Apple outlines upcoming changes to child safety and age assurance
In a new white paper on Apple’s developer site (PDF link), Apple has outlined several big changes coming this year designed to help parents and developers produce a safer environment for kids when using Apple products.
No timeline is given for when these features will arrive—some already appear to be in the iOS 18.4 beta (or the building blocks are there), while others may come with iOS 19 later this year.
There are three major areas Apple is focusing on: changes to child accounts, age assurance for apps, and changes to the App Store.
Easier Child Account setup
Most of Apple’s features to protect kids require parents to set up and manage a Child Account, but many parents don’t know about it and don’t bother to set it up.
So Apple is going to do two things. First, it will streamline the Child Account setup process so it’s less of a burden. Second, if a parent wants to finish setting up a Child Account at a later time, the device will use more child-appropriate defaults in the meantime.
Correcting a child’s age on an account has been a real problem, so Apple is fixing that as well. Parents will be able to easily change the age on their child’s account, and if it’s under 13 it will be converted to a “Child Account” with a prompt for that account to join the family group. Too many parents have set up accounts for their kids quickly and with inaccurate ages, and they haven’t been able to change them into Child Accounts where all the real protections are.
Age ranges for apps
Parents will be able to allow their kids to share their age range with apps (just a range, not the actual age or birthdate). A new “Declared Age Range” API will let app developers request this age range, and then tailor their content to the appropriate age.
This appears to be voluntary on both sides: Parents will have the option to allow their kids to share their age range or not, and can turn it off at any time. Developers can use the API to request this age range, but are not required to. The child’s actual exact age or birthdate is never shared, regardless.
Recently, some regulators have suggested that “gatekeepers” like Apple and Google should be responsible for verifying ages of their users, so that only adults see adult-oriented content. Apple has opposed this, claiming that it creates privacy issues and requires the company to collect sensitive information from both users and developers even where it’s not necessary. This age range assurance feature seems to be, at least in part, Apple’s preferred solution.
App Store changes
Apple will also update its current age ratings for apps on the App Store. Currently, the ages are 4+ years old, 9+, 12+, and 17+. The new age ratings will be 4+, 9+, 13+, 16+, and 18+, a better spread that doesn’t leave a five-year gap among adolescents.
The current “App Nutrition Labels” don’t go far enough in helping parents know what content an app might have. So Apple will add highlights of whether the app contains user-generated content or advertising that might cause users of the app to see content that lies outside of the app’s official age and content guidelines. This seems aimed primarily at social media apps.
Developers will also be able to say whether the app has its own content controls or requires proof of age. And later this year, the App Store will only show apps whose stated age rating does not exceed the rating set by their parents. But this seems limited to areas where Apple curates apps, like the front of the Today, Games, and Apps tabs—it is unclear if a Child Account would see a higher-age-rated app if they searched for it.
