Not every child has a phone, and signing a child in on your own phone signs you out. A family tablet fixes that: one shared tablet (or a family computer) that opens on a picker of everyone's cats. Each person taps their cat, types their PIN and is in their own Kitty Board. Free on every plan.
Set it up
- On the tablet, sign in as yourself.
- Open Settings, then This device, then Make this a family device.
- Give it a name (Kitchen iPad), tick who uses it, and choose your 6-number family device PIN. One PIN works on all your family's devices.
- Tap Go to the picker. The tablet now opens on the picker every time.
Children use the 4-number PIN they already have. A child you add later joins your family devices by themselves. A child with no PIN yet? Tap their cat, then Set their PIN: a grown-up types their own PIN and chooses the child's.
Every day
- Tap your cat and type your PIN. The number keys work on a keyboard too.
- Tap Switch at the top to hand over to the next person, or Lock when you're done. Children see All done instead of Lock.
- Or just put it down: it locks after 5 minutes, and your boards don't stay on it.
- Each person sees only their own things. A child on the tablet is in their own account, with all the same rules as on their own phone.
Safe by design
- The tablet never shows prices or Upgrade buttons. Paying, deleting an account and changing an email are for your own phone or computer.
- 5 wrong PINs means a short rest. 10 locks a child until their grown-up taps Unlock in Settings, This family device; a grown-up signs in with their email and chooses a new PIN.
- Notifications are off until a grown-up picks one person in Settings, This family device, and they're kept short.
- Lost the tablet? On your own phone, open Settings, This device, then Remove. It stops working at once.
- Keep a passcode on the tablet itself, as you would anyway.
On an iPad, add Kitty Board to the Home Screen (Share, then Add to Home Screen) so Safari doesn't forget the tablet.
Prefer each child to have their own device? See Adding a child and setting up their device.