Screen Time security
Screen Time is a built-in feature for seeing and managing how much time adults and their children spend on apps, websites and more. There are two types of users: adults and (managed) children.
Although Screen Time isn’t a new system security feature, it’s important to understand how it protects the privacy and security of the data gathered and shared between devices. Screen Time is available in iOS 12 or later, iPadOS 13.1 or later, macOS 10.15 or later, and some features of watchOS 6 or later.
The table below describes the main features of Screen Time.
Feature | Supported operating system |
|---|---|
View usage data | iOS iPadOS macOS |
Enforce additional restrictions | iOS iPadOS macOS watchOS |
Set web usage limits | iOS iPadOS macOS |
Set app limits | iOS iPadOS macOS watchOS |
Configure Downtime | iOS iPadOS macOS watchOS |
For users managing their own device usage, Screen Time controls and usage data can be synced across devices associated to the same iCloud account using CloudKit end-to-end encryption. This requires that the user’s account have two-factor authentication enabled (syncing is on by default). Screen Time replaces the Restrictions feature found in previous versions of iOS and iPadOS and the Parental Controls feature found in previous versions of macOS.
In iOS 13 or later, iPadOS 13.1 or later and macOS 10.15 or later, Screen Time users and managed children automatically share their usage across devices if their iCloud accounts have two-factor authentication enabled. When a user clears Safari history or deletes an app, the corresponding usage data is removed from the device and all synced devices.
Parents and Screen Time
Parents can also use Screen Time in iOS, iPadOS and macOS devices to understand and control their children’s use. If the parent is a family organiser (in iCloud Family Sharing), they can view usage data and manage Screen Time settings for their children. Children are informed when their parents turn on Screen Time and they can monitor their own usage as well. When parents turn on Screen Time for their children, the parents set a passcode so their children can’t make changes. When they reach legal majority (age will vary depending on country or region), the children can turn this monitoring off.
Usage data and configuration settings are transferred between the parent’s and child’s devices using the end-to-end encrypted Apple Identity Service (IDS) protocol. Encrypted data may be briefly stored on IDS servers until it’s read by the receiving device (for example, as soon as the iPhone or iPad is turned on, if it was off). This data isn’t readable by Apple.
Screen Time analytics
If the user turns on Share iPhone & Watch Analytics, only the following anonymised data is collected so that Apple can better understand how Screen Time is being used:
Was Screen Time turned on during Set-Up Assistant or later in Settings
Change in Category usage after creating a limit for it (within 90 days)
Is Screen Time turned on
Is Downtime enabled
Number of times the “Ask for more” query was used
Number of app limits
Number of times users viewed usage in the Screen Time settings, per user type and per view type (local, remote, widget)
Number of times users ignore a limit, per user type
Number of times users delete a limit, per user type
No specific app or web usage data is gathered by Apple. When a user sees a list of apps in Screen Time usage information, the app icons are pulled directly from the App Store, which doesn’t retain any data from these requests.