Gadgetory

while they can be great entertainment or educational tools for children handing over your iPad to a kid opens up a world of potential problems such as a broken tablet accidental in-app purchases or inappropriate content fortunately kid proofing your iPad is a quick and straightforward process here's how to do it before ever considering putting your iPad in the hands of a child you should first put it in a protective case even a thin and stylish case can help protecting in small bumps and drops but if a kid will be handling your iPad regularly you may want to purchase a more rugged shockproof case Apple has built parental controls directly into iOS to turn on restrictions go to Settings General restrictions and hit enable restrictions into a four digit PIN different from the pin you use to unlock your iPad and confirm it restrictions are divided into five categories allow allowed content privacy allowed changes and Game Center in the allow section you can restrict access to Safari camera Siri FaceTime airdrop iTunes Store Apple music Kinect and news it's up to you to determine what your kid should be allowed to use but the biggest feature here is the option to restrict the ability to install or delete apps and make in-app purchases in the allowed content section you can filter explicit content from music and news or choose which ratings are appropriate for movies in TV you could also disable explicit language and web searches from Siri filter apps by age limit in the App Store and limit adult content from Safari of course Safari will be the toughest app to restrict without completely disabling it so Apple has also included the ability to blacklist and or whitelist specific websites privacy allows you to restrict communication and other connectivity options of the iPad you can disable location services and restrict the ability to make changes or which apps have access to contacts calendars reminders photos share my location Bluetooth microphone speech recognition Twitter Facebook and media library this for example can prevent any new apps from gaining access to your Twitter account or calendar under allow changes you choose what your child can modify on the device you can restrict the ability to add move or modify mail calendar and contact accounts or change which apps can use background app refresh for younger ears the volume limit option is useful to make sure your child won't listen to audio louder than they should last but not least are the game Center options here you can easily disable multiplayer games the ability to add friends and screen recording games are one of the biggest reasons kids want an iPad and these settings go a little further than the regular privacy settings to make sure your kids are safe when gaming and lastly you may want to keep in mind that if you restrict your kit from downloading their own apps you will have to do it for them the App Store has an entire section dedicated to kid-friendly and parent approved apps age-appropriate apps are separated into three different sections kids ages 5 and under kids ages 6 to 8 and kids ages 9 to 11 here you will find apps such as YouTube kids PBS Kids and Nick jr. as well as a healthy selection of educational apps and games for more tips and tricks another how-to is be sure to check out cnet.com forward slash how to