The iOS screen time feature is currently buggy on iPhones, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The bug has not yet been fully identified, but the end result is that the iPhone (or iPad or iPod Touch) downtime settings are reset. This means that users who were previously locked out when downtime began may now have unlimited access; the WSJ has reported on one parent's experience of having to keep resetting downtime every few days to keep their children's usage limits in place, and one editor's experience of having to reset his children's device's downtime settings and that it took three attempts to restore them.

The good news is that downtime limits can be set on a per-device basis. However, coordinating limits across multiple Apple devices can be somewhat cumbersome.

Even more frustrating is the fact that this problem has occurred before with the iPhone, with the first complaint in this long thread on this topic in the Apple support forum appearing in December 2022. Apple theoretically fixed everything in iOS 16.5, but this issue is still obviously present, as is the iOS 17 beta.

Apple is at least aware of the issue, and the WSJ quotes an Apple spokesperson as saying: "We are aware that some users may be experiencing issues with their screen time settings being reset unexpectedly.

"We take these reports very seriously and have been and will continue to update to remedy the situation," the spokesperson continued.

Given how focused the world is on phones, getting kids (or adults) in the habit of making time each day to not look at screens is a worthwhile initiative. However, without specific time given for modification, you should monitor your child's screen time yourself or alternatively invest in one of the best parental control apps.

Apple is currently testing iOS 16.6 in beta, and a stable version is expected to arrive within a month. That is the time when a fix for this Screen Time issue is likely to arrive, but Apple has not promised a specific timeline for squashing the bug at the time of writing.