Can another divorced parent override my parental controls?

I have 50/50 custody. I purchased an iPhone for my 8yo daughter and put screentime controls on it with a passcode. I also added her as a child in my family sharing. My ex wants to override those controls which is against my wishes. Is it possible for him to update or override my controls and passcode?

Posted on Sep 25, 2022 05:40 PM

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Posted on Sep 25, 2022 08:51 PM

I too am not intimately versed in the nuances of Parental Controls …


… but I DO know that a child can ONLY be a member of one family (YOURS).


And even if the “ex” family asks her to enter her credentials as is required to be “invited” into a new family … she still will NOT move w/o YOUR explicit approval of the invitation.


Suggest a thorough review of the following, and “locking down” the phone as far as you think is necessary. Certainly restricting the ability of “the child” to change her AppleID and Password should be a “minimum” starting point.


A strong case could be made that an 8-yo shouldn’t even know her AppleID password at all.


Use parental controls on your child's iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support


Move a child to another group using Family Sharing – Apple Support (AU)



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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 25, 2022 08:51 PM in response to Constantine1925

I too am not intimately versed in the nuances of Parental Controls …


… but I DO know that a child can ONLY be a member of one family (YOURS).


And even if the “ex” family asks her to enter her credentials as is required to be “invited” into a new family … she still will NOT move w/o YOUR explicit approval of the invitation.


Suggest a thorough review of the following, and “locking down” the phone as far as you think is necessary. Certainly restricting the ability of “the child” to change her AppleID and Password should be a “minimum” starting point.


A strong case could be made that an 8-yo shouldn’t even know her AppleID password at all.


Use parental controls on your child's iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support


Move a child to another group using Family Sharing – Apple Support (AU)



Sep 25, 2022 08:24 PM in response to Constantine1925

Oddly I can find pretty much nothing about multi-parent Screen Time use. Apart from this discussion with a Community Specialist response indirectly implying such exists I can't find anything at all in 20 minutes of web searching. All I can find is mention of multiple approvers in Ask To Buy which is just one component of everything that could go into the category of parental controls.


I don't use Screen Time so I don't know its interface. However, as far as I can tell, apart from Ask To Buy, there isn't multi-parent control. If I am wrong and there is then Apple certainly doesn't mention anything about one parent having priority over another's decisions.


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Can another divorced parent override my parental controls?

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