As a parent, Apple's new child safety features in iOS 27 are a godsend
I’ve got a 6-year old and an 8-year old and some of these new controls are exactly what I wanted
Quick Summary
Having played with iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 during last week's WWDC, there are a number of key features that stand out.
Among them are new child safety controls that should give parents piece of mind.
Giving a child a phone or tablet is never an easy decision – the internet is wonderful, but there are many parts of it that aren’t, and it’s difficult to stay on top of our own devices, let alone constantly monitoring our children’s too.
Indeed, the UK government has just announced a ban on social media platforms for under-16s, which comes into affect next year. So the subject is clearly a concern for many.
Apple is one of the brands looking to do something about its own devices.
It already offered a number of new child safety features for its iPhones, iPads and Macs, but those are expanding with iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 later this year. From a new Ask to Browse feature to redesigned Screen Time controls, here’s what’s new and why they should make it easier to keep your child safe.
Set up is easier
The starting point for all of Apple's parental controls is a child account, which Apple is making easier to set up.
In my WWDC 26 demo, it took around five minutes to set up a box-fresh device for a child. You are walked through the account creation process step by step, with initial options allowing you to choose to set up a device for someone 12 or younger, a teen aged 13-17, or an adult over 18.
Once a child account is active, age-appropriate restrictions are automatically applied across the system, from blocking adult websites in Safari to filtering out age-inappropriate apps in the App Store.
You can also decide exactly which apps are available on the device from the outset, with the option to start with a minimal set, such as Phone, Messages and Photos, and add more over time as your child grows.
In addition to selecting ‘Allowed Apps’, you can determine ‘Allowed Websites’ and select the rating for what content is allowed, too, like '9+' or ‘Clean’.
Control in your hands
Building on the existing Ask to Buy feature, which requires your permission before a child downloads an app, Apple has introduced Ask to Browse for Safari.
It works in a very similar way: when a child tries to visit a website that hasn't been pre-approved, a request is sent to the parent's device via Apple’s Messages app. You, as the parent, can then approve or deny it from wherever you are. The feature works across iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Pre-approved websites are clever too. You can make sure something like Times Table Rock Stars (TTRS) is approved, while limiting YouTube by only approving certain channels and YouTubers, for example.
It means the pre-approved website list can be as granular as you want, giving you more control over what your child can and can’t access.
There’s control over contacts, too. It was previously possible to set Communication Limits, allowing parents to select the contacts a child could talk to during specific times. However, with the new software, this feature has been extended.
If a child wants to add a new contact, they first need parental approval with the request coming through in Messages, like Ask to Buy and Ask to Browse, where the parent can then accept or decline.
There’s also a feature called Communication Safety, which already automatically blurred nudity detected in Messages and FaceTime video calls, though sadly not apps like WhatsApp at the moment.
With the new software, this feature will now detect and block gore and violent content in shared images and videos as well, and it is turned on by default for all users under 18. Again, this will work in Apple’s native apps, though there are APIs that would allow third-party apps to adopt the feature.
In the future, I’d love to see Communication Safety expand to look out for bullying or specific words that might indicate bullying in messages, but for now, these features all contribute to making it easier to keep children safer on devices, and that’s great to see.
Easier monitoring
Parental controls on Apple devices have long had Screen Time, but it was somewhat limited. With iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and macOS 27 Golden Gate, there is a new Time Allowance feature that lets parents set separate limits by app category – like Entertainment, Games, and Social Media.
Apple provides age-based starting points drawn from expert research that you can adjust to suit your family.
The redesigned Screen Time dashboard, meanwhile, gives you a cleaner, at-a-glance view of daily usage and the apps your kids are using most.
You can pause device access instantly, in case someone isn’t doing what they are told and they need a time out. On the flip side, you can also extend a limit quickly if your kid needs a few more minutes to finish something or perhaps you are giving them a reward.
Other features coming with iOS 27 include a Screen Time Passcode Notifications alert for parents if the Screen Time passcode is entered on a child's device. This might give you a heads-up if a child is attempting to change their own restrictions.
User Reporting Tools are also being expanded globally, allowing harmful content to be flagged directly to Apple from more countries and regions. And the company has also launched a dedicated website for parents, covering setup guides, recommended settings, and answers to common questions.
Determined teenagers will always find workarounds, and no features replace actual conversations with your children about how to behave online and the dangers of online. But the new tools coming with iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and macOS 27 are considered, easier to set up and maintain than those that came before.
They're certainly a step in the right direction, which I am thrilled about.
