Apple today shared a guide meant to help parents use the child safety tools in iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS Golden Gate. Apple says “Building Healthy Digital Habits: A Guide for Families” was developed in partnership with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
The six-step guide covers balancing screen time with sleep, exercise, schoolwork, and time with friends and family. It has advice on getting kids on board with screen time limits and using the different parental control features. From Apple’s announcement:
- Start a conversation about screen time, with tips for parents to approach the topic and establish expectations in a way that helps kids feel included in the plan.
- Create a Child Account, which enables age-based safeguards and gives parents access to parental controls to manage their child’s experience.
- Set safety settings for websites and apps, including Ask to Buy and Ask to Browse, so families can review new apps and websites together.
- Make a schedule for device use, using Time Allowances and Schedules to balance time online with sleep, schoolwork, physical activity, and time with family and friends.
- Manage communications, with parents deciding who their child can communicate with and Communication Safety, on by default for all users under 18, helping protect kids from viewing or sharing sensitive content.
- Continue the conversation as kids grow, with guidance on adjusting the family’s plan over time.
The guide includes the AAP’s recommendations on screen time by age group, from infants to teens, along with strategies to help children develop healthy screen time habits.
Apple added new parental control options and an overhauled version of Screen Time in iOS 27. Parents can choose which apps children can access, monitor and control website access, keep tabs on approved contacts, and set different screen time schedules based on time of day. Using the new version of Screen Time requires all devices in a Family Sharing group to be running iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, and visionOS 27.
The guide comes as Apple deals with regulatory pressure over child safety in countries like the UK, U.S., and Australia.
Popular Stories
Here’s When iOS 27 Rolls Out Today in Every Time Zone
Update 10:04 a.m.: iOS 27 is rolling out now, though it may take a bit for all users to see it, so keep checking! Apple is about to release iOS 27, which will finally deliver more advanced Siri AI capabilities as well as a variety of other refinements, improvements, and new features to iPhones. It’s Apple’s biggest software update of the year, and Apple announced at Wednesday’s iPhone event…
iOS 27 Available Now With These 8 New Features
Update — 10 a.m. Pacific Time: Apple has released iOS 27. During its iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo event last week, Apple announced that iOS 27 will be released widely on Monday, September 14. iOS 27 should be available around 10 a.m. Pacific Time / 1 p.m. Eastern Time today via the Settings app, under General → Software Update. Below, we have highlighted eight new features and…
iOS 27 Introduces New ‘iPhone Handoff’ Feature
Apple has added a new “iPhone Handoff” feature to iOS 27 that will allow you to switch between two iPhones while using the same phone number on each device. This functionality was briefly mentioned during the WWDC 2026 keynote in June, on a slide that listed hundreds of new features coming in iOS 27 and corresponding software updates, but Apple never shared any further details at the time. …