Apple introduces new Child Account features at WWDC

Apple unveiled a new suite of child safety tools and family experiences at this year's WWDC, spending significant time highlighting the new features as the tech industry grapples with age verification and online safety.

The company's new Child Accounts features, which are available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, include parental monitoring tools like Ask to Browse, a feature that requires minor users to get permission to surf the internet or go on specific websites.

Parents have already had the option to set up child accounts under Apple's Family Sharing experience, which includes age-appropriate content tools, screen time oversight, App Store controls, and communication limits.

Apple is also building upon the existing features with new ways to manage your children's time online, as advocates and experts increasingly warn about the long-term effects of social media and screen time. During the WWDC announcement, Apple acknowledged growing guidance to keep children under 13 offline.

With the parental control upgrades, parents can now more easily adjust communication limits and see recommended screen time controls for child users. Parents can fine tune device usage with new time-of-day app limits and screen time settings. Apple's existing content blurring feature, which censors nudity automatically, will expand to content depicting graphic violence or gore, as well.

Many of these features already exist on child-specific devices, such as the Bark phone.

While Apple took WWDC attendees on a tour of its new child safety features, a group of child safety advocates led by the nonprofits Heat Initiative and UltraViolet staged a demonstration in front of Apple's headquarters. The group unfurled a large banner with the words "Apple is powered by child sexual abuse. John Ternus, what will you do?" calling on the incoming CEO to address the distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on Apple devices. The group staged a similar protest at last year's event ahead of the iPhone 17 launch, building on previous calls to introduce CSAM detection on Apple products.

"Today marks the fifth time since 2023 that advocates have come to Apple to demand they remove child sexual abuse images and videos from iCloud–unfortunately, in those three years Apple has continued to make money off of storing and sharing illegal videos and photos," said Sarah Gardner, CEO of Heat Initiative. "Apple no longer just hosts these images and videos on iCloud, it profits from apps in its App Store that can be used to deepfake, undress, and create AI child sexual abuse material of any child. Tim Cook took Apple from bad to worse, but John Ternus can pick a different way forward–it’s time for him to choose if he stands with children and survivors."

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