My kid wants an iPod touch for her birthday. I’m inclined to fulfill her wishes, but I’m a little concerned about her looking at objectionable content on Safari or YouTube, or running up big bills downloading apps and music. Does the iPod touch come with parental controls?

It does. You can’t limit certain sites in Safari, but you could block the app altogether. And YouTube, the App Store, and the iTunes Store can all be restricted too.

To get started, open the Settings app on the iPod touch, then tap General, and Restrictions. You’ll need to enter a four-digit passcode--don’t share it with your kid, obviously. Then you can disallow Safari, YouTube, the iTunes Store, the App Store, the camera (iPhone only), and Location (which disables the GPS chip in an iPhone or the Wi-Fi-based Location Services on an iPod touch). That’ll turn those apps off completely and forever--unless you go back to the Restrictions list and turn them back on.

Setting limits, like a good parent should.

If you don’t want to totally disable the iTunes Store or App Store while still limiting what they can access, the Restrictions list also has an Allowed Content section. Here you can limit downloaded movies and TV shows by their age rating, exclude music and podcasts rated “explicit,” limit app downloads based on age ratings, and even ban in-app purchasing.

Oh, and if you want to protect your kid’s hearing, you can also check out Settings > iPod > Volume Limit to set the maximum volume to a lower level than the default. This can also be locked with a passcode so your kid won’t go right in and undo what you’ve done.