iOS 26: Apple will expand family tools with smarter child account setup, age-based app filters, more

Apple today announced a sweeping set of updates aimed at helping parents protect kids and teens online, as part of its broader push to make Apple platforms safer, more transparent, and more age-aware. Here’s what’s coming.

The new features, many of which land with iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, watchOS 26, visionOS 26, and tvOS 26 this fall, expand on existing parental controls and introduce smarter ways to manage Child Accounts, share age ranges with apps, and limit risky interactions.

Here’s Apple’s on the new tools:

These new tools build on the parental controls already available in Screen Time and on the App Store, and are designed to help parents navigate the risks of an increasingly complex digital world. Like all Apple features, they are built with privacy and security at the core.

Easier setup and stronger defaults for Child Accounts

Apple has long offered Child Accounts through Family Sharing, but now the setup process is more streamlined. With iOS 18.4 and newer, default child-safety settings are applied immediately, even if parents choose to finish setting up account settings at a later time.

In iOS 26, the system will proactively guide parents to confirm their kid’s birthdate and convert the account into a Child Account, if needed. That unlocks the full suite of parental controls.

Share a child’s age range with apps, privately

One of the standout additions is a new way for parents to share a child’s age range, rather than an exact birthdate, with apps. This will allow developers to deliver age-appropriate experiences, while preserving the child’s privacy.

Through the new Declared Age Range API, developers can request this info, and parents get fine-grained control over what’s shared: always, per-request, or never. Kids can’t change these settings without parental approval, and Apple says this system avoids unnecessary data collection for basic apps like weather or sports scores.

More protections now apply to teens, too

Until now, Apple’s stricter content defaults only applied to kids under 13. With iOS 26, teens aged 13–17 will also get protections like web content filtering and Communication Safety by default, even if they don’t have a formal Child Account.

“These additional protections include web content filters and Communication Safety, and make use of the newly introduced more granular age ratings on the App Store.”

App Store adds more granular age ratings

Age ratings on the App Store are also getting an upgrade. By the end of the year, developers will be able to categorize apps into five tiers, adding 13+, 16+, and 18+ distinctions to better match adolescent usage.

These new age ratings will tie directly into Screen Time and Ask to Buy.

Communication approval for new contacts

Parents will now have more say in who their kids interact with. When a child wants to communicate with a new number, they’ll need parental approval first, right from the Messages app.

This approval flow will extend to third-party apps as well, thanks to Apple’s new PermissionKit framework, which lets third-party apps request contact approvals in a unified, privacy-friendly way.

Other updates for families

Apple is also adding:

• App Store product pages will reflect when developers indicate that their apps contain user-generated content, messaging, or advertising capabilities, and if they include any in-app content controls like parental controls or age assurance.

• When app content restrictions are set for a child, apps with age ratings that exceed the restrictions will not appear on the App Store in places like the Today, Games, and Apps tabs, or in editorial stories.

• When Ask to Buy is enabled for the App Store, parents can now grant an exception for their child to download an app with an age rating that exceeds the app content restriction set. Using Screen Time on iPhone or iPad, they can also revoke permission at any time, and the child will no longer be able to use the app.

• Communication Safety expands to intervene when nudity is detected in FaceTime video calls, and to blur out nudity in Shared Albums in Photos.

These tools build on Apple’s existing efforts, as listed by Apple:

• Age ratings, content restrictions, and filters provide information about the age-appropriateness of apps.

• Ask to Buy helps parents approve or decline their kid’s downloads or in-app purchases from the App Store.

• Find My helps parents easily locate kids in their Family Sharing group.

• Communication Safety warns kids when receiving or sending images and videos containing nudity, and allows them to get help.

• Made for Kids gives parents a section of the App Store with age-appropriate apps held to even higher standards for privacy and safety.

• Limits on Apple Ads prevent ads from being served to kids under 13, and personalized ads from being served to kids over 13.

• Disallowing ad tracking requires developers not to track kids’ activity, or even ask to do so.

• Data Access Request Controls help parents decide if their kids can share sensitive information, like their location.

• User Support Tools help users report safety concerns with third-party apps to Apple.

In addition, developers have access to powerful tools, including:

• The ScreenTime Framework, which gives developers the tools they need to help parents and guardians supervise their children’s web usage on their app, as applicable.

• Custom parental control experience frameworks such as Device Activity, Managed Settings, and Family Controls, which enable apps to create custom experiences that help parents manage screen time.

• The SensitiveContentAnalysis framework, which helps apps check for and blur nudity.

• Media Ratings, which allow developers to incorporate parents’ limits on movie or TV ratings into their apps.

All of these updates will be available later this year with iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, watchOS 26, visionOS 26, and tvOS 26. You can learn more at apple.com/families.