Apple Feedback Ticket: FB16804936
Background
We develop a parental control application called Adora Kids (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/adora-kids/id6443787669) that requires "Location Always" permission to function properly. Our app has Screen Time authorization and provides monitoring services for parents.
Issue
We are experiencing a recurring problem where child users receive the system notification "Adora accessed your location in the background" every few days. This frequently results in children disabling location permissions, which prevents our app from functioning as intended.
Current Approach and Limitations
We have explored using Content & Privacy Restrictions for Location Services as a potential solution, but have encountered two significant limitations:
-
These restrictions cannot be accessed programmatically via the ManagedSettings framework (unlike AppStoreSettings and other restrictions).
-
The current implementation is "all-or-nothing" - enabling location restrictions blocks permission changes for ALL apps on the device, preventing children from granting legitimate location access to other applications.
Questions
-
Is there a way to programmatically access and manage Content & Privacy Restrictions for Location Services through the ManagedSettings framework that we might have overlooked?
-
Are there any recommended approaches for apps with Screen Time authorization to prevent users from changing specific permissions (particularly location) while still allowing them to manage permissions for other apps?
-
Does Apple have plans to implement app-specific permission locking for apps with Screen Time authorization in future iOS releases?
-
Are there any alternative approaches or workarounds that other developers have successfully implemented for this use case?
Any guidance from the developer community or Apple engineers would be greatly appreciated. This is a critical functionality issue affecting the reliability of our parental control service.
Thank you in advance for your assistance.