Apple expands tools to help parents protect kids and teens online
Including new ways to manage Child Accounts, the ability to share a child’s age range to receive age-appropriate experiences within an app, updated age ratings on the App Store, and more
Apple is offering more ways to help parents ensure their kids and teens have age-appropriate experiences from the moment they set up their device, with new tools that build on the parental controls already available in Screen Time and on the App Store.Continuing its commitment to creating technology that enriches users’ lives while helping them stay safe online and protect their privacy, Apple today shared an update on new ways to help parents protect kids and teens online when using Apple products, including previously previewed features. With the release of iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, watchOS 26, visionOS 26, and tvOS 26 this fall, parents have more ways to ensure kids have age-appropriate experiences from the moment they set up their device. These new tools build on the parental controls already available in Screen Time and on the App Store, and are designed to help parents navigate the risks of an increasingly complex digital world. Like all Apple features, they are built with privacy and security at the core.”
Managing Child Accounts Becomes Simpler
For years, Apple has supported Child Accounts, which are Apple Accounts that must be associated with a parent or guardian account in a Family Sharing group. A Child Account is required for children under 131 and available for children up to 18, to help parents ensure their kids have age-appropriate experiences.
Apple recently streamlined the setup process for Child Accounts and accessing built-in parental controls. If parents prefer to finish setting up their kid’s account at a later time, child-appropriate default settings will still be enabled on the device. This helps assure parents that child safety settings will be active from the time their child begins using a device. These features are already available with iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS Sequoia 15.4.
Now parents have a way to more easily ensure the age associated with their kid’s account was set up correctly. Once they have done so, parents of kids under 13 will be prompted to connect their child’s account to their Family group. The account will be converted to a Child Account, and parents will be able to access Apple’s wide set of parental control options, with default age-appropriate settings applied.
Parents will have the ability to share their child’s age range with the apps they use while protecting their child’s privacy.
App developers can request the age range associated with a Child Account through the new Declared Age Range API, which will help developers provide age-appropriate experiences for their users.
Sharing a Kid’s Age Range with Apps
Parents will now have the ability to share their child’s age range with the apps they use while protecting their child’s privacy. Through this new feature, parents can allow their kids to share the age range associated with the Child Account with app developers in a way that does not reveal the child’s birth date and keeps them in control of their data. App developers will be able to request this information through the new Declared Age Range API, which will help them to provide age-appropriate experiences for their users. Parents can choose if they would like age-range information to be shared always, for each app request, or never, and can change their selection at any time. By default, children are not allowed to change how their age ranges are shared. Parents can allow them to make changes in Content & Privacy Restrictions settings.
Importantly, with this update, families can have age-appropriate experiences within apps without the App Store collecting unnecessary sensitive personal data on every user, even those who simply want to download apps that provide weather updates or sports scores.
Protections Enabled from the Beginning for Teens
Apple requires that children under 13 have a Child Account, which comes with protections like web content filters and app restrictions enabled from the beginning.
Now, kids ages 13 to 17 will have similar age-appropriate protections enabled from the beginning, regardless of whether their account was set up as a Child Account or a standard Apple Account. These additional protections include web content filters and Communication Safety, and make use of the newly introduced more granular age ratings on the App Store.
More Granular Age Ratings on the App Store
Apple has long provided age ratings for each app on the App Store, based on information provided by developers, that help users make informed decisions about how appropriate that app may be for kids. These age ratings are integrated across Apple’s operating systems and work with parental control features like Screen Time and Ask to Buy.
By the end of the year, age ratings will be expanded to five categories, with three ratings to support adolescents: 13+, 16+, and 18+. This will give users a more granular understanding of an app’s appropriateness, and developers a more precise way to rate their apps.
Additional Improvements for Families
Apple is also making improvements across the App Store, Communication Safety, and Screen Time:
- App Store product pages will reflect when developers indicate that their apps contain user-generated content, messaging, or advertising capabilities, and if they include any in-app content controls like parental controls or age assurance.
- When app content restrictions are set for a child, apps with age ratings that exceed the restrictions will not appear on the App Store in places like the Today, Games, and Apps tabs, or in editorial stories.
- When Ask to Buy is enabled for the App Store, parents can now grant an exception for their child to download an app with an age rating that exceeds the app content restriction set. Using Screen Time on iPhone or iPad, they can also revoke permission at any time, and the child will no longer be able to use the app.
- Communication Safety expands to intervene when nudity is detected in FaceTime video calls, and to blur out nudity in Shared Albums in Photos.
Existing Tools to Help Enhance Child Safety While Safeguarding Privacy
The new features mentioned above build on trusted tools already available to help parents protect their kids:
- Age ratings, content restrictions, and filters provide information about the age-appropriateness of apps.
- Ask to Buy helps parents approve or decline their kid’s downloads or in-app purchases from the App Store.
- Find My helps parents easily locate kids in their Family Sharing group.
- Communication Safety warns kids when receiving or sending images and videos containing nudity, and allows them to get help.
- Made for Kids gives parents a section of the App Store with age-appropriate apps held to even higher standards for privacy and safety.
- Limits on Apple Ads prevent ads from being served to kids under 13, and personalized ads from being served to kids over 13.
- Disallowing ad tracking requires developers not to track kids’ activity, or even ask to do so.
- Data Access Request Controls help parents decide if their kids can share sensitive information, like their location.
- User Support Tools help users report safety concerns with third-party apps to Apple.
In addition, developers have access to powerful tools, including:
- The ScreenTime Framework, which gives developers the tools they need to help parents and guardians supervise their children’s web usage on their app, as applicable.
- Custom parental control experience frameworks such as Device Activity, Managed Settings, and Family Controls, which enable apps to create custom experiences that help parents manage screen time.
- The SensitiveContentAnalysis framework, which helps apps check for and blur nudity.
- Media Ratings, which allow developers to incorporate parents’ limits on movie or TV ratings into their apps.
To learn more about Apple’s tools for protecting kids and teens, visit apple.com/families.
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Source: Apple Newsroom