A child is playing games on your phone: what can they get into?

You hand over your phone in a waiting room so the toddler stays quiet. Ten minutes later you get it back, and the game is fine. But the gallery is open, a photo is half-shared, and a notification you didn’t want to explain has been tapped.

Children aren’t trying to snoop. They tap, swipe and press whatever is on the screen. So the goal isn’t to catch them. It is to leave them somewhere that has nothing in it that can go wrong.

What to do now

Lock the phone to the game. Both platforms have a single-app mode, which you turn on once in Settings.

• iPhone: guided access, found in the Accessibility settings. Open the game, then start a session with the button shortcut the setting describes. Ending it asks for your passcode or face or fingerprint unlock. The exact shortcut depends on your iOS version. You can also switch off touch on parts of the screen, such as an ad banner.
• Android: app pinning, in Security or Security & location, under Advanced settings. Open the game, open recent apps, tap the app’s icon and choose Pin. Leaving it asks for your PIN, pattern or password. Menus differ a little between makers.

Use a separate profile if your phone offers one. Some Android phones and many tablets let you add a guest, a user or a child profile. Each has its own apps and storage, and the owner’s files and messages aren’t shared with it. Look under Settings, System, Multiple users. Not every phone supports this, and on iPhone it doesn’t exist.

Check what the game can reach. Look at app permissions: does it need your photos? Most games don’t. Switch off access you didn’t mean to give.

Turn off easy purchases. Require your passcode or fingerprint for any purchase, so a tap can’t spend money.

Turn off notification previews on the lock screen. A message that appears while your child holds the phone will be read.

Tell them what the phone is for. For older children, a simple rule works better than a lock: “this phone is for this game, and other things on it are mine.”

What doesn’t help

• A cartoon-covered “kid mode” you set up once and forget. Any app can be closed unless a single-app mode holds it.
• Moving photos to a hidden folder and then handing over the phone unlocked. Unlocked is unlocked; some hidden folders open with the same unlock.
• Relying on the deleted folder to undo a deletion. It usually keeps things for a few weeks, but not forever and not for everything.

Where a vault helps

If the photos and files you wouldn’t want a child to see, share or delete live in Silo, they aren’t in your gallery at all. A child who escapes the game and opens your photos finds the ordinary ones. Silo has its own lock, so it asks for your PIN, passphrase or face or fingerprint before it shows anything. You can set auto-lock to lock at once, and the app-switcher cover keeps its contents off the recent apps view. Deleted items sit in Silo’s own deleted folder for 30 days before they go for good.

Silo doesn’t hide itself or stop a child from opening it. They would just see a lock screen. They also can’t guess a PIN made of six or more digits by tapping.