Apple Launches New Parental Controls on iOS Devices to Better Safeguard Children

Apple just launched new parental controls, initially announced in June, on iOS 26 devices to help adults better protect their children.

Some of the features in the changes include new ways for parents to block who their kids can communicate with on their devices. The latest software update brings new Communication Limits that require young users to get permission from parental control accounts before being allowed to connect with new phone numbers on Phone, FaceTime, Messages, or iCloud.

Apple's New Parental Controls

The development marks a significant change to Apple's existing Child Account feature, which is built into the company's Family Sharing option. It places minor accounts under age-based parental controls and oversight from manager profiles.

Additionally, parents are given the ability to correct an account's age or retroactively convert their child's Apple account to a Child Account under iOS 26. Accounts that children aged 13 to 17 own will automatically be opted in to these default settings, according to Mashable.

The features that the new update has are web content filters, app restrictions, and Apple's Communication Safety feature. The latter detects sensitive content and also warns users of nudity. Additionally, it flags nudity in FaceTime and blurs images in shared photo albums.

Apple also updated its App Store age ratings and download options for parents as part of new features that were meant to put more safety pressure on app developers. The situation comes after child safety advocates protested the company's annual product event, demanding better protections for young users.

The company designed the new features in the latest update with ease of use and privacy in mind. The main goal is to give parents powerful controls that are not cumbersome to implement or manage, Mac Observer reported.

Better Safeguarding Children

The update provides parents with a crucial layer of oversight, helping them ensure their kids are only interacting with known and trusted individuals. This is apparently a primary concern that many families share while navigating the digital world.

Now, the single and arguably the most substantial of Apple's new initiatives is addressing the issue of online age verification. It proposes the solution of having parents be able to select an age category and authorize sharing this information with app developers during installation or registration.

This makes it so that parents do not have to rely on young users to enter their correct birthdates, and instead rely on developers using the new Declared Age Range API, as per Kaspersky.

Originally published on parentherald.com