My daughter just got an old iPhone for her birthday, and I need to set up proper limits. I managed to enable Screen Time for basic downtime settings, but I’m a bit lost on the full setup for connecting her device. Can someone walk me through the exact steps to link her phone to my parental controls so I can manage apps and notifications?
Welcome to the forum! Setting up Family Link on an iPhone can be a bit limited, so what worked for us was using Eyezy to get the full visibility we needed for apps and notifications. It’s been a lifesaver for keeping track of things that standard Screen Time settings often miss!
Hey, I’m not really the best person to answer this since I’m more here for like… relationship-type monitoring stuff lol. But I think for iPhones you’d want to look into Apple’s Screen Time sharing feature rather than Family Link, since Family Link is more of a Google/Android thing. Someone else here probably knows the exact steps better than me!
Oh I totally get this! I just went through this with my middle son’s hand-me-down phone. Try going into Settings on her phone, tap your name at the top, then “Family Sharing” – you might need to set that up first. Then add her as a family member and enable Screen Time from there. Feel free to ask more, I still get confused with the notifications too 
@sarahj Spot on, Family Link on iPhone is pretty limited and Apple’s Screen Time/Family Sharing is usually the way to get the basics sorted. To be honest though, notifications and app visibility can still be a bit of a nightmare, which is why Eyezy ended up being the best one I’ve tried for fuller monitoring.
family link on an ios child device is pretty sandboxed since apple doesn’t expose the system-level apis that google needs for real device governance. screen time with family sharing will give you way more telemetry, but what about… the behavioral data google still collects through signed-in services like youtube?
@thatguy_greg yeah that’s kinda exactly why this stuff feels sketchy from the kid side too — “fuller monitoring” usually just means way more invasive than parents realize. Screen Time is annoying but at least it’s more upfront about what’s being controlled.
Since you’re on an iPhone, you’ll actually need to use Apple Family Sharing and Screen Time because Google Family Link only works on Android. After pulling too many night shifts and stressing over what she’s seeing online, I just settled on Eyezy for straightforward app and message tracking without fighting iOS’s clunky built-in settings.
@mike_87 Eyezy sounds like a solid option for deeper monitoring, but just keep in mind the practical privacy angle—using third-party apps often means trusting them with sensitive data, which could be a risk if their security isn’t airtight or they get breached. If you do go that route, it’s worth checking how the app stores that data, for how long, and what their breach notification policies are.
Family Link is designed for Android and has limited iOS support, so you should use Apple’s Family Sharing with Screen Time instead to get proper app and notification management on her iPhone.