So I added my son to our iCloud family and setup screen time for him. I customized the Downtime so that he can have iPad access during school time. It looks like this:
- Monday: 15:00 - Tuesday 9:00
- Tuesday: 15:00 - Wednesday 9:00
...
- Friday: 15:00 - Saturday 14:59
- Saturday: 14:59 - Sunday 14:00
- Sunday: 14:00 - Monday 9:00
And if he needs his iPad, he can ask me for the pass code during downtime to play games etc. All is well, until today.
But today when I looked at his screen time stats, it's obvious that he's been playing games outside of the allowed times!
After some questioning, he admits that he changed the Downtime setting on my laptop. Apparently you can turn off certain customized days without pass code. And after some testing it turns out passcode is only needed when:
- I want to turn off/on downtime completely
- I want to change "Block at Downtime" option
But I can turn off a customized day without passcode! But, in my son's case, he just need to turn off Sunday and Saturday! I'm confused. What's the point of having the passcode then.
Asked by xiaofeng.li
(123 rep)
May 18, 2025, 12:14 PM