PapaTime: Screen Time

iPhone / Productivité

Tired of your kid spamming you for screen time during meetings? PapaTime gives them a budget they manage themselves. You stay out of the loop.

PapaTime is a screen time app for your kid's iPad, controlled by you from your phone. Your child earns tokens for doing real-world things — chores, homework, reading, whatever you decide — and spends those tokens on screen time. Each token unlocks one minute.

You set the daily ceiling, the schedule, and the rewards. They run the rest. No more "just five more minutes."

HOW IT WORKS
• Your kid sees their token balance on the iPad.
• They tap "Buy time" — 15, 30, 60, or custom minutes — and the iPad unlocks the apps you allow.
• When time runs out, the iPad locks the games and the kid goes back to earning.
• You manage everything from your phone — no second app to install.

WHAT GETS LOCKED
Three tiers, set up once:
• Time-limited apps (games, YouTube): closed until your kid pays for a session.
• Hard-rule apps (everything else by default): closed during bedtime, parent lock, homework, or the daily limit.
• Always-allowed (FaceTime, Messages): never locked — emergencies and family calls always go through.

EARN, NOT BEG
Your kid wakes up to a daily token allowance you set — usually enough for a healthy amount of screen time. To go beyond that, they have to do something. You define what counts: homework, dishes, reading 30 pages. They mark it done, you approve it on your phone, tokens land.

BUILT ON APPLE'S REAL APIs
PapaTime uses Apple's official FamilyControls, ManagedSettings, and DeviceActivity frameworks. The same screen-time mechanics Apple ships, with a budget the kid manages instead of an approval queue you babysit.

DESIGNED FOR KIDS UNDER 10
Big touch targets, friendly colors, no shame language. Time is "saved" and "earned," never "wasted." Built to feel like a treasure chest, not a prison.

iPad-ONLY, BY DESIGN
PapaTime runs on the iPad you already gave your kid. Setup takes about three minutes: pick which apps need tokens, pick a daily ceiling, pick a schedule, hand them the iPad.

WHO IT'S FOR
• Parents whose kid keeps interrupting them at work for screen time.
• Families who already use chore charts and want to merge that into screen time.
• Anyone tired of Apple Screen Time's request/approve loop.

NOT FOR
• Tracking your kid's location, messages, or browsing — PapaTime does not do surveillance.
• Multi-device fleets — one iPad per kid is the design.

PRIVACY

PapaTime stores the minimum it needs to make the app work: device pairing code, your settings, and a transaction log of tokens earned and spent. No browsing history, no app screen recording, no behavioral profiling. Full policy at trypapatime.com/privacy.

Built by one parent for his own son. Three years in the making. Now ready for yours.