Is there an app for that this?

Well you can jailbreak it and use an application that locks apps, or has a secondary camera role. It would be best to find one of those “photo chest” apps that you can save images to instead. Recovery from an iphone filesystem is tricky, trickier than a flash drive or anything else.

Aside from the obvious solution of not trusting your expensive, fragile electronics to a toddler, I must concur that saving your photos somewhere else is a good idea. There are many apps that hide pictures / videos such that you need a password to even see them, and you can’t delete what you can’t access.

As for recovery, many consider the wonky “file system” (and I use that term loosely) of iOS is a strength, but it makes things like file management and recovery a bitch even if the file has not ben overwritten. I wouldn’t get your hopes up.

They should be saved in the “cloud,” and even if apps are deleted, if you purchase it again on the same account you won’t be charged a second time. Now, I wish I could figure out how to keep my 3 YO granddaughter from deleting my profile on Plants Vs Zombies!

…activate the password feature on your iPhone so the toddler cannot access it, simple.

Settings, General, Password Lock, then enter desired password (twice).

@Judi A few things:

1) iCloud only works with iOS 5, and it’s possible that the OP has an iOS 4 device.

2) It requires deliberate action, at least to set up. If the OP had set up Photo Stream (which must be enabled to work) already, I doubt this question would’ve been asked. App purchases are remembered automatically, but other stuff isn’t, unless you set it up to be.

3) Stuff can be deleted from iCloud.

4) It doesn’t solve the real problem; toddlers don’t have a clue what they are doing, or any real concept of repercussions. Just because older kids (those old enough to read, to use a bathroom unattended, and to not eat your car keys) may have some tech skills, that doesn’t mean that all kids are good with computers.
My rule of thumb is that if I wouldn’t trust them with my car (which cost less than either my phone or my computer) then I won’t trust them with my computing equipment where I store irreplaceable information. Sure, you want the little tyke to be able to play Angry Birds. but what price are you willing to pay for that?

@jerv, gotcha. I don’t keep the most important stuff in my iPhone, except pictures and I try to back them up fairly often anyway.
It is amazing how well a 3 year old CAN navigate an iPhone!
Most oft apps are for the grand kids anyway. Nothing makes a granny more cool than discussing zombie strategy with her.

@Judi I am more amazed at how easily the glass on Apple products shatters, but it doesn’t change my opinion. The fact that deletion of anything is an issue means that either they cannot navigate well enough, or they secretly hate you. Either way, they aren’t touching my shiny objects.

Thanks for all the input. Sorry it took awhile for me to get back. Life has been hectic.

While I do appreciate all of your input, none of it really resolves my issues. My fault for not clarifying though.

1. Yes, I’m aware of those apps that password lock your photos. But I like my toddler being able to access videos and pictures. So I don’t want to actually lock them out—with an app or password-protect my phone.

2. Apps are backed up on the Cloud, but there isn’t enough room to back up all my pictures and videos. I send daily pictures to the grandparents. And it’s much easier to send from my phone than from the desktop. I do periodically back up (manually) to the desktop, but the most recent pictures have not.

3. Don’t underestimate toddlers with iPhones. While she hasn’t grasped the idea of deleting pictures just yet, she’s pretty good at navigating folders, finding her apps, pulling up her favorites list on YouTube, taking pictures and videos, calling grandma on the phone (and putting her on speakerphone), finding a particular song (by sorting through album covers because she can’t read yet) and even asks us to charge it when it’s out of batteries. All before she was two.

When Apple said their design was intuitive, they weren’t kidding.

Kids these days are going to grow up with this kind of tech. Everywhere. Keeping it off limits isn’t doing them any favors.

@fluthernutter It’s not that I have a problem with toddlers having technology. You are correct that keeping technology off limits doesn’t do them any favors, but they need to understand the consequences of deleting things (gone is gone) and of breaking things (an iPhone is her allowance for a long time). Failure to learn about consequences doesn’t do them any favors either. Sadly, many adults don’t seem to understand consequences either, but I digress.

Technology is an essential thing to learn. Part of why I am so good at technology is that I have been into it for most of my life. I knew how to use a screwdriver before I could walk, and was pretty decent with a command line by the time I was six (this is back before computers has “pretty pictures”) so I understand the desire and need to start them young, but that doesn’t mean that I was trusted with valuables aside from the ones I bough myself with money I earned or went unpunished for losing, breaking my mother’s stuff.

@jerv I’m all for teaching kids the consequences of their actions.
But you can’t really teach them the reaction, if you don’t let them do the action in the first place, right?

I don’t want to take away the very expensive bike.
I just want to find some training wheels.

@fluthernutter Understandable. When I was that young, I was given my own bike (with training wheels) for my birthday. By the time I hit the second grade, I was a pretty decent bike mechanic, and also knew a bit of first aid; consequences of breaking the bike and breaking my own skin.
Old iPod Touches are fairly inexpensive I think I paid $50 for my 2nd-gen 8GB used and will save you the risk to your phone and pictures. All of the iOS games she wants, and if she drops it in the toilet, you still have a phone.

@jerv She has the option of a hand-me-down iPhone (from when I upgraded) or an old iPod touch, but she always goes for my phone. I think it’s the 3G and new apps.

I still have scars from learning to ride a bike.
Par for the course, methinks. ;)

3G is irrelevant if you have wifi in your home; in fact, it’s notably faster. My buddy upgraded and now uses his old Droid like an iPod Touch, and I used to surf the net on my Touch. As for the new apps, unless your old devices are really old, that shouldn’t be too big an issue either; last I checked, most apps would still run on iOS 4, though iOS 3 is largely obsolete.

I am lucky; I don’t scar easily :D

@jerv We do have wi-fi. But lately it’s been giving me serious flashbacks to dial-up. I actually disable it to use 3G. I know. Pretty sad. Maybe we have too many devices using wi-fi?

The app thing is a memory issue. The old devices are out of space. They probably need to be cleared out, but that seems to have dropped to the bottom of our to-do list.

I scar pretty easily. Most people in my family do. In fact, I think my older (by ten years) sister still has a scar from when I taught her how to ride a bike.

Don’t ask your kid sister to teach you how to ride a bike!