iOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26 and other upcoming Apple operating systems include new tools intended to help parents protect kids and teens online. These include a system that enables parents to share the age range of their children with third-party applications in a way that doesn’t violate the kids’ privacy.
There are also new protections for teens under 18 as they use their Apple devices, and parental controls on communicating with new phone numbers.
Kids can tell iPhone apps their age range, not their birthday
Kids love iPhones and iPads. That leaves parent struggling to try to protect them from bad actors. Apple wants to help. Parents can already create a Child Account on iPhone and iPad, and set age-based parental controls. This lets children access Family Sharing, Messages, the App Store and other services, but not the parents’ personal data.
Many applications have content restricted by age, with the goal of keeping children away from R-rated movies, for example. The operating systems coming from Apple in the autumn will enable parents to allow their kids to share the age range associated with their Child Account with third-party apps in a way that does not reveal the child’s actual birth date.
“Families can have age-appropriate experiences within apps without the App Store collecting unnecessary sensitive personal data on every user,” said Apple.
More protections for teens
Apple requires children under 13 to have a Child Account, which comes with protections like web content filters and app restrictions enabled from the beginning.
Going forward, kids ages 13 to 17 will have similar age-appropriate protections enabled from the beginning, regardless of whether their account was set up as a Child Account or a standard Apple Account.
Parental approval required to communicate with children
Another change enables parents to play a larger role in approving who their kids can communicate with. Starting with iOS 26, iPadOS 26, etc, children must send a request to their parents when they want to communicate with a new phone number.
The feature is built into Phone, FaceTime, Messages and iCloud contacts. Developers can add the feature to their own applications.
Source: Apple
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. He’s written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
