How to Set Up an Apple Watch for Your Kids (2026)

It finally happened. On a sunny weekend, I sent my then 7-year-old daughter a block ahead to the playground while I helped her little brother sort out his new pedal bike. We must have taken a long time, because I started getting a bunch of calls from an unknown number. When we finally caught up, my daughter was standing with a stranger and crying. The Good Samaritan was holding his phone. “You weren’t here,” he said accusingly.

“I was 500 feet away!” I protested. It was no use. It was time to give my kids an Apple Watch.

The Apple Watch is one of the company’s most versatile (and popular) products. Some people use it for texting or as a style accessory. I mainly use mine as a fitness tracker. In 2020, Apple released Family Setup with WatchOS 7, which explicitly marketed the more affordable and older versions of the Apple Watch to children and elderly relatives.

Since 2020, the debate over whether minors should have any smart devices at all has become more fraught. In 2024, many schools banned smartphones; last year, my daughter’s school district, among many others, banned smartwatches. Products like the Pinwheel and Tin Can phone are meant to provide phone-less communication alternatives.

However, as a parent and iPhone user myself, I still find an Apple Watch to be a convenient compromise. I have old Apple Watches around my house, and I generally prefer giving my children technology from larger companies that will be pressured to respond quickly to security failures. Here’s how to do it. Do you need to buy a watch? Check out our guides to the Best Apple Watch or the Top Features in WatchOS 26 for more.

Updated February 2026: We’ve included updated information on smartwatch and smartphone bans, updates on WatchOS 26, and updated links.

Apple introduced Family Setup—now known as Apple Watch for Your Kids—in 2020 with WatchOS 7. To use this now somewhat awkwardly named feature, you need an Apple Watch Series 6 or later with cellular capabilities that you will add to your cell phone plan. (Technically, it works with any watch that is Series 4 or later, but we no longer recommend the first-gen SE, Series 4, or 5 as they are not compatible with WatchOS 26.) You also need an iPhone with iOS 14 or later.

Both you and your child also need an Apple ID. If both of you already have one, you can go to Settings on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, and click Family. Then click Add Member. If your child doesn’t have an Apple ID, you will be given the option to Create Child Account. From there, follow the instructions to add the child’s name, birth date, and email address. If they don’t already have an email address, you can use the suggested iCloud option.

A Blank Slate

First, unpair and erase your old Apple Watch. Open the Apple Watch app on your phone and click All Watches. Tap the info button next to your old watch and click Unpair Apple Watch. You can opt to keep your cellular plan (you’ll need it for your kid).

Unpairing is supposed to erase all content and settings on your watch, but in my case, it did not. If it doesn’t work for you either, tap Settings on the watch, then General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings.

At this point, you can have your kid put it on (if it’s charged). The watch will say Bring iPhone Near Apple Watch. If you open the Watch app, it lets you choose to Set Up for a Family Member. Aim the phone’s viewfinder at the slowly moving animation to pair, or select Pair Manually.

Apple’s tutorial is pretty straightforward from this point. I picked a passcode that’s easy for my daughter to remember and picked her from my family list. I continued cellular service. Then I set up all the usual features and services for an Apple Watch, including Ask to Buy so she couldn’t buy anything from the app store without my permission, Messages, and Emergency SOS.

I also chose to limit my daughter’s contacts on the watch. First, go to Settings > iCloud > Contacts on your phone and make sure it’s toggled on. Then click out, go back to Settings > Screen Time > Family Member > Communication Limits. You need to request your child’s permission to manage their contacts and approve it from the kid’s watch. On their watch, you can add and rename contacts from your contact list (Dad becomes “Grandpa,” Tim becomes “Uncle Timmy,” and so on).

The last step is turning on Schooltime, which is basically a remote-controlled version of an adult Work Focus. It blocks apps and complications, but emergency calls can still come through. The setup tutorial walks you through how to set up Schooltime on your child’s watch, but if you skip it during setup, you can manage it later. On your iPhone, tap All Watches > Your Child’s Watch > Schooltime > Edit Schedule.

I elected to turn Schooltime on when my child is in school and turn it off during afterschool care, but you can also click Add Time if you’d like to turn it on during a morning class, take a break for lunch, and then turn it back on again. Your kid can just turn the digital crown to exit Schooltime, but that’s OK—you can check their Schooltime reports on your iPhone too.

To manage your child’s watch, go to your Watch > All Watches > Family Watches > Your Kid’s Apple Watch. This is how you install updates and manage settings. For more settings that you can turn on or off, check out Apple’s full list here. For example, you can check health details, set up a Medical ID, or even edit their smart replies.

Fun for Everyone

Just as with a grown-up Apple Watch, the first thing you’ll probably want to do is switch the watch face. Hold down the screen and wait for the face to shrink, and swipe to switch. (You probably also want to buy a tiny kid-specific watch band.)

We got my daughter an Apple Watch, so I’d be able to see her on Find My, and she could contact me via phone or the Messages app, which she does with regrettable frequency.

Another underrated onboard app for kids is Walkie Talkie. When we were at a crowded neighborhood event, we toggled Walkie Talkie on both of our Apple Watches. My daughter was able to keep in touch with me on a minute-to-minute basis. It was reassuring that she was able to reach out and say she couldn’t see me, even if she was only 10 or 20 feet away.

We also like the Mindfulness app, which can persuade my sensitive kid to take a deep breath before screaming about the annoying sound her brother is making. Although I explicitly wanted to get her a watch instead of a phone so that she wouldn’t stare at a screen all day, I did cave and buy her one game, Coloring Watch, which lets her choose images, fine-tune color selections, and send her creations to us.

The most useful feature she’s found on her Apple Watch has been Siri, which makes sense. In the past few years, I have heard her ask questions as varied as:

• Hey Siri, what is Russia?
• How many stars are on the American flag?
• Can you show me pictures of the grossest animal?

In case you were wondering, the world’s grossest animals are truly revolting. We were eating dinner, and I couldn’t even click on the pictures to find out what these animals were. That’s the thing about children, though—you’re learning from them, even as you think they’re learning from you. Maybe if more of us used technology to relate to the world around us, instead of getting away from it, we’d all be better off.