Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Goodbye YouTube

Grace loves to play with my phone. If you're one of the zillions of people out there who have both phones and small children, I'm sure you can relate. I don't know anything about Android phones, but I do know that on an iPhone, the YouTube icon is kinda scary when you've got a little kid.

Now, Grace isn't normally left alone with my phone, but sometimes the little sneak makes off with it while I'm cooking, still asleep in the morning, whatever. I'm not perfect. It happens. I'm sure you've been there. The only thing that really worries me about her being unsupervised with my phone is YouTube. She loves it. A small child cruising YouTube on her own? Horrifying, I know. Who knows what she may run into on there??? 

Until today I didn't know you could block it. I thought it was impossible. I found out how on a stroke of pure genius total dumb luck and thought I'd share it. I've talked to other people who didn't know about this either and have had the same concerns, so I'm guessing there are others out there like us.

Before, I looked (several times) in the settings and totally failed to look in the right place. Since YouTube is one of the built-in apps that can't be deleted, that wasn't an option. But I like using it sometimes so I didn't want to do that anyway. So then I tried hiding it in a folder on the verrrrry last page, and she still found it. I didn't know what else to do but try extra hard to keep an eye on my phone. But like I said, she's sneaky. And I'm the human kind of mother. 

So for anyone else who hasn't been able to figure this out, here's how to do it. First, open up your Settings, then go to General. Then scroll down to Restrictions and tap on it. 



That will lead you to this page. Tap on Enable Restrictions. 



Then you'll be told to set a passcode. 



Then, slide the YouTube switch to off, and that's it! No more having to worry about little eyes seeing things they shouldn't! Well, on YouTube anyway. But that's something, right? Now it's completely invisible and can't be used anymore unless you enter in the passcode. (To enable it again, just follow the same steps and then flip the switch over to on.) OH YEAH!!!! While I was at it, I went ahead and turned off Deleting Apps too. That kid has deleted a lot of apps by tapping on the pretty wiggling x. 


YouTube can still be used with Safari, but she's four. She doesn't know how to use a browser. I'll worry about that when she can spell more than five words. I'm glad I figured this out, but dude. There's going to be one ticked off little girl in this house when she discovers that her beloved YouTube icon is nowhere to be found. Oh well. A little peace of mind will be worth it. 

2 comments:

  1. I bet she'll be like Naomi and open it only to find a passcode box and try every possible combination until it is unlocked. Yes my 2 year old is scary too! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL, oh wow!!! Well on the iPhone she'd have to find her way through a couple different pages in the settings before coming across the passcode screen. Hopefully she won't be able to figure that out....if she does, I'm in trouble!! :D

      Delete