Apple’s new parental controls are for keeping Apple out of trouble

Apple announced an expanded toolkit for parents through its child accounts at WWDC, including a greater ability to customize kids’ allotted screen time and the ability to block gory or violent images in messages before kids see them. Raja Bose, Apple’s director of trust, safety, and values product marketing, touted some of the ways Apple believes it can be useful for kids to have access to devices. “On one hand, there’s so many benefits to your child having their own device,” Bose said. “You rest easier since you can stay in touch, know where they are, and provide them with great apps that can help them learn and grow.” But he then acknowledged the risks of unfettered access to the internet before kids are ready.

The company emphasized a few key principles in its presentation of the new child safety features: that parents should be the ones to decide what their kids have access to, that Apple’s recommendations will be shaped by expert research that balances risks and benefits of technology for kids, and that some harmful things on the internet are outside its own control. “While Apple’s powerful controls help parents manage which apps their child can access, and when, it’s developers who play an important role in ensuring kids are getting age-appropriate experiences within apps,” Ann Thai, Apple’s senior director of marketplace platforms and technologies, said during the presentations.

The last point sounded like a message not just to Apple customers, but for politicians and regulators debating who should be responsible for keeping kids off certain parts of the internet. As policymakers have grown increasingly enthusiastic about age-gating, Meta and other app and website developers have been forced to roll out age-checking systems in some countries, including the UK, Australia, and parts of the US. In turn, they’ve backed proposals that would put the onus on app stores to verify users’ ages instead, then send signals about those ages to app developers.

Apple has complied with age verification rules when necessary — it began requiring information like a credit card or government ID to create a new Apple account in Texas earlier this month. And its WWDC presentation followed a long tradition of companies attempting to demonstrate they can protect kids without regulation, something Meta has also done. But it put a particular emphasis on the need for developers to pitch in.

“Many apps already offer parental controls to help shield kids from content they shouldn’t see,” Thai said. “We believe every app has that same responsibility.” Thai touted the company’s APIs that developers can use to allow for parent approvals within apps and protect kids from being exposed to nudity. (Even as Apple executives made these announcements inside Apple Park, protesters outside its visitors center were demanding the company remove apps that use AI to virtually undress users, including X’s Grok.)

Apple executives emphasized that they’re following the guidance of medical experts, including through the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Family Media Plan, which promotes a nuanced approach to media consumption, rather than strict screen time limits. Apple similarly wants to avoid dictating from above how much screen time kids should have. During the event, Apple’s VP of health, Sumbul Ahmad Desai, said that “every child is unique, and parents are in the best position to decide what works for their family.” It’s positioning its products as the best way for parents to enforce those decisions — but not a silver bullet for making the whole internet safe.