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UPDATE June 11, 2025
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

More Granular Age Ratings on the App Store

Safer Communications for Kids

Additional Improvements for Families

  • 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

  • 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.
  • 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.

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  1. The minimum age for account creation may vary across countries and regions. Learn more at support.apple.com/en-us/102617.