iOS 26 provides more control to parents on children’s screen time

As a future parent, I worry about how people online will interact with my child once they have a phone or tablet. The good news for parents struggling with this now: when Apple launches iOS 26 in the coming weeks, this brings more parental controls to iPhones.

Parents can already control how much screen time Their children have, Manage their child’s application store purchases And more. Some of the new controls will detect and blur nudity in certain applications, and your child will have to request access to interact with unknown numbers.

Here are some of the safety features for iOS 26 children could soon bring to your iPhone. My child is not yet there, so I could not test these features myself, but I will report later.

Remember that Apple is still in beta testing iOS 26. If you want to try the beta version, I recommend downloading it to a secondary device.

It is also possible that Apple can adjust these orders and other update features, before the company published the final version of iOS 26 this fall.

Note that many of these safety features are automatically activated in iOS 26 as long as they are attached to a telephone number and an Apple account of a minor.

Approve who can and cannot contact your child

You can already block unknown numbers in messages, and iOS 26 will allow parents to approve which numbers can send SMS or call their child. When your child receives a message or call from an unknown number, he must send a request to their parents to allow them to receive the message or the call.

So if your child’s friend wants to call them, you will have to approve their number. But if your 12 -year -old child receives strange and adult consonance messages, you can block this sender.

This feature is available on third -party applications, potentially allowing parents to approve with whom their child discusses, follows and makes friends in applications like Instagram, but the developers of these applications must first adopt the Apple framework.

Blur nudity in certain applications

Another security feature of iOS 26 children will understand that this will blur the nudity detected during calls FaceTime and in all albums shared on photos on your child’s iPhone.

This is similar to a functionality introduced in iOS 17 called sensitive content warnings. With this feature, you can choose to blur the nudity detected in the content sent to you in applications such as messages. The new feature is automatically activated on behalf of your child.

Changes in the App Store

Part of the security changes in iOS 26 includes the updated age ratings for applications in the Apple App Store, including indications if an application contains content generated by the user, messaging, advertising capacities or content controls.

The App Store will not show your children’s applications with notes above their content restriction range in the tabs, games or applications of the App Store, as well as in editorial stories. And if an application is greater than the content restriction beach of your child, you can make an exception for this application via the Ask to buy a feature.

Experiences integrated into the application adapted to age

If you approve your child to download a third-party application on your device, you can also choose to share your age group (for example 13-17) with the application developer. In this way, your child can view the content and features adapted to age in the application without having to reveal their exact date of birth or to be able to circumvent age restrictions by entering an older date.

To find out more about iOS 26, here are my first impressions of the beta version, how to allow calling for calls in the beta version and all the new features that Apple said it would bring to your device later this year. You can also consult our IOS 26 cheat sheet.