Kids corner asking for password

[curiousgeorge]

I have an HTC 8X, that I love, but every so often kids corner asks for my password. Isn't the point for it not to require one? Anyone else see this?

I have password prompt setup for the 15 minute delay.

 

[dkp23]

Yes. That is how ms decided to do it which is dumb and makes no sense.

 

[manicottiK]

It's working as designed. The design isn't to let your kids or other folks use your phone without permission, it's to let you give them access to sandboxed environment that keeps the other parts of your phone safe and secure. This is also why, after using Kid's Corner, the phone will prompt for the PIN again even if the phone was used within your 15-minute timeout (because the phone "knows" that it was just in the hands of an untrusted user.) The current design is what some users want, but it serves the goals of 1) protecting your data, 2) protecting your battery, and 3) pacifying your kids. If would be nice if MS let the user chose to let users into Kid's Corner with no PIN, a Kid's Corner-specific PIN, or the standard phone PIN.

 

[peachy001]

My biggest gripe with kid's corner is that it shares my password. My son loves Kid's corner, but the password thing is annoying. Nor. Gonna put one on and then give it to the kids.

 

[glimited]

It's kind of annoying but I read in some of the other threads that this is a known issue that's being worked on.

I use my Kid's Corner as an area for apps I can use while driving (CarTunes, Nokia Drive, Inrix Traffic, etc.) so if I need quick access while locked it can be in an inconvenience having to enter a passcode. Another thing that's kind of annoying is that when I plug in an auxiliary cable it defaults to 20/30 volume. I know it's for ear safety since it's a Kid's Corner but having to put it up to 30/30 every time I listen to music in the car is pretty annoying.

 

[btgusto]

it is not working as designed. The main reason why is that you have to enter the same password as you would in the main lockscreen for full access to the phone. The point of "Kids" corner is to limit the access to the phone to a corner. So if the kid know the password to the corner whats to stop them from entering the main portion of the phone. In none of MS videos do you see them using a password or talk about using a password for kids corner.

 

[manicottiK]

You mean that it's not working as you want it to. You want a feature that lets kids get into (parts of) an adult's phone whenever the kids want. Microsoft designed a feature that lets kids get into (parts of) an adult's phone whenever the adult approves.

Once the adult approves use by keying in any required password, the kid is free to play, put the phone down, and use it up again without a password -- as long as the time that the phone was put down is within the password timeout. Essentially, the "proper owner" of the device has to approve of a play session. It's like in the real world when there's a sandbox in the park down the street: the kid is free to play in the sandbox, but not until the adult says that it's OK to go to the park so that the adult has taken on some responsibility for the child's activities.

A nice expansion of that feature might options for setting a separate Kid's Corner password or having no Kid's Corner password at all. (The latter might open up the opportunity for security breaches at some companies if apps containing sensitive data were exposed outside of a password in violation of any company-required security policies).

 

[curiousgeorge]

I can see the logic for the password but it really feels like they should have an option to disable it for kids corner. This lack of options is my major gripe with Windows Phone 8! Coming from Android is hard, where there is an option for everything!

 

[mikeyjames]

It's working as designed. The design isn't to let your kids or other folks use your phone without permission, it's to let you give them access to sandboxed environment that keeps the other parts of your phone safe and secure. This is also why, after using Kid's Corner, the phone will prompt for the PIN again even if the phone was used within your 15-minute timeout (because the phone "knows" that it was just in the hands of an untrusted user.) The current design is what some users want, but it serves the goals of 1) protecting your data, 2) protecting your battery, and 3) pacifying your kids. If would be nice if MS let the user chose to let users into Kid's Corner with no PIN, a Kid's Corner-specific PIN, or the standard phone PIN.

If you think this is as designed there is something seriously wrong with what your expectations are, if kids zone needs my full password why not just remove password altogether and just let the kid do what they like. Rebooting phone has same effect.

A true kids zone would allow mw what games, apps, movies, etc, I wan to access. Not just be able to reboot the phone, use same password and hand full access.

This feature is rubbish and needs to be fixed.

Micn

 

[Russ Michaels]

If you think this is as designed there is something seriously wrong with what your expectations are, if kids zone needs my full password why not just remove password altogether and just let the kid do what they like. Rebooting phone has same effect.

A true kids zone would allow mw what games, apps, movies, etc, I wan to access. Not just be able to reboot the phone, use same password and hand full access.

This feature is rubbish and needs to be fixed.

Micn

I agree he seems clueless. Any documentation or videos you see clearly shows there is no password requirement to get into kids corner. So it is not working as intended or as advertised.

 

[dgs2001]

You mean that it's not working as you want it to. You want a feature that lets kids get into (parts of) an adult's phone whenever the kids want. Microsoft designed a feature that lets kids get into (parts of) an adult's phone whenever the adult approves.

Once the adult approves use by keying in any required password, the kid is free to play, put the phone down, and use it up again without a password -- as long as the time that the phone was put down is within the password timeout. Essentially, the "proper owner" of the device has to approve of a play session. It's like in the real world when there's a sandbox in the park down the street: the kid is free to play in the sandbox, but not until the adult says that it's OK to go to the park so that the adult has taken on some responsibility for the child's activities.

A nice expansion of that feature might options for setting a separate Kid's Corner password or having no Kid's Corner password at all. (The latter might open up the opportunity for security breaches at some companies if apps containing sensitive data were exposed outside of a password in violation of any company-required security policies).

manicotti - Im afraid you are wrong. Your description is not the way Microsoft designed or intended the feature to work.

As per ms page here windowsphone.com/en-gb/how-to/wp8/people/set-up-kids-corner. Kids Corner should not require a passcode, however the notes state - If your phone is set to lock itself automatically after a period of inactivity, you might sometimes need to enter your lock screen password before your child can open Kid's Corner.

However it appears there is a serious bug in the implementation that ms should have fixed by now.
Anybody who wants to set up kids corner properly will need to hard reset the phone. Once you have a shiny new empty phone, DO NOT SET A LOCKSCREEN PASSCODE on it.
Go to kids corner and set it up, when asked whether you wish to set a phone lockscreen passcode do not skip this step. it appears that kids corner privileges only get set correctly if a passcode is set from the kids corner set up screen, and a hard reset is the only way back if you skip this and then set a passcode from the main settings screen.

Bloomin annoying and ms should have sorted this by now.

Another rather annoying thing, my lumia 1520 does not delete icons from the kids corner when the apps are uninstalled, they just stay as shaded out blue squares