How to Have a Safe iPod Touch and a Happy Kid
The number one thing that my 10-year-old son wanted for his birthday this year was an iPod Touch. My husband and I haven’t allowed him a cell phone just yet, and won’t for quite a while, so we figured this would be a good way to see how responsible he’d be with the technology.
We also wanted him to understand that there were rules he had to follow and consequences if he didn’t. These rules were clearly spelled out to him, so we went ahead and bought him one. But prior to putting it in his hands, I wanted to make sure that I installed and set up all of the necessary safety features that would allow him to have a safe, but fun experience.
Though I’ve posted guides on how to set the parental controls on an iPhone—and granted most of the steps are the same with the Touch—I wanted to take a more in-depth approach as I’ve had several parents request the same walkthrough for their child’s iPod Touch.
I have to say, I’ve always been impressed with how easy Apple has made it for parents to set the safety features; however, the one thing that’s always worried me is the App Store. After digging through it a bit, I found that some of the top selling (and free, mind you) apps were adult oriented. These apps didn’t consist of porn, per se, but they were promiscuous enough for me to throw up a red flag and wonder how they got in the App Store to begin with!
Another one of my main concerns is YouTube—both the app and on Safari. I didn’t want to deprive my son entirely of having Internet access on his Touch, but I wanted to make sure that there was a content filter in place and that I could enable YouTube’s Safety Mode through the Safari App. All of that said, here’s a step-by-step guide to help you with the set up:
Just about everything safety related is managed from the Settings App. Tap it and select the menu called “General”.
From the General menu, scroll down to the option called “Restrictions”. When you click this you’ll be asked for a password. Create one, don’t share it, and don’t forget it.
Now you’ll be at the Restrictions page. This is essentially your Parental Safety Controls Dashboard. Here you can do several things, including:
- Remove/restore certain apps from the device.
- Set restrictions for the App Store.
- Set content restrictions for videos and music.
The first thing I did was switch Location to “off”. No one needs to know where your child is in real life! Learn more about geotagging on mobile devices, here.
The next thing I did was turn off the YouTube app since there’s no way to set a filter there and I would have to rely on YouTube proper via Safari. And finally, I turned off the ability for my son to install apps without my permission. Turning this off removes the App Store button from the Touch entirely. In my opinion the App Store is still a little too much of a free market, and because of this, there are far too many inappropriate apps available to children.
From there I went ahead and set the content restrictions for movies, TV shows and music.
Note that setting the Explicit setting to OFF makes it so any explicit songs that your child may already have on their iPod become unavailable. It also disables all explicit purchases in the iTunes Store.
There’s also the option to set the age restrictions for downloading apps from the App Store, but I found this to be somewhat useless as it still allows your child to see the adult apps and read the description. They are only prevented from downloading it to their iPod.
The last thing I did was go to the Safari app and set up YouTube Safety Mode.To do this, just go to Youtube.com. You’ll automatically be presented with the mobile version of the site, so just scroll all the way down to the bottom and select the link called “Desktop”. This will change the page to the web version of the site. From here just follow these directions to set up and lock YouTube safety mode. This will prevent your child from coming across any risky videos.
I also found that the Safari app doesn’t have a content filter built into it, which makes it just as open-ended as any other browser. I recommend installing AVG’s free Family Safety browser. You can download it here. This is a great, safe alternative as it’s preconfigured to block adult-oriented sites. And if you want to add to the “block list”, you can.
Finally, I loaded a bunch of music, games and even a few episodes from one of his favorite shows: Drake and Josh. It was so nice to give him something and show him all the things he could do, versus give him a gift and say “here’s what you can’t do!”
He pronounced his 10th Birthday, “The best birthday I’ve ever had. Thank you.” Now….I don’t have to worry and neither should you.
More resources:
iPhone Parental Controls Guide
Category: Recommended Products, Safety, Tutorials
Mary Kay is a nationally-recognized Internet safety expert, and the founder of 
I did all this to my sons Itouch but then found out if he plugs it in and does a “restore” it takes off all the restrictions I put on. Is there someway to make sure this does not happen, or was there something I missed?
My almost 10-year-old daughter also wants an iPod touch for her upcoming birthday (this is a happy compromise, since I, too, am at least a couple of years away from allowing a cell phone), but I’ve become increasingly concerned about allowing her unrestricted access to “cyberland.” I own an iPhone myself, so I was aware of the restriction settings, but it’s nice to be walked through the process step by step and learn a little more about each feature. I was thrilled to learn about the AVG filter and You Tube safety mode — I had no idea such things existed! Anyway, I can’t thank you enough. I can now go ahead and make my little girl’s day without worrying that I’ve put her innocence at risk.
i really want to give my kid an ipod touch but i don’t want her to use the wireless, so she said ok bu then i said why use it when you throw away most of the apps + its quite xpensiev if you can’t use mostly… everything. how do i get it for a cheaper price???? help!
