Introduction
Rewards Kids provides an enhanced Apple Screen Time experience that works much better with kids than the built-in Screen Time features on Apple devices. Rewards Kids uses Apple's own Screen Time APIs, however, integrates them into the Rewards Kids user experience. This brings the following cool features:
- Quickly give a child one off extra time without modifying permanent daily schedules
- Exchange Rewards Kids' Rewards for extra Screen Time automatically
This guide explores these features in more detail and gives instructions on how you can set it up.
Rewards Kids works on top of Apple's own Screen Time API - this means that the child and parents must use their own Apple IDs and the parent/child must be part of the same Apple Family Sharing Group. Please see Apple's Family Sharing documentation for more information on how to set up a Apple Family.
Also, please note that Rewards Kids must be installed on both the parent and child device, and the child must have already logged into Rewards Kids on their device using a Rewards Kids Family Code.
Enabling Screen Time Management
Enable Screen Time Management for your child on the Parent Device
Rewards Kids Screen Time Management is a premium feature. Once you have a subscription, you can enable Rewards Kids Screen Time Management by tapping the Screen Time icon on any child's home page:
The Screen Time window will open. Screen Time management is switched off by default, therefore the first step is to toggle the "Manage Screen Time" button:
Once toggled, additional options will appear allowing you to configure your child's Screen Time limits:
Enable Screen Time Management on the Child's Device
Now that you have enabled Screen Time Management for your child's profile in Rewards Kids, the child will be prompted, on their device, to enable Screen Time Management the next time they open Rewards Kids.
After pressing "Yes", you will be prompted to authorize the Rewards Kids app to manage Screen Time on the child's device. This will require logging in with a parent Apple ID, from a parent in the same Apple Family Sharing group.
Native Apple Screen Time Setup
Rewards Kids works in concert with the built in Apple Screen time app. Therefore, although Rewards Kids let's you manage screen time apps and time allowances, some settings should be configured directly in the Apple Screen Time app - either on the child's device, or on the parent's device under Settings / Family / [Child] / Screen Time.
We recommend you set the following settings:
- Always Allowed - add apps that you do not want to restrict to the "Always Allowed" list. We suggest you always add "Rewards Kids" so that children can still claim points and request Screen Time extension rewards even if their time has expired. Additionally, any apps that are needed for homework, for example Google Classroom, etc, can be whitelisted here.
- Include Website Data - we usually suggest turning this on as this will allow website tracking to see which websites are used for what amount of time
- Downtime - if you wish to enforce downtime for periods of the day, eg after bedtime and before wake up, then set these too.
Remember, these settings should be set in the normal Apple Screen Time app that comes with your iOS device as they are not configurable within Rewards Kids.
We recommend NOT setting "App Limits" using the normal Apple Screen Time app and instead configuring these within Rewards Kids as described below. The iOS device will take the strictest of any policies defined in the native Apple Screen Time app as well as the Rewards Kids app therefore if you set App Limits in the default Apple Screen Time app they will restrict additionally to any restrictions made within Rewards Kids and will not be managed by Rewards Kids. This means that features such as "Extra Time Today" and providing Screen Time Rewards will not extend the time quotas as these will have been set outside of Rewards Kids.
Screen Time Management Configuration
Now you can configure the following options:
Extra Time Today Feature
"Extra Time Today" is a quick way of giving a one-off extra time to a child.
You can set the number of hours/minutes to grant additional time. This time is only valid for today and expires at midnight, therefore it's a great way of giving kids an extra 30 minutes to finish some homework or if they were just at the end of a video and needed 5 minutes more to complete it.
This is much easier than if you use the built in Apple Screen Time controls where extending time usually requires modifying the allowed time for a given day in the Screen Time schedule. This makes it difficult to remember to reset it back to the normally allowed time duration. Alternatively, with the built in Screen Time app, kids can ask for extra time when their time runs out, but (a) they can only request this when the time has already expired, and (b) it only applies on an app-by-app basis. Rewards Kids Screen Time management's "Extra Time Today" grants extra time regardless of which allowed app the child is using. This removes a lot of frustation for both children and adults!
A second advantage of Rewards Kids is that the "Extra Time Today" can only be set on the adult's device. Therefore, we don't need to ask for a Screen Time PIN every time you want to extend this time. Instead, you're existing Face ID or Fingerprint login can be used to unlock your iPhone and then the Rewards Kids app can be used without further need to authenticate to extend time. The version of Rewards Kids running on the child's device, let's the same the Screen Time schedule nad any Extra Time awarded, but they cannot change it (without a Rewards Kids Screen Time PIN - this feature is documented separately).
Remember, "Extra Time Today" resets every night and time does not roll over to the next day!
App Limits
Use the "App Limits" section to quickly set the amount of time in hours: minutes that the selected child can spend on their device for the given day. Note that this will have no affect until the list of blocked applications is chosen as described in the next section.
Controlled Apps
Tap the "Change" button in the "Controlled Apps" section to select which apps will be blocked outside of the "App Limit" times.
You can select either App Categories or individual Apps. Note that if you use App Categories, any new app that is added to the category will automatically be included in the control list. If, however, you choose an individual app within a category, then new apps added to the category will not be controlled and you will need to select newly added apps later.
Choosing "All Apps & Categories" will lock all apps down.
Note that apps or categories that you added to the "Always Allowed" list in the native Apple Screen Time settings, will always be allowed whether they are added in the Controlled Apps list or not - i.e. the Always Allowed list takes precedence.
Be aware that only time spent using apps that are in the Controlled Apps list will be counted towards the daily Allowed App Limits. However, this is the case whether the app is in the Always Allowed list or not.
The Controlled Apps list is usually automatically synchronized to the child's device, however, the child may need to open the Rewards Kids app (whilst connected to the internet) in order to refresh these settings in some cases.
Screen Time Rewards
Now that Rewards Kids is set up, parents/guardians can use reward categories that automatically add "Extra Time Today" time. With the Rewards Kids app, tap the cog (Settings) icon, and tap "Manage Reward Types". Create a new Reward Type or edit an existing one:
Enable the option "Automatically add Screen Time minutes" and choose the amount of Screen Time minutes that the reward is worth.
Now when the child claims this Reward, the parent/guardian will be prompted to approve via a notification. Clicking 'Approve' will both approve the reward and automatically add the Screen Time to the child's "Extra Time Today" setting.
As with normal "Extra Time Today" allowances, the Screen Time Reward will expire at the end of the day therefore the reward should be approved on the same day that the Screen Time minutes should be used. Note that deleting or unapproving the Reward will not currently remove the Screen Time minutes added and should be done manually.
Troubleshooting Screen Time
Extra Time, App Limits or Allowed Apps do not refresh on the child's device
Screen Time setting changes will only be updated when the child's device is connected to the Internet - either via wifi or via the mobile network.
In most situations, the child's Screen Time allocation will update automatically in the background as soon as the changes are made by the parent on the parent's app. In some cases, for example, if the child's device is in Low Power Mode, this update may not happen in the background. In these cases, the child needs to open the Rewards Kids app ont their device in order to refresh Screen Time settings and allowances.
Screen Time Activity Usage Not Displayed
In some situations, the child's device activity is not shown on the parent's Rewards Kids app installation. We are aware of this bug and believe the bug to within Apple's Screen Time implementation as in these cases the Rewards Kids app is not even being sent the activity stream data by Apple. Please raise a support ticket to Apple to help resolve this issue as it is beyond our control to implement.
Next Steps
You might also be interested in these topics:
Getting Started with Rewards Kids
Setting up Point Categories