what smartphone features can be restricted for iOS, Android, Windows phones?

Question

We are working on a mobile app with a feature that allows parents to restrict or disable certain phone functions on their children's devices.

I have been googling for this for a while and can't find an adequate search term.

Ultimately I would like to create a table that outlines various phone features and indicates whether a native mobile application can restrict or disable it. This will be used to indicate the differences between iOS, Android, and Windows Phone development capabilities.

Some features I am looking to modify are: app use, phone calls, text messages, internet access, etc. For restrictions such as phone calls and texts, I'd also like to determine if we can allow a "white list" of allowed contacts.

Thanks for your time.

Answer 1

Windows Phone doesn't have any mechanisms to allow one app to restrict what the user / other apps can do. It does have the Kids Corner feature that enables parents to limit what apps a child can use (and some features within those apps, like In-App-Purchases) but not individual features.

Answer 2

iOS already has a pretty rich parental control center built into the Settings app. I don't believe there is an API that would allow you access those features either. In general, this type of inter-app communication is very limited on iOS.