Reef: Parental Controls

You pick exactly which apps still open — everything else is shielded the second you hand the phone over. One tap. No subscription. Works offline.

Hand your kid your phone — without handing over your whole phone.

One tap and your iPhone becomes a space that's just theirs: only the apps, games and websites you approved will open. Everything else is shielded — no texts, no App Store, no browser, no random videos, no wandering off. When they're done, only you can get back out, with Face ID or your PIN.

No ads. No accounts. No tracking. No subscription. It works offline.

YOU CHOOSE EXACTLY WHICH APPS STILL WORK This is the part that matters. Reef doesn't just nag or run a timer — you open a picker with every app on your phone and tick the ones that stay usable. Anything you don't tick is shielded the moment you hand the phone over: the icon is still there, it simply won't open. Want a pure walled garden? Allow nothing, and your child only gets Reef's own hub. Different rules for a 4-year-old and a 10-year-old? Give each of them a profile with their own list.

WHAT'S LOCKED DOWN WHILE REEF IS ON • Every app you didn't allow — including Safari and other browsers • The App Store, and in-app purchases • Deleting Reef to escape • Changing your device passcode or signing out of your Apple Account • It stays on if the app is force-quit, and after a restart

THEIR OWN SPACE, NOT A "BLOCKED" WALL Instead of a scary lock screen, your child opens a friendly grid of the games and sites YOU picked. Tap one, play, close it — and they're right back at the grid, never out on the Home Screen.

A PROFILE FOR EACH KID Make one per child or per moment — "Toddler," "Homework," "Car ride" — each with its own activities and its own allowed apps. You can switch between kids mid-session without exiting (a grown-up unlock is required).

HAND IT OVER IN ONE TAP, FROM ANYWHERE Start a profile from the app, from a Home Screen widget you can point at one specific kid, from Control Center, or just by saying "Start Homework in Reef."

FIVE GAMES THAT ARE ACTUALLY SAFE Memory match, counting, colors, pop-the-mole and a Simon-style memory game. No ads. No links out. No in-app purchases. Every one works with no internet at all.

KID-SAFE SITES, LOCKED DOWN Add any website as a tile — a learning site, a story site, a specific game. Reef opens it in a locked browser pinned to that one site: no address bar, no pop-ups, and any link that tries to leave is blocked.

YOU HOLD THE ONLY KEY Turning Reef off needs Face ID, Touch ID, or a 4- or 6-digit PIN your child doesn't know. Wrong guesses lock the keypad for longer and longer. Forgot your PIN? Fall back to your iPhone passcode — you can never be locked out of your own phone.

PRIVATE BY DESIGN Reef is built on Apple's Screen Time (Family Controls) and runs entirely on your device. No sign-up, no account, no analytics, nothing collected. Which apps you picked is stored as tokens that even we can't read.

FREE TO TRY. ONE TIME TO UNLOCK. Start free with one profile, all five games, unlimited kid-safe websites, and the complete safety system — the shield, the PIN and passcode recovery are never paywalled. Unlock once for unlimited profiles and the choose-their-apps picker. No subscription, ever. Family Sharing included.

AN HONEST NOTE ON SAFETY For the strongest lock, set a Screen Time passcode (Settings › Screen Time) so an older child can't switch Reef off. And a few Apple apps — Phone, Messages, Settings, Clock, FaceTime — can't be blocked by any third-party app; Reef shows you exactly which, and how to handle them.

Hand over the phone, not your whole phone. Questions or ideas? Tap the menu → Send feedback. We read every note.