How to stop your child deleting apps on iPhone

Apple's switch is Settings, Screen Time, Content & Privacy Restrictions, iTunes & App Store Purchases, Deleting Apps: Don't Allow. SimpleSentinel adds the part Apple lacks: a With my permission setting where the child asks, you say yes from your phone, and deleting opens for two minutes, then locks again by itself.

Deleting is half of it. The other half is reinstalling, which clears an app's limits; Ask to Buy (Apple) or Installing apps: With my permission (ours) makes a reinstall need your approval. One honest line: Apple does not tell any app which app was deleted, so the ask is the moment to talk.

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Apple's way, our way, and why children delete apps

Apple's way: all or nothing

Settings, Screen Time, Content & Privacy Restrictions, iTunes & App Store Purchases, Deleting Apps, Don't Allow. From then on the wiggle has no X on it. It is a good switch and it is free. Its limit is that it is all or nothing: when your child has a real reason to remove an app, you walk over, type the passcode, flip it, wait, and flip it back, and the one time you forget to flip it back is the one time it matters.

Our way: With my permission

Apple's switch for deleting apps is all or nothing. With SimpleSentinel your child asks and you decide. Set Deleting apps to With my permission. Your child taps Ask a parent on their phone and names what they want gone; the ask lands on your phone with a yes and a no; on yes, deleting opens on their phone for two minutes and then locks again on its own. You never type a passcode and nothing stays open by accident. Apple does not report which app was removed, so if that matters, ask them before you tap yes.

Reinstalling is the other half

A deleted app comes back from the App Store with its limits gone, because the limit was tied to the install. Apple's answer is Ask to Buy under Family Sharing: every download, free ones included, waits for your approval. Ours is Installing apps: With my permission, the same ask-and-decide door as deleting. Use one or both. A reinstall then needs your yes, and the app comes back under the rules you set, because SimpleSentinel's rules live on your phone and return on the child's next check-in.

Why children delete apps, and what we never read

Three reasons, in order: to reset a limit, to hide something before a phone check, and by accident. The first two are what the two-minute window is for; the third is why Don't Allow alone frustrates everyone. What SimpleSentinel never does is read the apps themselves: no messages, no photos, no browsing history. It decides whether deleting and installing need your yes, and tells you when the child asks. Phone calls keep working through all of it.

Pricing

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Regular Price

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  • Compare to A locked-down phone @ $1,000/yr per child.

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