In a new white paper on the Apple developer site (PDF link), Apple has described several major changes this year designed to help parents and developers produce a safer environment for children when using Apple products.
No calendar is given at the moment when these features come – some already seem to be in the beta iOS 18.4 version (or the constituent elements are there), while others can be delivered with iOS 19 later this year.
There are three main areas on which Apple is concentrated: modifications made to children's accounts, age insurance for applications and modifications made to the App Store.
Configuration of easier children's accounts
Most Apple's features to protect children require parents to have set up and manage a child account, but many parents do not know it and do not bother to install it.
So Apple will do two things. First of all, it will rationalize the child's account configuration process, so it is less a burden. Second, if a parent wishes to complete the configuration of a child account later, the device will use more faults adapted to children in the meantime.
Correct the age of a child on an account was a real problem, so Apple also repairs it. Parents will be able to easily change the age on their child's account, and if it is under 13 years old, it will be converted into a “child account” with a prompt for this account of joining the family group. Too many parents have set up accounts for their children quickly and with inaccurate ages, and they could not transform them into children's accounts where all the real protections are.
Age gesture for applications
Parents will be able to allow their children to share their age group with applications (just a range, not the actual age or date of birth). A new API “Declared Age Princion” will allow application developers to request this age group, then adapt their content to the appropriate age.
This seems to be voluntary on both sides: parents will have the opportunity to allow their children to share their age group or not, and will be able to extinguish it at any time. Developers can use the API to request this age group, but are not necessary. The exact age or date of birth of the child is never shared, despite everything.
Recently, some regulators have suggested that “guards” like Apple and Google should be responsible for verification of the ages of their users, so that only adults see adult content. Apple opposed this, saying that it creates confidentiality problems and obliges the company to collect sensitive information from users and developers even if it is not necessary. This age group insurance function seems to be, at least in part, Apple's favorite solution.
Changes in the App Store
Apple will also update its current age notes for applications on the App Store. Currently, ages are 4 and over, 9 years old, 12+ and 17+. The notes of the new age will be 4+, 9+, 13+, 16+ and 18+, a better spread that does not leave a difference of five years among adolescents.
The “current nutrition labels” are not far enough to help parents know what content an application could have. Apple will therefore add protruding facts of the question of whether the application contains content generated by users or advertising that could bring users of the application to see content which is outside the official directives of the age and content of the application. This seems mainly intended for social media applications.
Developers will also be able to say whether the application has its own content controls or requires proof of age. And later this year, the App Store will only display applications whose rating indicated does not exceed the rating defined by their parents. But this seems limited to the areas where Apple organizes applications, such as the front of today's tabs, games and applications – it is not clear if a child account would see an application of higher age if it was looking for it.
