Apple has acknowledged and promised to fix a bug in its Family Sharing system for iPhones, iPads, and other Apple devices.
The bug in Screen Time, a feature within Apple’s cloud-based Family Sharing tool, is reportedly preventing from saving screen time limits set by parents for kids.
As a result, this is allowing children to bypass the daily time restrictions set by their parents.
For those unaware, Screen Time lets parents know how much time their kids spend on apps, websites, and more.
This way, the parents can make more informed decisions about what content their children can see on their iPhones, how they can use their devices, and set limits if they would like to.
“If it’s your child’s device, you can set up Screen Time and create settings on their device or you can use Family Sharing to configure your child’s device from your device. After you set up your child’s device, you can also use Family Sharing to see reports and adjust settings from your device,” according to the company.
The WSJ reports that a specific setting known as Downtime, which is an internal feature that is supposed to block additional screen time, appears to have either reverted to older settings or been removed altogether, even when changes have been saved.
For instance, one user told the WSJ that he had to reset the feature “two or three times a week” to ensure that his kids could not guess the passcode.
According to the publication, more than 2,300 people posted their experience with the Screen Time bug on the Apple Community website.
“We are aware that some users may be experiencing an issue where Screen Time settings are unexpectedly reset. We take these reports very seriously and we have been, and will continue, making updates to improve the situation,” a spokesperson told the WSJ.
While Apple hasn’t provided a timeline for fixing the bug, it did say that the company’s engineers “have been, and will continue, making updates to improve the situation.”
Interestingly, Apple had already fixed the issue with Screen Time settings with the launch of iOS 16.5 in May; however, the changes were not being retained.
As per WSJ, the issue continues to persist even on devices updated to iOS 16.6 and the iOS 17 public beta.
