Control How Your Kids Use an iPhone or iPad With Playpen

Many parents probably know about Guide Access that can help with that issue. It locks a device to a single app with a special sequence of button presses and a passcode to unlock. But as most parents probably know, children can quickly get bored with just a single activity to play with.

The new app Playpen makes it easy for kids to stay entertained without having complete access to an iPhone or iPad.

To begin, parents can select from a number of approved activities. Some of those include preconfigured YouTube videos without access to all of YouTube, access to the selfie camera but not your entire Photo Library, and the ability to view specific photo albums without the ability to edit anything.

When you’re ready to hand off a device, you can select an activity and the app will immediately start Guided Access. Playpen will also automatically start whenever Guided Access mode is enabled.

And if that wasn’t great enough, there’s no need for your child to hand back the device to change activities. With the Apple Watch app, you can change the activity available with just a tap. You can also use another iPhone or iPad to change the activity.

Both of my children now have their own iPad. But an app like Playpen would have been wonderful to use when they were younger and always wanted to play with my iPhone or iPad when waiting in line or in the car. The ability to change activities remotely makes the app even better.

Playpen is a free download for the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. The free version includes all activities types, widgets, and shortcuts.

There is an optional subscription of $1.99 monthly or $12.99 annually. You can also choose a lifetime unlock for $39.99.

With that, you can unlock the ability to change Playpen activities remotely.