With so many dangers online, keeping kids and teenagers safe is increasingly becoming more and more challenging for parents and guardians.
Although Apple already has a handful of safety tools to help keep those under 18 years old safer online, the company has recently previewed a whole new suite of features that are designed to allow parents to “more easily manage” their children’s screen time and app access.
The full suite of features will launch later this fall. In the meantime, we’ve outlined all the tools and improvements that parents can expect to see.
For more on Apple’s latest software updates, visit our iOS 27 features and iPadOS 27 guides.
Age-appropriate child accounts
Child accounts are not a new part of Apple’s ecosystem, as anyone under 13 years old needs one to have their own profile. In addition, parents can also set up child accounts for children up to 18 years old too.
A child account is linked to a parent or guardian’s Apple account, and enables safeguards across the system that are tailored to the child’s age. Plus, parents can view their child’s screen time and usage from their own Apple devices, and set limits and restrictions too.
If your child uses an iPhone, iPad or Mac but doesn’t have a dedicated child profile (say, they just use your account) then don’t worry, as it’s easy to set one up. We’ve put together a handy guide on how to set up a child account on iPhone so you can see the steps.
Parents can choose the apps that kids use
Once you’ve set up the child account, you’ll be able to handpick the exact apps your child is able to access. The apps you choose can be changed over time too, whether that’s initiated by the parent or by the child.
Essentially, if your child comes across an app they want to play but it perhaps wasn’t on your radar, they’ll be prompted to use Ask to Buy which sends a request to you before they’re able to download it from the App Store. That means you can check out the app yourself and give it the all-clear before letting them have access. And don’t worry, although it’s called “Ask to Buy”, this will also work for free apps too.
Similarly there’s a new Ask to Browse feature that’s coming later this year, whereby parents can require their children to ask permission to access a new website on Safari.
Parents can manage who their kids communicate with
Apple isn’t just allowing parents to manage exactly who their children can communicate with, but it also promises it will intervene should a child be exposed to nudity, gore or violent content. While Communication Safety already blurs nudity when detected in Messages and FaceTime calls by default for users under 18, it will now block gore or violent content when detected in shared images and videos.
Otherwise, parents will soon be able to manage exactly who their children can connect with over Messages, FaceTime and Phone. Whether this will expand to third-party communication apps, such as WhatsApp or Snapchat remains to be confirmed. Much like Ask to Buy, kids can also send new contacts to their parents for approval too, which is a useful tool for older children.
Time Allowances helps to manage screen time and app use
Time Allowances is found within parents’ Screen Time settings, and enables users to manage the amount of time kids spend in apps. These apps will generally span between three categories: Entertainment, Games and Social Media, and parents will be given guidance on how much time each category should be given, depending on the child’s age and based on expert research.
However, although the guidance is there for those who might want it, parents ultimately have the last say in how much time their child is able to spend on their devices.
Parents can also set up schedules within Screen Time to select which apps are available at different times of the day, and different times of the week.
For more detail on this, visit our what are Time Allowances guide.
Refreshed Screen Time settings
The way parents can check on their kids’ screen time is getting a revamp too. It’ll now provide parents with an at-a-glance view of average device use, while enabling them to easily make adjustments to the apps kids can access, Time Allowance and more.
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