Here's a Simple Parental Lock for Your Apple Watch - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Here's a Simple Parental Lock for Your Apple Watch

by

Anyone who looks after children knows how fascinating an illuminated display is to a baby or toddler. When it's an interactive touchscreen that's strapped to your wrist, the intrigue

improvised parental lock apple watch
If your Apple Watch has proven a bit too attractive to little fingers and you're worried they'll unintentionally send a message, mess up your notification settings, or worse, here's a quick trick that you can use whenever their interest is piqued.

It only takes a second to perform, and with a little luck, it will make your smartwatch a little less interesting – until they get old enough to figure out how to reverse what you've done!

  1. Bring up the Control Center on your ‌Apple Watch by pressing the Side button.
  2. Tap the Water Lock icon (it looks like a water droplet).
    water lock

And that's it! Of course, we're improvising here by using the Water Lock feature, which is intended to be used when you're swimming (it locks the screen so you can swim without water activating it). But it works great as a quick parental lock, too, because your watch remains unresponsive to taps by tots for as long as it's enabled.

It's also easily turned off – if you know how. Simply press and hold the Digital Crown. You'll see an animation on the screen indicating that the speaker is being cleared of water after your "swim." Keep turning it until you hear the beeping tone rise in pitch, and your Apple Watch touchscreen will return to its normal responsive state.
Apple Watch

If your little one got bored and is having a nap, just be sure to disable the Water Lock feature in another room, as it can be a bit noisy.

Popular Stories

General Apps Reddit Feature

Reddit Starts Blocking Mobile Website, Pushing Users to App Instead

Monday May 11, 2026 6:10 am PDT by
Social network Reddit recently began blocking mobile visitors to its website while pushing them to download the official Reddit app, and it's fair to say that the move is not going down well with users. If you visit reddit.com on your iPhone today, you may see a new popup that can't be dismissed, asking you to "get the app to keep using Reddit." A Reddit spokesperson told Ars Technica...
Dynamic Island iPhone 18 Pro Feature

11 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 18 Pro

Monday May 11, 2026 9:01 am PDT by
We're only four months out from the launch of Apple's premium next-generation smartphone lineup, and while we're not expecting a sea change in terms of functionality, there are still several enhancements rumored to be coming to the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. One thing worth noting is that Apple is reportedly planning a major change to its iPhone release cycle this year, adopting a...
iOS 26

Apple Releases iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5 With End-to-End Encrypted RCS, New Wallpaper, and Maps Updates

Monday May 11, 2026 10:06 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5, the newest updates to the iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 operating systems. The software comes nearly two months after Apple released iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. Apple has also released iOS 15.8.8, iOS 16.7.16, iOS 18.7.9, and...