Child-proof an app on the iPad/iPhone...

Want to know another cool trick on the iPhone - Learn how to stream photos with friends

It wasn't long ago that we would find our hand held devices missing. We would scour the house for the missing device only to realize a child was missing as well. Hunter found some pretty creative hiding places just so he could spend some uninterrupted time with the ipad. We learned our lesson and put a passcode on each device. Then there were times when we would give permission to play a specific game ("Mom, I just want to do the flashcards") and we would find them later watching Netflix. Or I would try and keep Bennett busy in a doctor's office waiting room and his trigger finger thumbs would always press the home screen and exit the app. He would give me the phone back to fix his problem and minutes later he exited the app again. I knew the people at apple had to consider this and have a solution - and I was right. Now many of you may already be doing this, but this was a "mommy break-through moment" for me and my young kids using technology!

Here's how you can put a passcode on a specific app so they can't exit it (purposely or accidentally!)

Go to settings:


Click on general:


Scroll down to accessibility and click:


Scroll down to the "Learning" section and click "Guided Access":


Turn guided access on:


It will ask you to create a passcode - the code that you will use to unlock the feature:


Now that your guided access has been set on your device, you can easily lock a child into an app.

Open the app of your choice and with the app open, click the home button three times quickly, and an outer screen will pop-up around the app:


Click the "Start" button and you're now running the app in a protective mode (when running in protective mode no outer box appears). When the home button is clicked just once nothing will happen. If you would like to exit the app click the home button three times quickly and the screen to enter the passcode pops up. With the correct passcode it will allow you to exit the app.

There's also a couple of option features (bottom left of screen when you first enter guided access mode) that you can eliminate all touch from the screen for the app. This is helpful with an app such as netflix when you want a young child to not be able to change the movie you've chosen.

Our kids don't spend a lot of time on our devices, but when they do we can closely monitor what they're doing and because they're so young it's very reassuring. (This has worked for our family on the iPad 2, iPhone 4 and iPhone 5)

Want to know another cool trick on the iPhone - Learn how to stream photos with friends