Apple is to allow parents to share their children’s ages in order to limit access to apps under new proposals.
Apple is set to introduce a raft of child safety measures.
The company has announced in a whitepaper that it will let parents share their kids’ age ranges with apps and refresh the App Store’s age ratings system – making it more straightforward for parents to set up Child Accounts for their offspring – in features to be introduced “this year”.
Firms such as Meta, Snap and X have all called for platforms to take responsibility for verifying the ages of users at OS or app store level, although Apple have been reluctant to do so.
The tech behemoth argues in the whitepaper that age verification “at the app marketplace level” isn’t ideal as it would mean that users have to hand over “sensitive personally identifying information”.
Apple says: “That’s not in the interest of user safety or privacy.”
The firm says the age range feature means parents “can allow their kids to share the age range associated with their Child Accounts with app developers”.
The information will be revealed to developers “if and only if parents decide to allow this information to be shared” whilst parents will have the option to disable sharing.
The feature will not “provide kids’ actual birthdates”.
Commenting on the announcement, Meta spokesperson Jamie Radice told The Verge: “Today’s announcement is a positive first step, however, developers can only apply these age-appropriate protections with a teen’s approval.
“Parents tell us they want to have the final say over the apps their teens use, and that’s why we support legislation that requires app stores to verify a child’s age and get a parent’s approval before their child downloads an app.”
Apple plans to introduce new child safety measures
