Feed: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
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Title: Apple's iOS 26 requires kids to get parental permission to text new
numbers

Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2025 12:00:49 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/apps/apples-ios-26-r...

As part of new updates to its parental controls announced at WWDC 25, Apple
has introduced a new feature that requires kids to get permission to text new
numbers. That's among other new child safety settings including more granular
age-based app ratings that will be introduced to the new iOS 26, iPadOS 26,
macOS Tahoe 26, watchOS 26, visionOS 26, and tvOS 26 operating systems coming
this fall, Apple announced.

The new feature called Communication Limits (part of Child Accounts) gives
parents the ability to manage their kids communications across Messages,
FaceTime, calling and iCloud contacts. Children must send a request to their
parents when they want to contact a new phone number and parents can then
give approval with a single tape in Messages. Developers can include the new
function in third-party apps using Apple's PermissionKit framework.

Apple

Another new child-friendly feature is more granular age-based ratings for
apps to help parents decide which are safe for their kids to use. By the end
of 2025, those will expand to five categories including three for
adolescents: 13+, 16+ and 18+. When parents set app content restrictions,
apps that exceed those will not appear on the App Store ΓÇö though kids can
request exemptions if the Ask to Buy setting is enabled.

Apple already employs safety features like web content filters and app
restrictions for kids under 13, but it will now enforce "similar age-
appropriate" protections for teens between 13 and 17. The company will also
let parents give apps a child's age range without disclosing their exact date
of birth. Finally, the Communication Safety tool has been expanded to
intervene when it detects nudity in FaceTime video calls and it will blur out
nudity in Shared Albums in Photos.

Apple's changes follow in the heels of new age-verification laws enacted in
Texas, Utah and and other states. Google, for one, opposed the Utah bill, but
Meta and other app makers have called for legislation that would require app
stores to get parental approval before their teens download any app ΓÇö
effectively offloading the responsibility to Apple, Google and others.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/apps/apples-ios-26-r...
permission-to-text-new-numbers-120049197.html?src=rss

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