Can I block gambling apps on their iPhone

Who installs it, and where the permission lives

The blocking on an iPhone is done by Apple's Screen Time controls. An app asks for permission to use them, the person signed in to that phone grants it, and from then on the app can seal the apps that person picked. Every part of that happens on the one device. There is no remote grant, no administrator account and no way to hand the permission to somebody who is not holding the phone.

So the person who wants to be blocked installs it and picks what to seal. You cannot do that step for them, and any product that says otherwise is describing a company owned device or a parent managing a child's account, which is set out further down.

Nor is there a way to remove the permission afterwards. Screen Time can be switched off in Settings by whoever holds the phone, and no app on iOS can stop that. What Fold’em does about it is refuse to pretend: switching it off is not blocked, and if you hold their key, your card for them shows it.

What you hold instead

Requests. When they ask to end protection or to end a Lockdown sooner, the request reaches you and you answer it.

Saying no is one tap, from anywhere, in your own app, and your phone confirms it is you before the tap counts. Letting them out is only ever done face to face: your app shows an approval code and they scan it with the app on their phone while you stand together, and no web page and no email can do it. Even then a wait of 48 hours starts from the moment you said yes.

You cannot start their protection, end it, or shorten or cancel a wait. You can choose which kinds of alert ring your phone, in your own Settings, and a request to end protection always reaches you whatever those switches say.

Exactly what you are told

Their protection shows on a card in Fold’em on your own phone, and the card changes when one of three things happens.

1. Protection went off. Screen Time permission was switched off on that phone, or the shield Fold’em applied is gone. Your card changes to Protection off. It can be a hard moment, or simply Screen Time being reset for another reason.
2. The phone stopped confirming. No reading of any kind has arrived for 24 hours. Your card reads Not confirmed yet, which is the gentler of the two: it can be as ordinary as a dead battery or airplane mode, and it does not say anything was switched off.
3. Protection is ending. Your card reads Protection at risk, and you are told it ends in 72 hours unless it is restored.

Beside those there are requests: to end protection and to end a Lockdown sooner. You answer them rather than simply read them, and they always reach you. Which kinds of alert also ring your phone is yours to set in your own Settings.

The web setting

Fold’em blocks betting sites with an encrypted DNS setting on the phone, separate from the Screen Time seal that holds the apps. That setting can be switched off in iOS Settings.

Reading the card

The card you hold for them in your app carries one status at a time, and it is the fastest honest summary you have.