Parents
Remove App Store from Child's iPhone or iPad
Completely turn off the App Store on your child's iPhone or iPad so that new apps can't be downloaded or searched for.
Parents with a child or teen who uses an iPhone may wonder if it's possible to disable the App Store and prevent their child from downloading apps they might not approve of. Fortunately, there are a few options that parents could consider to disable the App Store on a kid's iPhone entirely. This guide will walk you through a few ideas and our recommended approach.
Turning off the App Store completely can create some issues from a parental control perspective. For example, apps need to be updated to work properly and they won't update if the App Store is turned off. As a result, we recommend considering some alternative approaches before disabling the App Store on your child's iPhone or iPad.
Monitor a child's iPhone for inappropriate App Store use
Since turning off the App Store completely isn't ideal, consider using a screen monitoring app to ensure your child doesn't access any unapproved apps or search for inappropriate content in the App Store.
You can use an iPhone monitoring app like LivingRoom for Families to monitor your child's use of the App Store.
As your child uses their iPhone or iPad, they'll see a recording indicator overlayed on the top corner of the screen, constantly reminding them to browse the App Store responsibly.
Since the LivingRoom app records your child's screen, you can review screenshots of the activity on the device to catch any problematic use of the App Store.
Completely disable the App Store on a child's iPhone with Screen Time
If you want to disable the App Store on iPhone and prevent your child from accessing it, then Screen Time is the standard approach that most parents use:
Make sure that Content & Privacy Restrictions are enabled on your child's iPhone.
It's a good idea to lock your restrictions:
While this approach is effective, it completely disables the App Store and may require you to occasionally re-enable the App Store to update apps on your child/teen's iPhone. Monitoring your child's iPhone is a more flexible approach since you can prevent misusing the App Store without disabling it entirely.
If you'd like to keep the App Store enabled and take this setup a step further, use Apple Family to remotely manage restrictions.
Disable the App Store on your child's iPhone remotely with Apple Family
This approach is one of the best if your child or teen is just setting up an Apple account for the first time. Using Apple Family, you can require your permission to install apps from the App Store, but only if your child hasn't downloaded them yet.
This is more powerful on a fresh account, since your child hasn't downloaded any apps yet. This approach also doesn't completely disable the App Store, so current apps can stay installed on your child's iPhone or iPad.
See our dedicated parents' guide for iPhone for full setup instructions. Here are the steps you'll need to take:
You and your child can't share accounts for this approach to work as expected.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why can't I delete the App Store on iPhones or iPads?
Apple doesn't allow the App Store to be deleted. Unfortunately, there isn't a way to work around this, but the App Store can be disabled on iPhone in a variety of ways, for both adults and children.