As a soon-to-be-parent, I’m worried about how people online will interact with my kid once they have a phone or tablet. The good news for parents struggling with this now: Apple’s iOS 26 brings more parental controls to iPhones.
Parents can already control how much screen time their kids have, manage their child’s App Store purchases and more. Some of the new controls can detect and blur nudity in certain apps, and your child will have to ask for access to interact with unknown numbers.
Here are some of the kid’s safety features iOS 26 brings to iPhones. My kid’s not here yet so I couldn’t test these features myself, but I’ll report back later.
Note that many of these safety features are automatically enabled in iOS 26 as long as they are attached to a phone number and Apple account of a juvenile.
Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.
Approve who can and can’t contact your child
You can already block unknown numbers in Messages, and iOS 26 lets parents approve which numbers can text or call their child. When your child gets a message or a call from an unknown number, they’ll have to send a request to their parents to allow them to receive the message or call.
So if your kid’s friend wants to call them, you will have to approve their number. But if your 12-year-old is getting weird, adult-sounding messages, you can block that sender.
This feature is available on third-party apps, potentially letting parents approve who their child chats with, follows and becomes friends with in apps like Instagram, but developers of those apps have to adopt Apple’s framework first.
Blur nudity in some apps
Another child safety feature iOS 26 includes is it will blur out detected nudity during FaceTime calls and in any shared albums in Photos on your kid’s iPhone.
This is similar to a feature introduced in iOS 17 called Sensitive Content Warnings. With that feature, you could choose to blur detected nudity in content sent to you in apps like Messages. The new feature is automatically enabled for your kid’s account.
App Store changes
Part of the safety changes in iOS 26 include updated age ratings for apps in Apple’s App Store, including indications if an app contains user-generated content, messaging, advertising capabilities or content controls.
The App Store also won’t show your child apps with ratings above their content restriction range in the App Store’s Today, Games or Apps tabs, as well as in the Editorial stories. And if an app is above your child’s content restriction range, you can make an exception for that app through the Ask to Buy feature.
Age-appropriate in-app experiences
If you approve your kid to download a third-party app onto their device, you can also choose to share their age range (e.g. 13-17) with the app’s developer. That way your kid can view content and age-appropriate features within the app without having to reveal their exact birth date or being able to circumvent age restrictions by entering an older birth date.
For more iOS news, here’s my review of iOS 26, how to enable call screening in the OS and all the new ringtones on your iPhone. You can also check out our iOS 26 cheat sheet.
Watch this: iPhone Air Review: A Joy to Hold, at a Cost
