I don’t know if there is a real age for an iPhone, but I think most people can agree that there should be different smartphone and online experiences based on age, and that is really the philosophy behind most digital parental controls, including the rather bulky ones that exist across Apple’s ecosystem. Now, with iOS 26 – and other platform updates – on the horizon, this system is set to a number of small but important updates.
I have seen most of them in action, and on the whole, I think these may just be the series of privacy and security checks, and yes, even teenagers and children, have been looking for.
To Apple’s credit, it has been added and improved its parental control ecosystem for years. So much so that many parents can only scratch the surface of its huge platform of controls.
Worth noting that if you identify a new device such as an iPhone or iPad as going to a child or teenager, many of the controls, such as web content restrictions, Appreations (Apps only rated 4-PLUS), screen distance warnings and message filters that automatically blur the naughty bites that work automatically.
However, there are important security changes that you can activate when Apple releases public versions of its OS OS updates for iPhone, iPad and Mac.
AGE OF EVENING
Your child’s iPhone and iPad are already pretty good, based on your parent control settings, by managing your child’s access to age-passing apps, but Apple goes on in iOS26, iPados26 and MacOS 26 (essentially any platform that is part of your family plan and can access the App Store).
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Age appropriate experiences seem to be designed to help prevent app developers in unintentionally providing inappropriate content in the app to your kids and teens. It is enabled through a variety of simple screens that allow you to deliver age (but not date of birth) for your children for developers.
Using this information, developers can ensure that no matter what apps you let them download, their apps only provide content that is consistent with the child’s age.
I appreciate that there is a different level of control: Parents can choose whether the age group “always” is shared if developers should “ask first” or whether it is “never” shared. I think I like the other option best because it is the only one that allows the child to choose whether they want their age group to be shared with developers.
Get the right message
When your child has an iPhone and a phone number, it is almost guaranteed that they will be targeted by predators. There is a simple option in iOS right now that allows you to automatically block unknown numbers (filter unknown senders under Settings/Apps/Messages). However, iOS 26 will take these protections further.
With iOS 26, your child can’t add anyone to their contacts and messaging lists.
If your child wants to add a study buddy to messaging on their iPhone or iPad, they will see a new pop-up that will let them “ask a parent or guardian to approve that person”.
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If the child or teenager chooses pop-up, a prefolded message appears where they can fill in the friend’s details and add a message explaining who the person is. Parents get a time -sensitive review on their devices with details and message. They may choose to add the contact, decline or choose “Not now.”
Once the vein is added, your child or teenager gets a message that tells them that they can call or send a message about the new contact. Of course, it may make sense to pause in the middle of this process to chat personally with your child and make sure the “study buddy” is really just another child.
Apps less limited
Apple’s parental control makes it easy to set time limits and even exclude apps from viewing, so when your child searches the app store, they won’t even see the non-age approval apps in the App Store.
However, Apple seems to have acknowledged that some children are, well, sneaky.
When you set time limit control at an app level or even globally, your child may request more time with the app. Authorizing the extension requires the parent’s password that they can enter externally from their best iPhone or best iPad, or personally if they happen to sit next to their child. If the child has seen awkwardly seen you into the password and has it remembered, they could give themselves more screen time.
With this small, yet useful upcoming update, parents will receive messages when their password is used.
Makes the exception
Parents choose which apps their children can access, but there will soon be a new button at the top of app description pages that will offer the opportunity to request an exception.
This request goes to parents who can give permission that immediately turns on the “Get” setting on an app.
This can come along well when, for example, your child has a project where some YouTube research comes well. However, when the project is complete, you can just as quickly revoke the exception and then not only disappear access in the App Store, but the app also disappears from your child’s device.
This is a control level I can get back.
Tell us how to manage your child’s screen time in the comments below.
