TL;DR
Apple previewed major child safety updates for iOS 27, including Request Navigation, Time Allowances, and Blood Blocking, as regulators in the UK and US extend deadlines.
Apple previewed a set of new parental controls at WWDC 2026 on Mondayintroducing tools that give parents more granular authority over what their children can see, who they can contact, and how much time they can spend in apps. The updates, which will arrive this fall with iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and macOS 27, arrive on the same day that UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer gave Apple and Google three months to introduce device-level controls that prevent children from viewing or sharing explicit images. The United States Congress is also pushing the Child Online Safety Act, which passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee in March along with a wave of lawsuits against school districts over social media addiction.
The main new feature is Request Navigation, a feature that requires children to ask their parents’ permission before accessing a new website in Safari. It works on iPhone, iPad and Mac, and combines with the existing Ask to Buy system that already controls App Store downloads. Together, the two controls mean that parents can request approval for both apps and web content from a single child account.
Apple is also introducing time allowances, which allow parents to set daily limits on entire categories of apps, including entertainment, games, and social media, instead of managing individual apps one by one. The system provides age-based recommendations informed by expert research as a starting point. Parents can also create daily schedules that restrict access to specific apps at certain times, such as during school hours or meals.
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Communication Safety, which already blurs nudity when detected in messages and FaceTime calls for users under 18, will now also block gory and violent content in shared images and videos. The expansion addresses a gap that critics had identified in Apple’s existing protections. The feature uses on-device machine learning to detect harmful content before it is displayed, in line with Apple’s broader privacy architecture that keeps confidential processing on the device rather than routing it through external servers.
The redesigned Screen Time gives parents a quick view of their kids’ average device usage and most-used apps, with the ability to adjust access with a single tap. Parents can quickly limit access during family time or extend the time if a child needs to finish something on an app. The interface replaces what had become, since Apple first introduced Screen Time in iOS 12a dense settings menu that many parents found difficult to navigate.
Apple said it is working with the American Academy of Pediatrics to adapt the AAP’s Family Media Plan into a guide that parents can refer to when setting up their devices. The company also announced tools for developers, including a Declared Age Range API that allows apps to request a child’s age group without revealing their date of birth, and PermissionKit, which allows apps to route new contact requests through parents for approval. A SensitiveContentAnalysis framework helps developers detect nudity and violence within their own applications.
The moment has regulatory weight. Starmer’s ultimatum, presented at London Tech Week on June 8, demands that Apple and Google implement controls that prevent children from taking, sending, receiving or viewing nude images at the device level. Apple’s existing communications security system warns rather than blocks in some scenarios and does not cover all avenues for image sharing across the operating system. It remains to be seen whether the new features meet Starmer’s requirements. The UK government has indicated it will legislate if companies do not comply voluntarily.
In the United States, KOSA was approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 5 in a 28-24 party-line vote, while the Senate simultaneously unanimously passed an updated COPPA 2.0. The legislation would require platforms to conduct risk assessments, enable stricter privacy settings for minors by default, and provide parents with meaningful monitoring tools. Apple has publicly endorsed KOSA and the Broader Child Safety Litigation Landscape has produced billions of dollars in settlements and verdicts against social media companies in 2026 alone.
The child safety updates are part of a broader WWDC 2026 software rollout that includes a Siri AI rebuild, Apple Intelligence improvements, and performance improvements in iOS 27. A child account, required for users under 13 and available for those under 18, enables age-appropriate system-wide protections from the moment the device is set up. Parents are guided through account creation during the initial device setup and can choose to start their children with just a few essential apps, a select set, or a custom selection.
Apple Vice President of Health and Fitness Sumbul Desai said the company’s approach is based on the belief that every child is unique. The tools are designed to allow parents to tailor protections rather than imposing a single standard. Whether that philosophy of parental discretion satisfies regulators who are increasingly requiring mandatory enforcement at the device level is the question Apple will need to answer before Starmer’s September deadline arrives.
