Too Much Screen Time? New Phone Controls For You And Kids

Apple and Google want to help you spend less time on their phones — really. Like that time you checked Facebook at 3 a.m. Stats don’t lie.

Their new tools for managing screen time will let you see how often you picked up the phone after bedtime or how long you’re on Instagram at work (shame on you). Apple’s tools also let you control how long your kids spend on their devices, if you’re concerned that screens are taking time away from sleep, homework or exercise.

Apple’s tools launch Tuesday as part of the free iOS 12 software update for iPhones, iPads and the iPod Touch. Google’s controls are being tested on its Pixel-branded Android phones.

Here’s how the controls work.

FOR THE KIDS

Apple’s new controls for kids let you manage their time on their own devices, such as an iPad or a hand-me-down iPhone. Once you’ve got them set up, you can use your iPhone to check when your children are on their devices and what apps or websites they’re using. You can restrict particular classes of apps and even establish a quiet period when most apps shut down.

That latter “Downtime” feature is promising, though it has a few shortcomings. For one thing, it only lets you choose a single block of time during the day, so if you’re blocking late-night hours, you can’t set a separate downtime for school hours. Plus, your selection applies seven days a week; you can’t set different hours for weekends unless you want to manually change the settings every Friday and Monday.