Use Screen Time on your child’s iPhone or iPad to turn off location sharing via iMessage and Find My.
We’ll also guide you on how to restrict location access for third-party apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, and Snapchat to ensure your child’s location can’t be shared through these apps.
iOS has unassuming little switches in Messages and Find My that let friends and family see your current location or receive continually updated location updates as you move about with an iPhone in your pocket.
It’s a really great feature for power users, but could also be a privacy nightmare for parents. You don’t want your kids unknowingly sharing their location with a stalker and then walking around with a probe in their pocket, do you?
Responsible parents will weigh the pros and cons of location sharing and restrict the feature so that kids cannot share their location with a stranger, intentionally or not.
Restrict location sharing on your child’s iPhone or iPad
1) Open the Settings app on your child’s device and go to Screen Time. You can also follow these steps on your iPhone and select your child’s name if you use Family Sharing.
2) Tap Lock Screen Time Settings and set a passcode that’s different from the device passcode. If a passcode is already set, you won’t see this option; instead, it will read Change Screen Time Passcode.
3) Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions and enable it on the next screen. Then, tap Location Services.
4) From here, select the app whose location sharing you want to restrict. For instance, if your kid uses WhatsApp, select it from the list and set Allow Location Access to Never. Do this for all apps that you think can be used to intentionally or accidentally disclose your child’s location. This can include apps like Facebook Messenger, Find My, Telegram, and Messages.
5) Once you’re done, tap Don’t Allow Changes for Location Services from the top of the screen. Disallowing changes locks the current location-sharing settings. It will ensure your child can’t go back to Location Settings and permit these apps to access location.
Note: You can also entirely disable Location Services from this screen, but that would mean location access is also blocked for things like weather, Uber, etc. So, it’s best not to be so restrictive.
6) You’re all set. Location services for chat apps have been successfully blocked. Still, you can go back to the Content & Privacy Restrictions screen, tap Share My Location, and pick Don’t Allow to restrict location sharing from Find My and Messages.
Conveniently enough, disallowing changes grays out Find My in iOS Settings and Share My Location option in Find My, meaning your junior won’t be permitted to add new people to share their location with.
It’s also disallowed in Messages, and if your child goes to Location Services settings, everything here is grayed out and unchangeable because of Screen Time Restrictions. The location they send via Messages won’t be exact anymore.
Adjusting Location Services will be impossible without the Screen Time passcode. Make sure you don’t share this passcode with your child. As a bonus, locking down Location Services settings will prevent newly installed apps on this device from using its geographical location.
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