Major Screen Time Bug

As a parent I was so excited to hear about Screen Time, so much so that I upgraded my sons phone to iOS Beta 2 when it came out.
As a parent I setup his access on my phone for his phone and set it so that he could not longer browse the web, watch YouTube etc after 10 PM at night. As before I would go in his room at night and he would be watching videos at 1 am.... (grr)
Anyways Screen Time was a blessing until the other night when I heard him up at 1 am and went into his room and there he was watching videos on his phone. For some reason Screen Time wasn't shutting of his app access at 10 PM like it was supposed to.
I asked my son how he was able to get around screentime and he told me... (and I consider this a big bug!)
When Screen Time kicks in and shuts his apps off, he goes into Settings > General > Date & Time and then turns off "Set Automatically" and then changes the time to a time which he is not restricted by Screen Time, which then unlocks all the apps again.
I thought that was smart of him to figure that out and I have not found a way to restrict him from changing his date and time settings.
Last night, again he was on his phone after bed time... and I caught him. He said he found an easier way to defeat Screen Time, and he did that by setting the Time to 24 Hour Time, for some reason Screen Time does not understand 24 hour time.
I hope this can be fixed by Apple, as if it can't it negates the entire reason for parents to have Screen Time.
Thanks,
Scott

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scottct1
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Interesting feedback, thanks - be sure to file using the feedback assistant or the bug reporter link below, adding your report # to your thread for reference, good luck.

Posted by
KMT
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I, too, was excited about Screentime for my two teenage daughters. I'm sure Screentime will continue to become more reliable as we progress through subsequent betas. As parents, we've resorted to keeping their phones in our room at night. We hope to not have to do this for much longer.

Posted by
gruversm
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Another bug I found is on a family account (but over 13 years old) The teen can go into screentime settings and just click turn off screentime and it does NOT ask for the current password before turning off screentime (and canceling all restrictions in place) (I think I reported the bug properly # 43592092)

Posted by
Mmlaz
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So you have a kid who is **** bent on using their phone, even after you have enabled screentime?

Yes, this was very smart of your child and I feel for your missing or graying hair in trying to always stay a step ahead of your kiddo and their more advanced technical knowledge, this day and age!


However, I offer you a solution now....just follow these EXACT steps...


Update their device iOS to 12.4.1


Turn off screentime


Power phone off, then back on


Set screentime back up


Go into content & privacy restrictions/location services and scroll to the bottom and click

on system services, turn the toggle off for setting time zone


Close settings (important step to close this out completely)




After these steps,

when you relaunch settings/general/date and time, you will find they can no

longer make changes other than toggle 24 hour clock on and off = problem

solved!

Posted by
Cherish33
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  • i know this thread of old and a bit dated but the title is so perfect I needed to comment here.

    there is indeed even a bigger glitch in screen time that I have noticed and there seems to be no way around this one.

    for any app that has continuous function - like a zoom call or Spotify playing music - if the call is started just before screen time kicks in, or music is playing on a long playlist and the music is started before screen time starts, it can go on forever

    —
    Daveb1969

  • Screen time seems to only block the SCREEN and limits any access to the controls but does NOTHING to actually limiting the programs. My son will start a zoom call s as t the five minute warning that screen time will activate and then talk for 2 hours after his limit has been reached. Or start playing music and sit for hours listening after screen time “blocks” the app. This is a massive hole in the system.

    —
    Daveb1969

  • I just learned from my son about a workaround to his screen time going off at 11pm.

    He told us he can turn his phone off / on, get 10 seconds of Snapchat time (or whatever app), then keep repeating all night.

    Angry all around - that this bug exists , that he needs it so bad that he goes thru this for a 10 second hit (he admitted to feeling bad about himself for doing this), and that these apps and games are so addictive and our kids are one big beta group.

    —
    Karendonna8
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Our kids screen time and swtttinfs keeps turning off. Once enabled, they request time. It seems to turn off daily and I’ve changed the password 50 times. They don’t know the password, I also updated all of the devices.

Posted by
imex99
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Hi there,

You might have better luck asking this question over in Apple Support Communities run by Apple Support.

Posted by
Fer_Apple
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Downtime / screentime is a software disaster. It doesn't work half the time and.my kids get around it so easily. The apple product.manager need to study UX from Google's screentime app. App limits don't set, settings don't update, and providing bonus time can't be done - you need to change the entire schedule each time (***!). Apple needs to put the A team on this as it ruins family time.

Posted by
claypotsny
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as a programmer, the screen time core logic should take under 3 weeks time and 1000 lines of codes. How come the screen time function, without new feature over last 8 years, getting more and more buggy.... is there any group lawsuit about it yet?

Posted by
lazyworm
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It's 2023....screen time is still broken and Apple has made it impossible for 3rd parties to make adequate alternatives to screen time. All in the name of privacy. This is a company that thinks your child should have unfiltered access to the world.

They have nearly 90% of market share among American teens. Their Messages and Facetime are lock-ins - they can't be accessed on non-Apple devices. They are now the Microsoft of the 90s but worse. That's why they won't prioritize fixes. I'm a programmer. This is simple stuff. There's no will to do it. My company has more visibility into what I do on their corporate laptop than I do of my own children.

Posted by
scott37
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And, where do I put in a complaint about this, or anything else that will amount to something, anyone? Thanks

Posted by
Rmmmm
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