Apple has announced that it will present better parents control with its iOS 26 updates later this year. A few days after its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDDC 2025), Apple announced that it would improve the process of installing child accounts. The company is also presenting a more granular age rating at the app store, and parents will be able to share their child’s age limit with an app to see only age-appropriate materials. Communication limitations will allow parents to approve contacts for children, a feature that will also be supported on the third party app.
IOS 26 to enable suitable safety to teen by default
The company suggests in a news room post that it has streamlined the process. Set a hair account For children under the age of 13. A child’s account may be connected to a family group of parents, which will automatically turn it into a child’s account. This will allow the parents to install appropriate limitations at the content or screen time for their child’s account, according to the company.
To protect the privacy of young users, the parents will be able to provide the app with their child’s age limit (eg, 12 or less). Apps can use newly declared range API, which automatically allows surface content to apps that are suitable for young audiences. Apple says that this feature does not share the child’s birthday and accurate age limit with third -party applications.
The company’s post also emphasizes that these age limitations allow young users to reach age-appointed materials, without sharing sensitive information with the app store. Companies like Apple and Google are facing pressure to verify the age of young users at their respective app store in the US. Both companies have pushed back, stating that collecting information of young users may cause privacy concern.
Apple is also expanding communication limitations, enables parents to approve requests from their children when they want to communicate with new phone numbers using messages, phones, facetime and icloud apps. These requests will also be supported in the third-party application, if the developers adopt the permission framework, according to the iPhone manufacturer.
While hair accounts are designed to protect users under 13 years of age, Apple says it will also apply the same “age-appropriate security” to users under 17, even if they establish a regular Apple account. The company is also adding three new age ratings (18+, 16+, and 13+) to the app store that allows apps to provide more accurate age ratings for its apps. The company says that this new rating will come by the end of 2025.