Time Passcode on the Home page.
- Select “Start Remove”.
- On your iPhone, disable “Find My iPhone”. Go to Settings > Your Name > Find My > Find My iPhone. Then disable Find My iPhone. You will be asked to enter the password for your Apple ID.
- Wait for Tenorshare 4uKey to remove the Screen Time Passcode. You can see how far along it is by looking at the blue progress bar.
Remove parental controls by restoring iPhone
If you wish to remove all parental controls on your iPhone and the above 2 methods don’t fit you, you can restore your iPhone to factory settings. This will mean erasing all your data and practically making your iPhone the same as when it was brand new.
If you choose this option, we would recommend creating a backup.
For this method, you will need iTunes installed on your computer.
- Plug your iPhone into your computer with a USB cable.
- Open iTunes.
- Select the little Phone Icon.
- On the next interface, Select “Restore iPhone“.
- Wait for iTunes to finish the process.
How to Remove Parental Controls on iPhone with the Passcode
Whether you’ve always known the Screen Time Passcode or followed the first solution above to change it, you may wish to disable the parental controls. Here is how to do it.
- Go back to the “Settings” app.
- Select “Screen Time” again.
- Scroll to the bottom. In red, you should see “Turn Off Screen Time“. Click this!
- Then you can enter your passcode to disable the parental controls.
But, what do you do if you want to disable just some of the parental controls? For example, if your child uses this iPhone, and you want to give them some freedom, but not too much. Check the next part.
How to turn off parts of the parental controls
There are many specific options of “controls”. You can choose to disable only some of the parental controls. On the interface of Screen Time, there are options like Downtime, App limits (time limits), Communication Limits (based on contacts), Always Allowed (apps), and Content & Privacy Restrictions.
If you allow your child to use some specific apps, select “Always Allowed”. Choose the apps, tap the plus icon beside the apps, and enter the screen time passcode to confirm that.
Under the option of “Content & Privacy Restrictions“, you can choose to enable various services on your iPhone.
For example, select “iTunes & App Store Purchases” and remove the limits if you want to allow your child to download apps from iTunes.
That’s all for this topic “how to remove parental controls on iPhone”. We hope this blog helps. Let us know if you have any other methods to do that by commenting below.
