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Peek-a-View iPhone app aims to protect your photos from those meddling kids

A Disney World family trip led to a developer coming up with Peek-a-View, a way to protect your photos from accidental deletion when your kids want to scroll through them.

It can also be used when handing your iPhone to friends, colleagues, or clients to ensure they see only the photos you want to show them…

Casey Liss explains.

It all started with a trip to Disney World. We went for my son’s fifth birthday. He hadn’t been to Disney since he was barely more than an infant. Our daughter, Mikaela, had never been.

Ever-so-independent, even just shy of two years old, Mikaela had strong opinions about everything when she was willing to ride in the stroller. After a few days at Disney, my wife and I discovered what would calm her down: browsing the Photos app on our phones, looking at the pictures we had taken on the trip so far.

This was utterly terrifying.

Photos isn’t really designed for this, and makes it possible — if not easy — to delete or edit photos. Given that these were the only copies of photos we had taken on the trip, I was scared that Mikaela would accidentally delete one or more of them.

You can, of course, recover deleted photos from the Recently Deleted album on your iPhone, but only if you spot that they are missing within 30 days.

Peek-a-View is a simple photo viewer that allows the user to browse photos without the ability to delete or edit them. You can grant access to either all photos or only those in one specific album.

It also provides a more kid-friendly interface, providing a mosaic of photos they can tap to view.

The app is a freemium one, the free version allowing access to only the 20 most recent photos or videos, while a $5 in-app purchase unlocks unlimited viewing.

Liss suggests that you use it with Guided Access for maximum child-proofing. Apple says that use by children was the main reason for creating the feature.

Guided Access limits your device to a single app and lets you control which features are available. You can turn on Guided Access when you let a child use your device.

Peek-a-View is a freemium download from the App Store.

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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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