Re:How Apple's Screen Time is outsmarted by kids, frustratin...
by mindgam3 on Tuesday October 15, 2019 @06:45PM
(#21264830)
I mean, yeah, like anything there are a million weird edge cases that would take time to code around if you needed 100% coverage. But changing system time and trying to view a video in the core messaging app on the phone, which is marketed as being able to handle video, does not seem to qualify is next level hacking. These are obvious use cases.
I would argue that Apple is deliberately not fixing these holes because they prefer having people hooked on their devices. I'm not arguing that this is a good or bad thing, merely that higher engagement is obviously good for business.
Apple seems to have found the balance it wants with its current solution - paying lip service to the vocal shareholders, while allowing its customers to easily work around the restrictions.
There’s a fairly complex interaction between Screen Time (settings controlling how often various features can be used), Down Time (settings controlling when various features can be used), Restrictions (settings controlling which settings the user of the device can change), various convenience features that pierce holes in that (ability to make photographs/send messages from the home screen, for example), and various cross-app capabilities (it wouldn’t surprise me if iBooks could be made to play videos inside e-books, for example) that, IMO, make it non-trivial to implement this in a way that makes it work perfectly as Parental Controls without leading to “but why doesn’t this work? I told the phone that application X was permitted” surprises.
If I enabled Screen Time for myself, the best answer might be ‘yes’. If I enabled it for my kid, it might be ‘no’.