Guide

How do I set a daily time limit for games?

Time the Games category in Lampworth, then set a daily limit in steps of 15 minutes. When the minutes are used up the games rest until the next day, and you can give 15 more with your PIN when it is needed.

Before you start

• Lampworth set up on your child's iPhone or iPad, and your parent PIN.
• The daily limit is one allowance for all the timed apps together. For a limit on games only, time only games.
• Agree the minutes with your child first. It is easier to keep to a rule they helped to make.

Set it up

1. Open Lampworth. Tap Parent, top right, and enter your PIN.
2. Time the games. Tap Edit on the Timed apps card, or Choose apps if nothing is chosen yet. Check that "All apps, except the ones I limit" is ticked. Tap Add or change apps, tick the Games category, and tap Save. A whole category also covers games installed later, and its websites.
3. Set the minutes. On Home, the Today card ends with Daily limit · Off. Tap + once for every 15 minutes: four taps make 1 hour. The line under it then says "For all timed apps · resets at midnight".
4. Try it. Set 15 minutes and play a game for a quarter of an hour. The pause screen should come. Then set your own number.

When the minutes are used up

A game shows a calm pause screen: "That's today's screen time". It says "Back tomorrow. Ask a parent if you need a little more." Home says the same, with the time the games are back.

Giving 15 more minutes

• Your child taps Ask for more time on the pause screen, or Ask for 15 more minutes in Lampworth. Lampworth then asks them to hand the device to a parent.
• You open Lampworth, tap Parent, enter your PIN and tap +15 min or +30 min. The games open, and rest again when the time is up.

What we saw

On 3 October 2026, on an iPad, the daily limit stopped the timed apps when it was used up, and 15 more minutes ended on the minute. The times started and ended on the minute too.

What it cannot do

• It has one limit for all timed apps. There is no separate limit for each app or category, so timed video apps would share the same minutes.
• The times still apply. At Bedtime the games rest, whatever is left of the limit.
• Apple decides which apps are in each category. You can also tick single games.
• It does not show how long each game was played. Lampworth shows no reports.
• It works on the device where it is set. A second device needs its own limit.

And Apple's own Screen Time?

Apple's Screen Time can set a daily time for a category such as Games too: Time Allowances in iOS 27 (Apple Support), and App Limits before it. From iOS 26, a child can ask for an exception to a limit (Apple Support).

Next

Read how to stop apps during homework time, or whether a child can change the time to get round screen time.