Screen Time share across devices option not visible on iOS and macOS

Share Across Devices applies within the SAME Apple Account, i.e., to devices signed into the same account. It does not apply to devices in a Family Sharing group signed into different accounts.

For example, I see it on my Mac when the Family Member is set to me.

Turning ON the Share Across Devices setting would mean any change I make to Screen Time settings on any device – either of my two Macs, my iPad Pro or my iPhone, would apply to all of those devices (and to my Apple Watch). With it OFF, I can change the setting on a device and that change applies only to that device.

When I set the Family Member to one of my children, the Share Across Devices setting is not shown, as intended.

More info from Apple:

Set up Screen Time for yourself on iPhone - Apple Support

Use Screen Time to manage your child's iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

More details:

• Why the option is missing: Apple changed how Screen Time and Family Sharing sync in newer OS versions. Under the updated Family Sharing and Screen Time framework, restrictions and app limits imposed on a child's account via Family Sharing are designed to apply globally to their Apple ID across all signed-in devices rather than being independently toggleable per device via a "Share Across Devices" master switch.
• Why Safari now blocks on the Mac too: Because restrictions applied to a child's account through Family Sharing now synchronize natively across their devices tied to that Apple ID, disabling Safari on the iPhone simultaneously disables it on the Mac profile.

A child account has the screen time managed by the parent account, so the settings for the child account are different. The managed settings are applied across all of the devices to which the child account is logged in. It makes sense there would not be an option to share settings across devices for a child, since that account cannot manage those settings.

Yes, I am on 27.2.

Yup it's missing from the upgraded family settings, the OG image is pre-update.

Hello,

Thank you very much for your reply.

First I want to share that my son is indeed on the same Apple ID on my Mac (he has is own account with own Apple ID) and on his phone

Secondly, is your screenshot from macOS 27.2 ? or 27.0 ? The menus changed a lot between the two. Since I have upgraded to 27.2, the menus look like this. It's in French but the layout should be the same as in English.

I still can't see the shared between device toggle

Thanks again,

Phil

Thanks. But I had screen time set-up a year ago. I just stopped working since upgrading to iOS and macOS 27.2

My son use safari to make his homework on the computer but never had safari on his phone.

These changes are really annoying.

I think I will erase every screen time options and try from scratch