PARENTS have been warned of an Apple bug that renders their screen time limits for children useless.
The bug has hit the tech giant’s Downtime feature which lets parents set hours for when kids can’t use their devices.
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It was introduced in 2018, with the idea to give parents more control over the kids’ tech activity and app usage, and shuts down the device when the timer is up.
But any changes to the feature, such as scheduled times or passcodes, fail to save properly.
Instead, they automatically reset “two to three times a week”, according to one affected parent.
It means that if the device is password protected after a certain time, parents will have to reset it several times a week.
It’s thought that kids have not been totally honest about when this is needed, and that they have been sneakily using this loop hole for months.
The bug essentially gives them free rein of their iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices, leaving parents none the wiser – until recently.
Around 2,300 people on an Apple discussion page on the subject said they experienced the same bug.
Apple was supposed to fix the bug in its iOS 16.5 update in May.
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However, the Wall Street Journal discovered that the problem has persisted and crawled into more recent iOS released and even into the iOS 17 beta.
In a statement to the Journal, Apple said it was aware of the situation and was working on a patch.
“We are aware that some users may be experiencing an issue where Screen Time settings are unexpectedly reset,” a spokesperson said.
“We take these reports very seriously and we have been, and will continue, making updates to improve the situation.”
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