Thinking of purchasing for my 8-year-old

[Yazzy]

Greetings, all! My husband and I want to purchase an iPad 2 for our 8-year-old son to use mostly for educational purposes (and a few games); however, we are concerned with him having direct access to the internet.

Are there safeguard mechanisms that come standard with the iPad, such as blocking internet access (once apps have been installed by us), blocking of purchases, parental controls, etc?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

~Yazzy

 

[Midranger4]

Greetings, all! My husband and I want to purchase an iPad 2 for our 8-year-old son to use mostly for educational purposes (and a few games); however, we are concerned with him having direct access to the internet.

Are there safeguard mechanisms that come standard with the iPad, such as blocking internet access (once apps have been installed by us), blocking of purchases, parental controls, etc?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

~Yazzy

Yes you can restrict access to the internet but it is all or nothing, not limited access.

Yes you can restrict ability to install or delete any application.

Yes you can restrict ability to make in app purchases.

For apps and content you can set ratings parameters if you don't want to refuse access altogether.

In your case though with an eight year old I would install what you want him/her to have on the iPad then enable restriction across the board essentially limiting them to the installed apps only.

 

[OzLing]

I got one for my 9 year old for school.

Locked it down such that apps install and removal is blocked, and content is restricted according to ratings as well. Also removed the credit card from iTunes account.

After 3 weeks, she decided that this was too restrictive.

She requested for an account password reset, logged into my email account, changed the password, deleted the email from Apple, emptied the trash, and set the iPad to what she considers she needed. She also downloaded some free games and was happy as they come. She got caught when she could not change the iTunes password back.

Kids these days are tech savvy, and any restrictions you impose can be circumvented. The best you can hope is you have educated them well enough, and they can use some common sense to go along with their capabilities to cause mischief.

 

[zphone]

There is filtering software for computers but with an ipad you will need something more basic
Netgear routers have the ability to block either websites you specify or web pages with certain keywords you enter. I am sure there are others.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/245720-how-to-child-proof-internet-sites/

 

[Midranger4]

I got one for my 9 year old for school.

Locked it down such that apps install and removal is blocked, and content is restricted according to ratings as well. Also removed the credit card from iTunes account.

After 3 weeks, she decided that this was too restrictive.

She requested for an account password reset, logged into my email account, changed the password, deleted the email from Apple, emptied the trash, and set the iPad to what she considers she needed. She also downloaded some free games and was happy as they come. She got caught when she could not change the iTunes password back.

Kids these days are tech savvy, and any restrictions you impose can be circumvented. The best you can hope is you have educated them well enough, and they can use some common sense to go along with their capabilities to cause mischief.

While unfortunate I believe your harm to be self inflicted. I don't agree that security was circumvented in your case nor do I concede iPad security flawed or easily bypassed. Your failure to keep your email account secure rendered iPad security vulnerable. I don't think it fair to blame iOS for user error and give the OP cause to believe security as designed on the iPad is of no real purpose or value.

I agree trust and education are both noble intentions....but we are talking about children whose very nature does not lend itself to unsupervised use of any device with access to the Internet.