Bearings.

A calm, once-a-term pass over the settings that quietly drift — so you stay oriented without doomscrolling the news.

Quarterly Reset Card

A 10-minute check, re-usable every term · works for any age band, 5–18

Settings don’t stay put. App updates loosen defaults, a phone reset can unlink supervision, holiday gaming flips approvals off, and a fake birthday entered “to make it work” quietly switches off teen protections. Most boxes below will already be fine — tick them and move on. This is a tidy, not an emergency.

The device layer first about 4 min · it governs every app at once

Screen Time / Family Link still locked. Apple Screen Time locked with a passcode your child doesn’t know, or Family Link supervision still active. If it’s off, everything else can be switched off.
Downtime / bedtime hours still fit. Term timetables and clock changes mean summer or last-term hours rarely still suit the actual night.
Ask to Buy / purchase approval is on. Easily toggled off during holiday gaming; in-game spend is a top regret. Re-confirm any spend cap.
Broadband filter and SafeSearch still on. The home-network adult-content filter and device SafeSearch — the broad backstop that applies when an app’s own controls are loosened.

The age check — the linchpin about 2 min

Real date of birth / age still set on every app. Almost every protection keys off it. A fake birthday quietly switches teen protections off — and Meta/Roblox now re-check age with AI or face scans.

The two or three apps they actually use about 4 min · skip the rest

DM and private defaults intact. The under-16 messaging and private-account settings are the ones to confirm — defaults can loosen after an app update. Snapchat Contact Me = Friends + Ghost Mode; Instagram Teen Account private + strictest messaging; TikTok private, DMs off for under-16s.
Family-centre links still connected. A reinstall, reset or new device can silently unlink supervision (Snapchat Family Centre, Instagram supervision, TikTok Family Pairing).
Autoplay off, feed/spend limits intact. YouTube autoplay can creep back on after updates; re-check Roblox maturity, chat setting and Robux spend cap if they play.

Heads-up: menus and labels move often. If a path doesn’t match your screen, search the setting name in the app or open its official help page.

Autumn · done

Spring · done

Summer · done

If something has already gone wrong, this card isn’t the place to handle it. Reach the right help directly: in immediate danger call 999. To report online sexual abuse or grooming, CEOP (ceop.police.uk). To get a nude image of an under-18 removed, Report Remove via Childline (childline.org.uk/remove). For advice, NSPCC 0808 800 5000. For your child to talk to someone, Childline 0800 1111.

General guidance drawn from UK sources (e.g. Ofcom, NSPCC, CEOP/NCA, Internet Matters). Not a safeguarding assessment, prediction or guarantee. Settings reflect platforms at the time of printing and change often. © Bearings.