iPhone - location services can be disabled

I have two kids using iPhones with Family Sharing. In Screen Time under 'Content & Privacy Restriction', the option for Privacy > Share My Location is set to Don't Allow. My understanding is that this will prevent them from turning it off under Screen Time on their device or prompt for the passcode I have set.

What I'm also seeing is that under Settings > Privacy > Location Services, is the ability to turn this off which seems to override the previous setting and results in their device not showing in the Find My app.

Is there any way to fix this?


You want to enable sharing of location between family members and also want to ensure that your kids can't turn it off on their device.

On your kids phone -

Enable Location Sharing:

Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Share My Location and tap on the toggle button to enable sharing the iPhone's location.

Enable Restriction to Prevent Turning it Off:

  1. In Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions > Share My Location, tap "Don't Allow".

  2. In Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions > Location Services, tap on "Don't Allow Changes".

The first step will lock "Share My Location" settings, and prevent it from being changed. The second step will prevent all setting options in "Location Services" from being changed and prevent access to it from Settings > Privacy > Location Services too.

(Note: If any apps your kids use require "Location" permission, please enable it before restricting access to the Location Services options as described in Step 2).