Guide

How to pause apps at bedtime on your child's iPad

By the end of this guide, the apps that keep your child up will rest every night and come back by themselves in the morning. It takes about five minutes, and you do it on the iPad itself.

Before you start

• An iPad or iPhone with iOS 17 or later, with Lampworth installed.
• Four digits for your parent PIN. Pick ones your child cannot guess.
• Your Apple Account password, if the iPad is signed in with your child's own account. That step needs the internet once. If the iPad keeps a parent's account, iOS asks for the device passcode or Face ID instead.

Set it up

1. Open Lampworth and follow the setup. It asks for Screen Time access first, then for your PIN.
2. Choose the apps. Tap Choose apps and websites. Tick up to ten that cause trouble at night, such as games or video, then tap Save. New ones start as timed, which means they rest at the times you turn on. Anything you leave unticked stays free.
3. Turn on Bedtime. Lampworth has three times: School, Homework and Bedtime. Bedtime starts at 21:00 and ends at 07:00, every day.
4. Change the hours if you need to. On Home, tap Parent and enter your PIN. Tap Bedtime, set Starts and Ends, choose the days, then tap Save. If the end is earlier than the start, Lampworth says "Ends the next morning".
5. Try it once. Set Bedtime to start in two minutes, then open one of the chosen apps. You should see the pause screen. Then set the real hours again.

Bedtime has one set of hours, shared by the days you tick. If weekends need to be later, pick the hours that suit most nights and give extra time at weekends, as described below. Tell your child before the first night, and show them where the rules are. A pause screen is easier to accept when it is not a surprise.

After this, Bedtime works without internet, and with Lampworth closed. iOS keeps the rules on the iPad.

What your child sees

At bedtime, a chosen app shows a calm pause screen. It says the app is resting until 07:00, or whenever you set. Your child can open Lampworth at any time and read the rules. There is no hidden mode.

Your child can ask for more time on the pause screen or in Lampworth. The answer is yours. Open Lampworth, tap Parent, enter your PIN and tap +15 min or +30 min. The apps rest again when the time is up.

What it will not do

• It pauses only the apps you ticked, up to ten. An app you did not tick still opens at night.
• It does not switch the screen off or take the iPad away. It rests apps. It does not look inside them, and it shows no report of what your child did.
• It works on the device where it is installed. If your child also uses a phone, set it up there too.
• The free app is set on the child's own iPad. Managing it from your phone is planned for a later paid version and is not in the free app.
• On an iPad that keeps a parent's Apple Account, iOS does not stop your child deleting Lampworth, and that removes every rule. Lampworth shows you two steps that close the gap. With your child's own Apple Account, iOS asks for a parent's password first.

Next

Read how to stop apps during homework time. Not sure Lampworth is the tool you need? See how it compares with Apple's Screen Time.