Setup guide

This guide helps you make Mirlumi the only way onto Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube on your child's phone.

The PIN only protects Mirlumi's settings. It can't stop a child who can delete Mirlumi or install other apps. That's what this guide closes. The PIN, keypad and switches don't replace it.

Before you start

First install Mirlumi on your child's phone and set your PIN, because step 3 blocks installs. Then follow the steps in order. If you blocked deletions too early, you couldn't remove the native Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube apps.

Menu names follow Apple's and Google's help pages, linked at the end of this page, and can change. A phone set to another language may show them translated.

iPhone

There are two paths. Use the first if every device in your Family Sharing group is on version 27 or later and you've moved to the new parental controls. Otherwise use the second.

iOS 27: Apps & Websites

  1. Set the Screen Time passcode. On your own device, open Settings > Family, tap your child's name, tap Screen Time and follow the instructions on screen. Under Family Sharing, the parent sets the child's passcode from their own device.
  2. Delete the native apps. On your child's phone, touch and hold Instagram, tap Remove App, Delete App, then Delete. Do the same for Snapchat and YouTube.
  3. Block installs. On your own device, open Settings > Family, tap your child's name, then Apps & Websites > App Store > Installing Apps, and choose Blocked.
  4. Block deletions. In Settings > Family, tap your child's name, then Apps & Websites > Restrictions, and set Deleting Apps to Blocked.

Older versions: Content & Privacy Restrictions

  1. Set the Screen Time passcode. Under Family Sharing, set it from your own device, as above. Without Family Sharing, open Settings > Screen Time on your child's phone and create a passcode your child doesn't know.
  2. Delete the native apps. On your child's phone, touch and hold Instagram, tap Remove App, Delete App, then Delete. Do the same for Snapchat and YouTube.
  3. Block installs. Open Settings > Screen Time and, under Family Sharing, tap your child's name. Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions and turn it on. Then tap iTunes & App Store Purchases and set Installing Apps to Don't Allow.
  4. Block deletions. On the same screen, set Deleting Apps to Don't Allow.

Android

On Android you do this with Google Family Link, which you run from your own device.

  1. Set up Family Link supervision. Install Family Link on your own device and add supervision to your child's Google Account, as Google's help describes.
  2. Delete the native apps. On your child's phone, delete Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube. If the phone won't delete one that came with it, deal with it in step 3.
  3. Block installs. In Family Link, select your child and tap Controls > Google Play. Under Purchases & download approvals, set Require approval for to All content. That isn't enough on its own, because apps you installed or approved before don't need new approval. So also go to Screen time > Time limits > App limits, and set each of the three apps still on the list to Blocked. A block takes about 5 minutes to apply.
  4. Block deletions. Google's Family Link help doesn't describe a setting that stops a child deleting apps. Look for one in Family Link. If there isn't one, check from time to time that Mirlumi is still on your child's phone.

Check that it worked

On your child's phone, try to install one of the deleted apps. If it installs, go back over step 3.

What this guide doesn't cover

  • These services can also open in a phone's web browser. This guide doesn't deal with that.
  • These settings make it harder for a child to go around Mirlumi, but none of them is foolproof.

Apple's and Google's help