Very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you for the note, proud Papa! Merry Christmas.
And when your child wants to social network I’d love to have them check out Yoursphere.com. It’s social networking with the same love, attention, oversight and safety mechanisms you’re utilizing on their new iPod touch.
Mary Kay
Mary Kay, You are a Blessing Thank You so much for providing this information!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just bought an IPOD Touch for my 11 year old girl for Christmas, It is 3:30am a few hours away from her opening her ipod.. Many Thanks for helping to keep our children safe. MERRY CHRISTMAS
Fantastic! You’ve made my day. So glad we were able to help.
Best,
Mary Kay
great info thanks
Proud Papa
Oh man! Thanks! My wife and I just got an iTouch for our oldest daughter for Christmas and we haven’t set it up yet! This is going to be done BEFORE wrapping! thanks again!
Done…Thank you!!
Hi Gregg:
Thank you for sharing. Very soon you’ll learn where parents can find out about family friend apps. If you subscribe to our news feed, you’ll soon be alerted.
Best.
Mary Kay
Great article! I like the Parental Controls that Apple has implemented, however it seems that application developers can include a basic Safari browser within their application. Unfortunately, as far as I can see the app’s version of Safari is not impacted by the iPod’s Parental Control settings. As an example, the NASA app has a built-in Twitter feed, clicking on a link to a YouTube video in the Twitter feed opens YouTube in the NASA built-in Safari browser. From there, you are able to search anything (and I do mean anything) as this version seems to have SafeSearch disabled. I’ve contacted NASA and their response was that they are going to “try to implement basic parental controls” in the next major release. The NASA app is rated 4+ and there’s nothing in the description that says anything about YouTube access. Is there any way to find out if an application is “family friendly”?
Thank you for posting about this! I bought a Touch a few days ago for my 10 yr old for Christmas, it was the only present she wanted (and I couldn’t resist the gift card offer), but was second-guessing myself and going to return it due to content safety concerns… very glad I googled first! Thanks again
Hi Debbie,
Glad you found the article so useful! When it comes to keeping an eye on your child’s texting habits, I can recommend two solutions, both of which I’ve written about:
11 Mobile Parental Controls from AT&T, Verizon, Sprint & T-Mobile
http://bit.ly/u6LuM3
An Easy Way to Introduce and Teach Your Children Responsible Texting
http://bit.ly/v0pbad
Wow, love this link to you that I am so happy to have found! It is like ITouch Safety Controls for Dummies
I was also curious if you had any resources you could recommend when it comes to exercising parental control over the texting app..my 12 yr. old uses this frequently; she & I have a deal that I can peruse her messages at any time & so far she has toed the line. Granted, I suppose she could delete any inappropriate texts before I see them so my main question is…do you know of a way to view her texting activity remotely?
Please….don’t feel stupid and naive! NONE of us were properly educated. The good news is now is our chance.
Please share your knowledge and TOGETHER we can make a difference.
Thank you for writing to me.
Best.
Mary Kay
Thank you for this information. My ten year old encounter some adult information and was distraught. I didn’t even think about securing her ipod and now feel like a terrible mother — stupid and naive.
I have heard that the iwonder app is free to download but requires a $30 fee to activate. Is that true?
Glad to be of help, Melissa.
My son’s friend next door allows him to get on his wireless network when I have no idea he is on it. This turned into a major aruguement as my 12 year old knew he was not suppossed to be on the neighbors internet, nor ours, without prior permission. He refused to give me the IPOD, running to the arms of his dad.. who doesn’t give a darn about if he is on the internet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Thanks to your post, I can secure the IPOD when I get it for some safety internet searching.
Thank you, Anne! Again, I’m so glad that you found this information useful.
I think you’d be interested in this blog post http://internet-safety.yoursphere.com/2010/12/online-safety-tips-for-your-kids-holiday-gifts.html
I talk about a few concerns with the YouTube app on the iPod Touch. And if you’re as cautious as I am when it comes to these devices, then you’ll definitely find it interesting and useful. =)
Also, be sure to sign your son up for a free Yoursphere membership, here https://yoursphere.com/register/parent/form
We’ve made the site as age-appropriate as we’ve made the iPod Touch!
I am so grateful for this help. I took my sons itouch a way one year ago. I will implement these changes and re-gift it to him for Christmas this year.
Thank You! Thank You!!