I am trying to install some parental controls on my son’s iphone, and the service I’d like to use is Netsanity. Netsanity works by creating a profile and VPN, and it automatically turns the VPN back on whenever someone tries to turn it off.
However, my son has figured out that he can just create a new VPN and select that bogus VPN as the active one. That effectively shuts down all parental controls I have set up through Netsanity.
Does anyone know how I can prevent him from doing this? If there were just a way to restrict VPN settings using the iOS restrictions, this wouldn’t be an issue.
Amen re: making your son smarter with technology. If you really want to frustrate him, set up MDM or make it a “managed device” with Apple Configurator.
Isn’t it funny that most of the discussions we have are a way to circumvent censorship and snooping and that’s what you’re trying to enforce? Just a thought.
If your son is old enough to bypass your restrictions, he’s seen all the gore and porn already. And he appears smart enough to not fall for stupid shit.
Thanks for the input. It’s okay with me if he sees me as controlling–that’s my job. I think the answer I’m getting is there is no way to 100% lock the phone down and monitor content/usage. If that’s truly the case, he just won’t have a phone until he’s older. That’s not optimal, but phones for kids are a luxury, anyway.
My dad had controls set up to block me from accessing things like porn when I was younger. I don’t agree with it, and I still got around those things and hid what I could, but communication isn’t always a silver bullet either. Granted, the way my dad communicated to me that those things are wrong wasn’t very calm, but even if he had told me to avoid those things calmly (which he did on occasion), I wouldn’t care and would want to do those things anyways. There is a level of control which goes too far, but if the goal of OP is to stop his son from accessing something like porn, communication may or may not help.
Not really a fan of OP’s attitude about being controlling, but it’s their right to do it.
This sounds nice, as an aspirational goal, but parents know what we aspire to isn’t always realistic when faced with reality. I’ve raised more than one child, and all kids are different. Talking about issues, reaching an understanding, and being completely open isn’t always going to work. I’ve experienced it working, and I’ve experienced it not working. When you’re faced with a child determined to rebel or break the rules, it doesn’t matter how fair or understanding you are. Sometimes, to nurture and protect, you can talk about it and your child will listen and comply. Sometimes, he/she won’t, and at that point, you either step up the control and oversight, or you fail to parent.
So, let me ask: What do you propose when you talk to your child about something important regarding phone usage (e.g., “don’t use Omegle to talk to random strangers online”), you outline your concerns and the danger, your child agrees to not do that, and then your child still continues to do it? Or, worse still, tells you the rule is stupid and says he will do what he wants and you can’t stop him?
Do you just talk more? Or do you find a way to enforce the rules? Or do you just give up and hope for the best, despite knowing that access to these types of content/interaction cause your child to be more surly, more depressed, more distant, and more vulnerable?
Option 3 clearly isn’t an option, and option 1 has already proven ineffective. So, I choose option 2. What would you choose?
Based on OP’s comments I’m not surprised if they are taking that route. I guess due to my own upbringing I understand the problem in a similar way to OP, because my dad never really wanted to explain things to me, just prevent me from using them. I agree it would be better to communicate about those things, not simply say “don’t do this” and put in controls. However I can understand where the OP may be coming from even though I don’t agree with their methods.