Kids & Family
Kids' screen time, household rules, and parents' own distracted phone use. Articles on what actually works when rules stop being followed.
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When Household Phone Rules Stop Being Followed — What to Try Before Taking the Phone
Japanese national data shows family phone rules thinning out as kids get older, and parents and children disagreeing about whether rules exist at all. A four-step way to rebuild a rule that survives.
Passing a Phone Down to a Younger Child — What to Erase Before You Hand Over an iPhone
A hand-me-down iPhone still carries the previous owner's account. Here is the order Apple recommends for erasing it, how to switch the device to a Child Account, why the birthday you enter changes the defaults, and when to add a SIM.
Phone Rules for Siblings in Different Grades — What to Align and What to Split
One rule set rarely fits two children a few years apart. Here is how to align the shared situations, split the amount and the content, answer "but my brother gets to", and avoid the hand-me-down device that freezes settings for the whole family.
Three Things to Settle Before Your Child's First Phone — Timing, Device, First Settings
In Japan, 56% of families hand over a first phone during elementary school. Using survey data from 300 parents, here are the three decisions worth making before the phone changes hands: when, which device, and which settings.
Keep Phones Off the Dinner Table — Without Policing Each Other
Meals are the single most common moment for distracted phone use: 70.0% in one survey of working adults in Japan. Here is why asking people to stop never holds, and how to set up a parking spot, exceptions and one shared family rule instead.
Google Family Link: What It Can and Can't Do
A walkthrough of Family Link using Google's own setting names: daily limits, per-app limits, and schedules — plus the four places the built-in controls don't reach.
Cutting Down Your Own Phone Use as a Parent — Pick Three Windows, Not the Whole Day
Surveys of parents in Japan find that over 40% feel guilty about using their phone in front of their children. Rather than resolving to never look, this walks through narrowing it to three windows and building a setup where your hands are actually free.
How to Set Up Screen Time Through Family Sharing — From Your Own iPhone
A step-by-step guide to managing a child's Screen Time from the parent's iPhone, using Apple's current feature names: Screen Time Schedule, Time Allowances, Always Allowed, and what to do if you forget the passcode.