In the wake of urging from investors to do more about smartphone addiction among children, Apple has added a new "Families" section to its website that outlines parental control tools and information that parents should be aware of.
The mini site is broken into several sections that highlight a range of kid-friendly features that Apple has put into place like app recommendations, in-app purchase controls, restrictions on apps that can be downloaded, internet limiting tools, Find My Friends, and more.
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Apple highlights the Kids section of the App Store, for example, which the company says parents can use to find carefully curated content that's appropriate for children. The site provides links to tutorials for enabling Ask to Buy so parents can approve app downloads, and it lets parents know how to turn on restrictions to limit in-app purchases and which websites are available to children.
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Another section of the site points out tools like Find My Friends for keeping track of a child's location, and recommends setting up group chat for the whole family in Messages.
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Apple also provides details on Family Sharing, which is designed to let members of the same family share apps, music, books, iCloud storage, and more, and there's a section on tips for the whole family, with feature recommendations like Do Not Disturb While Driving, Bedtime, Medical ID, Night Shift, and Emergency SOS.
Apple also recommends products like the Apple Watch with LTE connectivity to "reach kids in an emergency" and to help the whole family stay fit, and there's a dedicated section on privacy controls. Parents who have children that use iOS devices will likely want to give the new site a look.
Apple has promised to introduce more robust parental control tools, and rumors have suggested the company will introduce the features in iOS 12. Apple is said to be planning to debut a Digital Health tool that will let parents know how much time their children have spent using iOS devices.
Top Rated Comments
They’ve made incremental progress over the years, but I really hope they revamp the entire system in iOS 12.
Know where your kids are 24/7 is creepy AF. I grew up in the late 70’s / early 80’s. Virtually the only times my parents ever knew where I was from grade 1 onwards was bedtime and meal times. Otherwise we were off playing and exploring with our friends who knows where.
Different times, different environment. You can make that argument when there are no internet predators using social media coaxing kids into meeting adults and promising them undivided attention that most of them are lacking. I grew up in that same era and I would not be doing my job as a parent if I didn't know where my kids are at all times. I understand that you have to somehow trust them, but they're kids and you can't possibly be there with them 24/7. Their judgment of people still contain some innocence no matter how much you preach caution. I'm not one to preach how to raise other people's kids but we live in different times now, you have to adapt your parenting style according to the current environment.