How kids get around Screen Time and how to stop it

Usually there is no grand plan behind it. The limit ends in the middle of a game, the class group chat is busy, or a rule feels too strict. Instructions circulate in videos and among friends. If you know the usual routes, you can close most gaps before they become an issue. And if your child still finds a way, that is more a reason to talk about the rule than a breach of trust.

The simplest route: your child knows the Screen Time passcode, because they watched you type it or because it is the same as your unlock code. According to Apple, with Family Sharing a parent sets the passcode on their own device, not on the child's. From iOS 27 that is under Settings > Family > your child's name > Passcode & Management > Change Screen Time Passcode. Pick a code you don't use anywhere else.

Apple also recommends setting up Screen Time passcode recovery. A forgotten passcode can then be reset with the email address and password of the Apple Account used to set it up. So keep that password away from your child. The menu names in this guide are those of iOS 27; older versions use some different names.

When an app isn't allowed right now, kids look for the same content elsewhere: videos in the browser instead of the app, links in a messenger that is always allowed, or a browser built into another app. For TikTok that is the website tiktok.com. Blocking TikTok on your child's iPhone shows how to block the app and the website together, and blocking YouTube on your child's iPhone does the same for YouTube and its Shorts. Two settings help:

• Filter websites: under Apps & Websites > Restrictions you decide which websites your child can open. With Ask to Browse, they have to request new websites from you. According to Apple, from iOS 27 this works in Safari and other supported browsers, and it is on by default for children under 13. You can allow websites your child needs for school ahead of time.
• Check Always Allowed: these apps stay usable even when the time for other apps has run out. According to Apple, FaceTime, Maps, Phone and Messages are on the list by default. Only add what your child really needs at any time.

Some kids delete an app and reinstall it, install a similar app that isn't restricted yet, or change settings on their iPhone. According to Apple, under Apps & Websites > Restrictions you decide whether your child can install or delete apps. With Ask to Buy, they have to request new apps from you; it is on by default for children under 13.

Under Content & Privacy Restrictions > Allow Changes to Settings you block what your child shouldn't change on their own, such as Accounts, Face ID & Passcode or Location Services.

A well-known trick is changing the date or time by hand so that a schedule ends early. Apple doesn't document whether that still works in the current version of iOS. But Apple says that Set Automatically under General > Date & Time may be dimmed when the device has a Screen Time passcode. Check on your child's iPhone: if the switch is on and grey, the clock can't be changed there.

Searching for Screen Time bypasses for a specific iOS version turns up instructions that rely on bugs in that version. Which of them work right now is not documented. So install updates on your child's iPhone promptly. According to Apple, you can only use the reworked parental controls of iOS 27 once every device in your Family Sharing group is updated to version 27.

No setting on your child's iPhone helps against an old phone in a drawer, a sibling's tablet or a friend's phone. Only agreements help here: where do old devices stay, and do your rules apply to them too?

Stay calm and ask why. A workaround often shows where a rule doesn't fit daily life: the limit ends in the middle of an online game with friends, or the schedule doesn't fit a day with sports practice. Change the rule if it is unfair, and close the gap if it is fair. According to Apple, your child can also ask for more time directly, and you approve it in Messages for 15 minutes, an hour or all day. A child who can ask officially has less reason to cheat. Whatever you agree on, you can write down in a family media agreement.

TaskBlue uses the same Screen Time technology from Apple, so the settings above apply here too. During focus, TaskBlue makes the chosen apps invisible: they disappear from the home screen entirely, on a schedule, at places like school or by hand. The BlueTag is a small key ring that comes with TaskBlue and stays with the parents. A scan with the BlueTag brings the apps back early, and so does your parent PIN. For emergencies there is an emergency exit that works three times in total. A changed clock doesn't end focus early, because TaskBlue measures the end against its server's time, not the iPhone's clock.

TaskBlue isn't airtight either: removing TaskBlue's Screen Time access in Settings or deleting the app ends focus. You can prevent deleting with the restrictions above. TaskBlue is only available for the iPhone. The comparison shows how it differs from Screen Time.