- Apple is reinforcing its parental controls and childhood account experience
- Later in 2025, global age classifications will be expanded and can convert any standard account into a children’s account
- There is also a new API designed to help customize the experience in age application.
Apple has long offered parental controls on children’s devices and accounts, but now you are making some changes to strengthen its offer and turn it into a safer experience for all parties involved. Some of these settings are on the end of the end user, such as creating a children’s account and application store settings, but several are on the developer side, in the form of API changes.
The new features and functionality were shared in a new technical document entitled “helps protect children online”, which you can read in their entirety here. The changes begin with the rationalization of the process of creating a children’s account. As seen in the last betas for iOS 18.4 and Ipados 18.4, Apple now allows you to select an age range when creating an account; Once selected, this information informs the presets for parental controls.
Of course, the creation of the account adds your child as a user and allows the family of ICLOUD services and purchases to be shared within the App Store. However, to optimize the process, you can still give the child access to the new device with a more limited functionality if you want to complete the rest of the account configuration later.
Probably even more important, and good news for some, is that later in 2025, Apple will allow you to update the age in an Apple account. In this way, if you enter the wrong date of birth, you can adjust it. Apple requires that children under 13 have a children’s account associated with an Apple ID of parents in the United States. Those under 18 can choose to be configured in this way for these advanced protections and some preset adjustments.
The App Store’s experience currently offers four age classifications worldwide, two of them are 12+ and 17+. Apple aims to create a more cured and safe experience and expand world age ratings at the end of this year. This will bring Apple’s age classifications to Google and its Play Store, which already offer age -based qualifications in several categories depending on the region.
Apple’s expansion is a bit more focused and standard in all regions, with four new categories aimed at specific age groups.
- 4+, which means that there is no objectable content in the application.
- 9+, which means that the application could have inappropriate content for children under nine. It is described in the document as “Cartoon violence or rare or mild fantasy, blasphemies or raw humor, or mature, suggestive or horror or fear content.”
- 13+, which is described as potentially that presents: “Infrequent or slight medical content focused on treatment, references to alcohol, tobacco or drug use, sexual content or nudity, realistic violence or simulated game; o Frequent or intense competitions, blasphemies or raw humor, horror or content with fear issues, or cartoon violence or fantasy.
- 16+, described as “even through web access without restrictions, mature content or frequent or intense suggestive, or medical or treatment centered.”
- 19+, “even through game cases, frequent or intense simulated chance, references to alcohol, tobacco or drug use, sexual content or nudity, or realistic violence.”
This will be the minimum recommended age for the application. This should allow developers to determine more precision the age qualification for the experience they are creating, and parents can find easier to decide if it is safe to download it. If a father has turned on the parents’ controls for application downloads, the App Store will only serve appropriate applications for age when this arrives later in 2025.
It arrives at a time when, in the United States, both at the state and federal level, there is a debate about who should be in charge of the age verification to use applications, or the store, that is, the Apple application store, or the developers themselves. It is packaged in larger conversations around child protection laws related to digital experiences and connected devices.
Apple believes that a level per application is better for age verification and reducing data exchange in general. That’s where the next age range API will come into play. Instead of asking a user to enter a date of birth, the developer can opt for the API. If approved through an emerging window in the application, the application will extract the age range of the user’s Apple account.
It is very in line with how other applications request to use things such as camera or microphone and even to register it in notifications for the application. Apple’s posture here is to reduce a potentially shared user and at the same time ensure safe experience; Apparently, the level approach per application is a better way to do this.
The company also says in the document that it is similar to the purchase of alcohol in a store in a shopping center: “After all, we ask merchants who sell alcohol in a shopping center to verify the age of a buyer by verifying IDS; we do not ask everyone to deliver their date of birth to the shopping center if they just want to go to the meal court.”
Apple’s approach disagree with other companies and even legislators, who think that application and verification should be handled where the application obtains. The information is there because Apple requests the age range to create an Apple account, and one is required for a user under 13 years. From a privacy perspective, Apple not only delivers that information, but wants to use it safely through this API.
Apple’s approach for age verification is possibly better from a privacy perspective for all, but requires an active participation of parents.
Avi Grengart, Techsponal
Avi Grengart, founder of Techsponal, wrote in a statement to Techradar: “Apple is trying to thread the needle between forcing everyone to share data that demonstrates their age and giving parents the ability to protect their children from the content that is inappropriate for them. Algorithms to avoid damage to minors.”
The approach here with the API of age rank declared is probably linked to the additional reinforcement of Apple of children’s accounts, which makes them easier to create and control them and link them to make the use of devices such as iPads and iPhones and services in them are safer.
We are already seeing some of these changes, such as the new age range to create a children’s account. However, the age classifications updated for applications, the ability to adjust the age of an account and the new API will arrive before the end of 2025.
Ultimately, time will say who is responsible for age verification. Even so, it is excellent to see Apple, which makes it easier to create children’s accounts that offer a little more protection and safeguards. The complete role released by Apple can be seen here.
