Apple’s New Parental Controls: How They’ll Protect Your Child from Inappropriate Content

Apple is enhancing its parental controls to give parents better tools for managing children’s access to content. New updates include default child-safe settings when a device is marked for a child’s use. Parents can now update their child’s age, which triggers privacy settings and connects them to a family group. To protect privacy, parents can share an age range, not the exact birth date, with app developers. The age rating system will be expanded to include categories for 13+, 16+, and 18+. The App Store will provide more app details, including content warnings. Apps with higher age ratings will be restricted based on parental settings. These changes will roll out in the coming month.

Apple’s New Parental Controls: How They’ll Protect Your Child from Inappropriate Content

Apple recently unveiled plans to enhance its parental controls on iOS, offering improved tools to help parents manage what their children can access on their devices. These updates aim to make it easier for parents to ensure their children are exposed only to age-appropriate content.

Currently, Apple provides various features like Screen Time, age ratings for apps and websites, content filtering, and an “ask to buy” option to control what can be installed on a child’s device. Additionally, the Communication Safety feature warns children when they attempt to send or receive explicit images through Messages, AirDrop, FaceTime, and contact posters in the Phone app. There are also restrictions on ads and ad tracking for younger users.

The new changes will streamline the process of setting up child accounts. When a device is tagged for a child’s use, default child-safe settings will be activated immediately, even if the device is not fully set up. If a child tries to bypass these controls by creating an adult account, they will face more hurdles, as the system will require them to verify they are not a child. Parents will also be able to update the age on their child’s account, which will automatically trigger privacy settings and prompt the connection to a family group for additional control.

To protect privacy, Apple will allow parents to share only an age range with app developers, rather than their child’s exact birth date, ensuring developers can still offer appropriate content. The company is also updating its age rating system to include categories for 13+, 16+, and 18+, providing more precise content classification for teenagers.

Furthermore, the App Store will feature more details about apps, such as whether they contain user-generated content or ads that may expose children to inappropriate material. The new system will also prevent apps with higher age ratings from appearing if the parent’s settings do not allow them.

These updates are expected to roll out within the next month.

Apple has introduced a series of new safety features aimed at protecting children and teens on its devices, as it faces increasing pressure from U.S. states like Utah and South Carolina, which have proposed bills requiring app store operators to verify the ages of minors before allowing them to download apps.

In response, Apple has launched a new Declared Age Range function, allowing parents to provide their child’s age during account setup. This marks a shift from Apple’s previous stance, moving away from requiring app creators to handle age verification. The company also streamlines the process for creating child accounts, which are mandatory for users under 13 and optional for those up to 18. Apple will add more details to app pages in the App Store, including information on user-generated content, ads, and parental controls. Some of these features are already available, with the full rollout expected later this year.

Meta, while calling it a “positive first step,” argued that it does not go far enough, supporting legislation that would require app stores to verify a child’s age and obtain parental consent before app downloads.