Built on Apple’s Screen Time
Screen time that keeps itself.
Set the hours and the daily minutes once. Apps open when the window opens and lock when the minutes run out — on your child’s phone, with no signal needed — school mornings, weekends, holidays, any time of day.
Children's devices are iPhone or iPad (iOS 17+). Grown-ups run their side from iPhone, iPad — or Android, with the Google Play app. Free, no adverts.
Why it feels different
The phone keeps the rule, so you don’t have to.
Most arguments about screen time are really about enforcement: somebody has to notice, and somebody has to be the villain. ScreenSitter takes that job.
It locks itself
The rules live on your child’s device and iOS enforces them, so they hold through a restart, aeroplane mode and a flat battery on your side. Nothing to open, nothing to remember.
They ask, you decide
From a blocked app a child can ask for a few more minutes and say why. One press grants minutes that work across all their apps — not one app at a time — or you can add the time on their phone with the household PIN, no signal needed. Need a time-out? Lock everything for a while in one tap. Big day? Party mode lifts it all for an occasion.
Android parent? Welcome.
The child's iPhone does the enforcing — but grown-ups run their side from iPhone, iPad or an Android phone. Apple's own Screen Time can't do that: it locks both ends into Apple.
Both grown-ups, one story
Every lock, grant, decline and party mode is written down with who did it and when. Time added on the child’s phone with the PIN is marked as such, so nobody has to reconstruct the day.
Not one big bucket
Three kinds of app, three kinds of rule.
An hour of maths homework shouldn’t cost the same as an hour of anything else, and a child should never be cut off from you.
Everyday apps
Share one daily allowance inside the hours you set. When the minutes are gone, they’re gone — until tomorrow, or until you say otherwise.
Homework apps
Their own hours and their own allowance, so revision doesn’t eat the day’s minutes.
Always allowed
The apps you choose to leave alone — messages, camera, whatever your family needs. No schedule, no allowance, no lock.
Setting up
Three steps, then it’s quiet.
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Pick the hours and the minutes
School nights, weekends, holidays. A different allowance for a different day takes seconds — and a day with no hours set is simply a day the apps stay shut.
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Pair their device
A short code links their iPhone or iPad to your household. Set a PIN while you’re there: it’s what stands between a child and their own limits.
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Pick the apps on their phone
Apple’s app tokens only make sense on the device that made them, so this last bit happens on their phone, behind your PIN. After that you can leave it alone.
Anti-surveillance by design
It manages time. It doesn’t watch your child.
A screen-time app shouldn’t become a listening post. The per-app breakdown you can see is drawn on the device by Apple’s own component — those numbers never reach us.
What our server holds
- Grown-ups’ email addresses, for signing in
- What the kids call you, and your children’s first names
- The schedules, allowances and grants you set
- Minutes used per app set, per day — totals, not a timeline
- Notification tokens, so a request reaches your phone
What never reaches us
- Which apps your child has installed or opened — no names, no times
- Messages, photos, contacts or browsing history
- Screenshots or recordings of their screen
- Location — at all, ever
- Advertising identifiers and third-party trackers
Questions parents ask
Straight answers
Does ScreenSitter work without internet?
Yes. Limits are enforced on the child's device by Apple's Screen Time frameworks, so schedules, daily allowances and app locks keep working with no signal and in aeroplane mode. A grown-up standing next to the child can still add time with the household PIN, fully offline.
Can I manage my child's iPhone screen time from an Android phone?
Yes. ScreenSitter has an Android app for parents: set schedules and daily limits, approve or decline requests for more time, grant bonus minutes, lock everything for a time-out or start party mode — all from an Android phone, while your child's iPhone or iPad enforces the rules itself. Apple's built-in Screen Time cannot do this; it requires the parent to use an Apple device.
Do both parents need an iPhone?
The child's device has to be an iPhone or iPad — that's where Apple's enforcement lives. Grown-ups are freer: approve requests and manage schedules from any iPhone or iPad, and an Android app for grown-ups is in testing, so a household where one parent carries Android isn't locked out. Apple's built-in Screen Time, by contrast, needs the managing parent to be on an Apple device too.
How is ScreenSitter different from Apple's built-in Screen Time?
It's built on the same Apple frameworks — and Apple has app groups and always-allowed apps too. The difference shows when the time runs out. Apple's ask-for-more-time grants a fixed window to one app at a time; ScreenSitter grants extra minutes that work across all of a child's apps in one tap, or keeps apps open until a time you choose. It also adds temporary modes Apple doesn't have — a one-tap lock for when a time-out is needed (everything locked for a while, then back to normal), and party mode to lift the limits for an occasion — and logs every decision with which grown-up made it.
Can my child see how much time they have left?
Yes — their own screen shows a dial counting down today's minutes, when apps reopen, and any bonus time with who gave it. The child's view is designed to be honest and kind rather than punitive.
Can my child ask for more time?
Yes. From a blocked app they can send a request with a reason. Grown-ups get a notification and can approve a chosen number of minutes with one press, or decline. Declines are recorded too.
Does ScreenSitter see which apps my child uses?
No. App choices are held by Apple's Screen Time as opaque tokens, and the per-app breakdown is drawn on the device by Apple's own component. Our server stores daily minute totals per app group — never app names or per-app times.
Is ScreenSitter free?
Yes — free, with no adverts, no in-app purchases and no third-party tracking.
What devices does it support?
Children's devices are iPhone or iPad — enforcement uses Apple's Screen Time, so the child's side is iOS-only. Grown-ups have more choice: the iOS app has a grown-up mode, and there's a separate ScreenSitter app for Android, so parents can be on iPhone, iPad or Android in any combination.
What happens at the end of the day?
Unused bonus minutes expire and the daily allowance resets at the child's local midnight. Days without a scheduled rule stay locked, apart from always-allowed apps.
Set the rules once. Get your time back.
Free, no adverts, and nothing to sell your children.