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QUICK READ 16 September 2025

Apple’s latest tools to help protect kids and teens online now available

Apple’s new and expanded features to help parents protect kids and teens online are now available across Apple devices including iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV. These updates give parents more ways to ensure age-appropriate online experiences for kids from the moment they set up their device, and build on existing tools already available in Screen Time and on the App Store.
Earlier this year, Apple simplified the management of Child Accounts for parents.1 Today, parents are getting even more tools at their fingertips. These new capabilities, which were initially previewed in June, include:
  • The ability for parents to share their child’s age range with apps in a privacy-preserving manner.
  • Expanded default protections for teens ages 13 to 17.
  • More granular age ratings on the App Store for adolescents (13+, 16+ and 18+), and more detailed labelling for app capabilities that may affect content appropriateness, like advertising, user-generated content or in-app controls like parental controls.
  • Updates to Communication Limits, which give parents the ability to remotely approve new contacts for their children when using Apple apps.
These latest tools expand protections Apple provides to help ensure enriching, age-appropriate experiences for all users, and to empower parents to keep their kids safe online. And, like all Apple features, these new tools are designed to be intuitive and easy to use — with privacy and security at their core.
To learn more about Apple’s tools for protecting kids and teens, visit apple.com/nz/families.


Availability
New features are available with the release of iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, watchOS 26 and tvOS 26 as free software updates for eligible devices. For more information about availability, visit apple.com/nz. Some features may not be available in all regions or languages, or on all models.
  1. The minimum age for account creation varies across countries and regions. Learn more at support.apple.com/en-nz/102617.

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