One of the quirks that parents often ask us about in Screen Time, is why the School Time Blocker can only be started in the morning. To parents using Screen Time it must have seemed weird to have this limits enforced.
When Steve was first developing the School Time feature for his kids he didn’t anticipate the demand from other countries and so a start time in the morning and end time in the afternoon/evening looked like it would work for most parents. Since then though we’ve had plenty of feedback from parents asking for more flexibility, and we’ve been listening!
What’s changed?
In the School Time Blocker you can now set the Start Time to be any time in the AM or PM, the same for the End Time which can be set in the AM or PM. Hopefully this should help parents that are looking for a homework blocker or whose kid’s school starts in the afternoon.
If the end time is set before the start time then you’ll see a message like this appear.
These changes give parents flexibility to create a school schedule that suits them and their children. If you’re not already using the School Time feature then there might be other ways that you can use it:
- Help your kids concentrate on homework and set up a blocked period after school
- Get your kids to school on time and set up a blocked period before school
Get in touch and let us know if you have any other bright ideas.
5 comments
Join the conversationMike Scholman - 22/02/2017
Adding a definable Lunch Break, during which I could be less restrictive would be a welcome change.
Timo Kervinen - 20/10/2016
Times must be able to set separately for each weekday, because monday schooltime is 8:00 – 13:00 and tuesday 10:00-15:00 so on. Same time for each day does not work at all.
Tami - 08/04/2016
Would like the option to have a block of time available for them to be on their phones in the middle of school hours. My son’s school allows them to use their phones during lunch and I’ve been getting a text from him every single day to remind me that he’s at lunch. I then have to go in and allow him 30 minutes to “play” using the play feature instead of the “pause” feature. If I could set this up so that one school days from 11:30-12:00pm he can use all features of his phone it would be MUCH easier for me. Not sure if anyone else would need, like, or want this feature though. Just thought I’d mention it. STILL LOVE THIS APP!!!!
Oli - 11/04/2016
Thanks Tami, that’s a great idea and one that I’m sure that other parents would need. I’ll bring it up with the team and see if it’s something that we can add in the future.
kfir - 30/05/2016
+1 for that feature was about to ask it myself.
btw – why just lunch time, there should be an option to add a schedule of lock/unlock times.
e.g. school short breaks (15 minutes) should also be allowed for usage.