alt Hacker NewsBoth of these methods have an undesirable side effect for me, which is that it immediately pops up the passcode dialog saying that a passcode is required to activate Face ID. Depending on the situation, that could be construed as an attempt to actively interfere with a police investigation, which could bring consequences of its own. It would be better if it silently dropped you to the normal lock screen, and only showed the passcode dialog when you attempt to unlock the phone normally.
Another thing I've often wished for with kids is a mode that removes all notifications and widgets from the lock screen - the only things you should be able to do is to unlock the phone and emergency calls. You can remove most notifications with the right Focus, but not notifications to control playing music/video apps, for example, nor any other widgets you happen to put on your lock screen.
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> Depending on the situation, that could be construed as an attempt to actively interfere with a police investigation
IANAL but I highly doubt this would hold up in court with even mildly competent attorneys. Anyone can easily accidentally trigger it, I do all the time.
> Both of these methods have an undesirable side effect for me, which is that it immediately pops up the passcode dialog saying that a passcode is required to activate Face ID.
Must be an iOS 26 thing? I haven't dared upgrade yet. No immediate passcode dialog on iOS 18 if you follow the instructions above. It does pop up like you describe if you press the cancel button on the screen, but if you are whipping out your phone to play with the screen you're not exactly acting inconspicuously anyway.
The same passcode prompt appears after software updates, multiple previous failed Face ID login attempts, and maybe more.
Not a lawyer, but everyone has a password locked phone and its standard practice for device security. I'm not optimistic for a prosecutor winning on an interference charge.