Guided Access is the single greatest iOS feature for parents and kids

If you're like me and you routinely have to mind an Angry Birds-obsessed 3-year-old, you already know how easily tiny fingers can find their way to strange parts of the iPad and iPhone. You can disable WiFi or even turn cellular data off to prevent unauthorized web browsing, but that's tedious and unnecessary, and it doesn't keep young users from venturing to other parts of the phone they shouldn't be going. Enter "Guided Access," the best way to turn your iPhone into a one-app device.

Here's how it works:

• Head to the Settings menu of your iPhone and then the Accessibility section.

• Find Guided Access and enable it.

• Now, enter whatever app you want want to use and triple-click the Home button.

• Choose which areas of the screen you'd like to disable, if any, and click start.

That's it! Now, if your young iOS user attempts to back out of the app (either on purpose or accidentally) they'll be stopped short. If they (or you) triple-click the Home button, a four-digit code must be entered before Guided Access can be disabled.

The feature even works with apps that can open web pages on their own, such as the "Toon TV" links in the Angry Birds apps. Clicking on one of these links is met with a blank screen, rather than a portal to the web.

Using Guided Access, you can also disable the volume buttons, lock button or the screen orientation. It's the ultimate iPhone (or iPad) lockdown feature, and your device already has it. Give it a try and you won't be disappointed!

[Image credit: Scrapgeek]