Guardian Reader app icon, an owl reading an open book Guardian Reader
Parental control · Verified reading · Screen time

The parental control that listens to them read.

Guardian Reader locks the apps you choose. Your child reads a real book out loud, the iPhone verifies every word, and the screen time they earned unlocks. No willpower required, from either of you.

Download on theApp Store See how it works

Free to download · For the child's iPhone, iOS 18+ · No accounts, no tracking · 9 languages

Guardian Reader home screen on iPhone showing Instagram, TikTok and WhatsApp locked, a 16 day reading streak and the goal that earns 45 minutes of screen time

Read to play.

Guardian Reader puts a real book between your child and their apps. A few pages read out loud, verified word by word, and the screen opens.

Download on theApp Store

iPhone · iOS 18+ · Free: verified reading + one blocked app · Premium with 7 day free trial

Inside the App

Block apps until the reading is done.

A parental control and a reading coach in one. Your child runs it alone; the iPhone does the checking.

Live verification

Watch it verify, word by word.

While your child reads out loud, the app matches what it hears against the scanned pages and the percentage climbs live. This is a real session, reading a paper book to an iPhone. Honest reading lands far above the pass mark; talking about something else lands near zero.

Reading aloud is the exercise →
Child scanning a page of a printed book with the Guardian Reader camera and its framing guide

Scan the pages

Any paper book becomes the key.

Your child photographs every page they are going to read, one photo per page, then reads them all straight through like a real book. Only the text inside the framing guide counts, and a page already scanned in that session is rejected automatically.

How to get your kids to read more →
Guardian Reader listening with the match at 0 percent of 164 words, because nothing from the scanned page has been read aloud yet

Anti-cheating

It catches the shortcuts kids actually take.

No quiz to guess, no honor system. The spoken words are compared against the exact pages they scanned, in order, so skimming, improvising or claiming it is done does not pass. Stumbles and small mistakes do: it checks that they read, not that they were perfect. A slider lets you set how strict the pass mark is.

How earning screen time works →
Guardian Reader showing apps unlocked with 44 minutes and 59 seconds of earned screen time counting down

The reward

Pass the reading. Unlock the phone.

The apps open for exactly the minutes they earned, with a countdown in plain sight. When it hits zero they lock again by themselves, enforced by Apple's Screen Time system, even if Guardian Reader is closed.

How to limit YouTube and TikTok →
Parental control settings with blocked apps, pages per session, reward minutes and strictness slider

Parent rules

You set the exchange rate.

Pages in, minutes out: one page earns about 15 minutes at ages 4 to 6, up to four pages for about 45 minutes for teens. The plan suggests a starting point by age, and every number can be changed behind a parent PIN that is separate from the phone passcode.

Screen time rules that actually work →
Reading streak medals earned from first day to two weeks, with a best streak of 16 days

Progress & streaks

Medals that keep them coming back.

Streaks, stars and medals for the child; pages per day, month and year for you. Premium adds a PDF report of every session: date, minutes, match percentage and the text they actually read, ready to hand to a teacher.

A reading log for school →
Guardian Reader privacy screen: no account, reading verified on the iPhone offline, nothing tracked

Private by design

A microphone pointed at a child should explain itself.

The camera reads the page, the microphone transcribes the reading, and both work on the device only. No account, no server, no analytics, no third-party SDKs: the voice never leaves the iPhone, and everything works offline.

Read the full privacy policy →

How it works

Four steps. Nothing to negotiate.

Set it up once with your child. After that, the deal runs itself: the limit lives in the app, not in your voice.

1

Lock the apps

Pick the apps or whole categories to lock, like YouTube, TikTok or games, and protect the settings with your parent PIN.

2

Scan the pages

Your child photographs the pages of a real book they are about to read, one photo per page.

3

Read out loud

They read everything straight through while the iPhone listens and verifies every word against the scanned text.

4

Screen time unlocks

Pass the reading and the apps open for the earned minutes. At zero, they lock again by themselves.

Guides

Help for the hard parts.

Practical guides on screen time, blocking apps and getting kids to read, and how to put Guardian Reader to work on each one.

