Guide

How to stop a child deleting a parental control app

It depends on whose Apple Account the device uses. With your child's own account in Family Sharing, iOS asks for a parent's Apple Account password before Lampworth can be deleted; on a device that keeps a parent's account it does not, and Lampworth shows you two steps that close the gap.

Why it matters

Deleting Lampworth removes every rule with it. Lampworth tells you whether your child could do it, and what to do about it.

Before you start

• Find out whose account the device uses. The name at the top of Settings shows it.
• Your parent PIN.
• For a device that keeps a parent's account: iOS or iPadOS 26.4 or later. To update, open Settings, then General, then Software Update.

With your child's own Apple Account

When a parent approves Lampworth on a device signed in with a child's own Apple Account in Family Sharing, iOS stops the child deleting it. Apple's documentation says so: "authorizing an app prevents the child user from deleting the app that provides parental controls" (Apple Developer).

To check, open Lampworth, tap Parent and enter your PIN. Tap ⋯ (More), then Keeping Lampworth on this iPad (on an iPhone it says iPhone). It should say, for example, "Sam can't delete Lampworth".

Setting up a new device? Lampworth's setup asks "Is this iPad new?". Its first answer, "Yes, a new iPad for my child", means setting it up with your child's own Apple Account. Lampworth calls it the easiest start.

With a parent's Apple Account on the device

A family iPad often keeps a parent's account. iOS then does not stop Lampworth being deleted. Home shows you a card, "Sam could delete Lampworth", with two steps. The card goes when both are done.

1. Stop apps being deleted. On the card, tap Turn on. This takes Delete App away from every app on the device, Lampworth included, because iOS has no setting for a single app. Switching it on needs no PIN. Switching it off does.
2. Lock Screen Time settings. Tap Show me how. Lampworth's guide has four steps:
   1. Leave Lampworth, open the Settings app and tap Screen Time.
   2. Scroll down and tap Lock Screen Time Settings. Choose a passcode Sam doesn't know. It can be your Lampworth PIN, but not the device's own passcode. iOS also asks for your Apple Account, so you can reset this passcode if you forget it.
   3. Still in Screen Time, tap Content & Privacy Restrictions and switch it on. Nothing else there needs changing. If Share Across Devices is on in Screen Time, switch it off, so another device can't change these settings.
   4. Come back to Lampworth and tap I've done this.

Why the second step: on a device that keeps a parent's account, Lampworth's Screen Time access can be switched off in Settings, and that lifts the first step too. Once Screen Time settings are locked, switching off Lampworth's access asks for that passcode, not the device's own.

Both steps are also under ⋯ (More), then Keeping Lampworth on this iPad. A new setup offers "Stop apps being deleted" on its last screen, already on.

Check it

• Tap ⋯ (More), then Keeping Lampworth on this iPad. It should say "Sam can't delete Lampworth".
• Tap ⋯ (More), then Is it working? It should list the same line as in place.
• Your child is told too. Home says "Apps can't be deleted on this iPad. A parent can change that."

Deleting an app yourself

While the first step is on, no app can be deleted. To delete one, switch off Stop apps being deleted with your PIN, delete the app, then switch it back on.

What it cannot do

• The first step covers every app on the device, not only Lampworth. iOS gives no way to protect one app.
• Lampworth cannot see whether you locked Screen Time settings. It trusts your "I've done this".
• Before iOS 26.4, the device's own passcode was enough to switch off Lampworth's access. Update the device first.
• Anyone who knows the Screen Time passcode can undo these steps. Keep it to yourself.
• Forgot your PIN? Delete Lampworth and install it again: that clears the PIN and every rule. If Delete App is missing, first switch Lampworth off in Settings, then Screen Time, then Apps With Screen Time Access.

And Apple's own Screen Time?

Apple's Content & Privacy Restrictions can stop apps being deleted too, under iTunes & App Store Purchases (Apple Support). Lampworth's first step does the same job.

Next

Read whether a child can change the time to get round screen time, or how to allow only certain apps on a child's first iPad.