Originally published at: Apple Aims to Boost Child Privacy with New Age-Related Controls - TidBITS
In an era marked by competing desires for online child safety, parental control, and the need to abide by evolving government regulation, Apple hopes that changes it plans to roll out over the rest of 2025 will thread the needle on issues related to personal data disclosure for children. In a new white paper, “Helping Protect Kids Online,” the company has outlined its plans for how children’s ages will be indicated by parents and passed to developers to provide access to age-appropriate apps and features.
Apple’s approach tries to balance three different impinging needs: more invasive age-verification requirements being imposed by some US states and countries, parents’ interest in protecting their children’s personal data and blocking access to materials they deem inappropriate, and the company’s goal of releasing to developers the least amount of information necessary to comply with privacy-impacting regulations. It’s a hard row to hoe.
While the white paper focuses on parents’ oversight of children’s access to apps and the content within them, Apple isn’t shy about criticizing requests for government-issued IDs—whether instigated by developers or required by legislation—when nothing within an app should require such disclosure.
Apple outlines four areas of change:
- Child Account setup: A new setup process will simplify setting up a Child Account. Separately, Apple will enable parents to correct the age associated with a child’s Apple Account and turn it into a Child Account within a Family Sharing group.
- Safe sharing of broad age ranges: Parents will be able to share an age range instead of being forced to share a birthdate or even an exact age to access age-appropriate content in apps. Developers will have to update their apps to use a new API.
- Defining age ranges for apps: Apple currently has just two global age ranges: 12+ and 17+. Other age ranges exist in particular countries that already require different ages or more granularity. The update will define two ranges for younger children and three for teenagers.
- App Store disclosures and browsing: Apple will require that developers disclose features within apps that could show material inappropriate for a declared age range, the use of in-app parental controls, and any requirement for proof of age. Further, users with Child Accounts searching in any App Store will only see matches available within their age range.
A full-page sidebar also explains Apple’s stance on limiting age disclosure from information Apple or its users possess to developers. (The company categorizes this under the new term Age Assurance.) This explanation is targeted at the many rules imposed by various governments, most recently across the United States, that require age verification to access social media or adult media content. There’s quite a lot of subtext on this page, such as:
Some apps may find it appropriate or even legally required to use age verification, which confirms user age with a high level of certainty—often through collecting a user’s sensitive personal information (like a government-issued ID)—to keep kids away from inappropriate content. But most apps don’t.
Apple states its position clearly without calling out any particular state, political party, or nation:
Requiring users to overshare their sensitive personal data would also undermine the vibrant online ecosystem that benefits developers and users.
As a result, Apple says it won’t allow apps to request IDs or other proof of age arbitrarily. Instead, the company will rely on age ranges for people under 18. Regardless of age, Apple implies that a developer will have to justify the need to collect explicit proof of age during app review.
The new global age ratings Apple plans to roll out are:
- 4+: Apps have no objectionable content.
- 9+: Apps might contain infrequent uses of fantasy or cartoon violence, mild horror elements, or crude humor.
- 13+: Apps might increase the frequency of those 9+ items. They could also contain “medical or treatment-focused content” (a disturbing set of terms) and reference a range of things, like drugs, alcohol, nudity, or realistic violence. It’s unclear what “reference” means compared to “includes.”
- 16+: Apps could include “frequent or intense” use of “mature or suggestive” content, as well as medical and treatment-focused material and unrestricted Web access.
- 18+: Apps could contain actual nudity and gambling, plus frequent or intense instances of adult stuff like drinking, sexual activity, smoking, and realistic violence. It’s hard to imagine Apple approving even apps rated 18+ that contain nudity or sexual activity, given the company’s past opinions about such content.
Apple says most of these features are “coming later this year,” “this year,” or “by the end of the year.” Some changes will be straightforward and entirely within Apple’s control, such as streamlining Child Account sign-up or enabling migration from a regular Apple Account. Others will require Apple to deploy new APIs and developers to upgrade their apps and disclose new age-range requirements in the Privacy Nutrition Labels in their App Store listings.