Guardian Reader turns screen time into something your child earns by reading real books out loud.
You choose which apps get locked. To unlock them, your child photographs a page of any printed book, reads it aloud, and the app checks that they really read it, word by word, right on the iPhone.
No account. No servers. Nothing tracked.
HOW IT WORKS
1. Scan the pages. One photo per page, with a framing guide so only what you point at counts.
2. Read them out loud, straight through. The app listens and matches what it hears against the pages, live, so your child watches the percentage climb as they read.
3. Screen time unlocks. Pass the reading and the apps open for the minutes they earned. When the time runs out, they lock again by themselves.
IT CATCHES THE SHORTCUTS KIDS ACTUALLY TAKE
This is the part other reward apps skip. Guardian Reader does not take your child's word for it, and it does not ask a quiz that can be guessed.
• Reading honestly lands far above the pass mark. Improvising, mumbling or playing a video lands near zero.
• Stumbles, repeats and small mistakes still pass. It checks that they read, not that they were perfect.
• A page already scanned in the same session cannot be scanned again.
• You move the pass mark yourself, so a five-year-old and a teenager are both treated fairly.
BUILT FOR A HABIT, NOT A PUNISHMENT
• Streaks and medals, from the first day to a full year
• Progress by day, month and year
• Every session saved with what was actually read
• A four-week reading plan built from your child's age and daily screen time
FOR PARENTS
• Lock any app or an entire category using Apple's Screen Time
• Set the pages per session and the minutes earned
• Settings sit behind a parent PIN, deliberately separate from Face ID: the face enrolled on that iPhone belongs to your child
• Export a PDF reading report to hand to a teacher (Premium)
PRIVATE BY DESIGN
Reading is verified on the device. Your child's voice is never recorded, uploaded or shared, and photos of book pages never leave the iPhone. There is no account to create, no server of ours, and nothing is tracked, sold or shared.
FREE AND PREMIUM
Free: verified reading aloud, screen time rewards, streaks, medals and the last 30 days of progress history, with one blocked app.
Premium: unlimited blocked apps and categories, your full progress history, plus PDF reading reports. Available as a monthly subscription, as a yearly subscription with a 3-day free trial, or as a one-time lifetime purchase.
Requires an iPhone with iOS 18 or later. Available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Chinese.
Subscriptions
Guardian Reader Premium is available as a monthly or a yearly auto-renewable subscription, or as a one-time lifetime purchase. The yearly plan includes a 3-day free trial; the monthly plan does not. Prices are shown inside the app before you buy. Payment is charged to your Apple Account on confirmation. A subscription renews automatically unless it is cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage or cancel it at any time in your Apple Account settings.
Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Privacy Policy: https://dezeo.lat/guardianreader/privacypolicy/
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