Reading

How to Get Your Kids to Read More

Seven approaches that work with a child who would rather be on a screen, and the one that needs no willpower from you.

Read the guide Screen Time

How Kids Can Earn Screen Time by Reading

Turning screen time into something earned instead of expected, and how to make the rule stick without policing it.

Read the guide Parental Control

How to Block Apps on Your Child's iPhone

What Screen Time can and cannot do, where kids find the loopholes, and how to close them for good.

Read the guide YouTube · TikTok

How to Limit YouTube and TikTok for Kids

Why time limits alone fail on infinite feeds, and what to put in front of the app instead.

Read the guide Fluency

Reading Fluency Practice at Home

What teachers mean by fluency, why reading aloud is the exercise, and how to fit ten minutes into a normal evening.

Read the guide Family rules

Screen Time Rules That Actually Work

Why most family screen rules collapse in two weeks, and the three properties the ones that survive have in common.

Read the guide

View all 8 guides

FAQ

Questions, answered.

How does Guardian Reader verify my child actually read the book?
Your child photographs every page they are going to read, one photo per page. The app extracts the text from those photos, then listens while they read it all out loud, straight through, and compares what it hears against that text, word by word. Reading honestly scores far above the pass mark; talking about something else scores near zero. All of it happens on the iPhone. Learn more
Can my child cheat by pretending to read?
Not by pretending. The app compares the spoken words against the exact pages they scanned, in order, so improvising, mumbling or skipping ahead does not match the text, and a page already scanned in the same session cannot count twice. What it verifies is that those words were read out loud, not who said them: there is no voice recognition. See the next question. Learn more
Could an AI voice read the page instead of my child?
Yes, and we would rather say so. Guardian Reader compares what the microphone hears against the scanned page; it does not identify who is speaking. A synthetic voice reading that same text on a second device would pass, and so would an older sibling. What the app reliably stops is the everyday version: skimming, improvising, or saying it is done. A child willing to photograph a page, retype it into a voice generator and play it back has a problem the app was never going to solve.
Do I install Guardian Reader on my phone or my child's?
On your child's iPhone, the one with the apps you want to lock. There is no remote dashboard on your phone: you configure everything on their device, and the settings stay behind a parent PIN only you know. Family Sharing is not required. Learn more
Which apps can I block on my child's iPhone?
Any app or whole category installed on the iPhone, using Apple's Screen Time framework: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, games, or every social app at once. Free blocks one app; Premium blocks as many as you need. Learn more
Does Guardian Reader record my child's voice?
No. The microphone is used to transcribe the reading on the device while the session is running. There is no account, no server and no upload: the voice never leaves the iPhone, and nothing is tracked, sold or shared. Learn more
What books work with the app?
Any printed book, magazine or comic with readable text. The child photographs one page at a time with a framing guide, so only the text inside the frame counts. It works in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. Learn more
What age is Guardian Reader for?
Roughly ages 4 to 16. During setup you pick an age band and the app adjusts the pages per session and how strict the match has to be, so a child learning to read is not held to the same standard as a teenager. Learn more
How much does Guardian Reader cost?
Free: verified reading aloud, screen time rewards, streaks, medals and the full progress history, with one blocked app. Premium: unlimited blocked apps and PDF reading reports, with a 7 day free trial on the yearly plan ($19.99/year) or a one-time $49.99 lifetime option.
Can I get a reading log for school?
Yes. Premium exports a PDF with every session: date, time, pages, minutes, match percentage and the text your child actually read aloud. It is ready to hand to a teacher as evidence of at-home reading practice. Learn more
Does it work without internet?
Yes. Reading the pages, verifying them and unlocking screen time all work offline, because the text recognition and the speech transcription run on the iPhone itself. Learn more
Can my child just uninstall the app or change the settings?
Settings are behind a parent PIN that is separate from the phone passcode and from Face ID, so the child cannot open them. The blocking itself is enforced by Apple's Screen Time system, and when the earned minutes run out the apps lock again automatically, even if Guardian Reader is closed. Learn more
Tonight, reading comes first.

Two minutes of setup. Your child reads out loud, earns their screen time, and you are not the bad guy anymore.

Download on theApp Store

Free to download · No ads, no accounts, no tracking