Apple will introduce “age assurance” technology to boost children’s privacy and safety on the company’s devices, the company announced Thursday as part of its broader push to protect kids online.
With the new technology, parents will be able to select the age range of their kids instead of providing their exact birthdates when setting up child accounts, Apple wrote in a white paper published Thursday.
This would be done before young users download apps from third-party developers, who will soon be able to use a “Declared Age Range API” that gives them access to this range.
“As with everything we do, the feature will be designed around privacy and users will be in control of their data,” Apple wrote. “The age range will be shared with developers if and only if parents decide to allow this information to be shared, and they can also disable sharing if they change their mind.”
The company said it aims to create an “age-appropriate experience” but also maintain children’s privacy.
The API is a “narrowly-tailored, data-minimizing, privacy-protecting tool to assist app developers who can benefit from it,” Apple added.
It comes amid a wider national debate over the role technology companies play in protecting children and teens online.
At least nine states have recently introduced bills that would require app-store operators to check users’ ages and confirm parental consent before minors can download the applications.
Apple has long argued the responsibility is on third-party app developers to verify users’ age.
The technology company argues a requirement to verify age on the actual app marketplace would make all users hand over sensitive information, when only a limited number of apps need such specific information about users.
“That means giving us data like a driver’s license, passport, or national identification number (such as a Social Security number), even if we don’t need it,” the company said Thursday.
Since many children do not have government-issued IDs, it forces parents to provide their sensitive documentation instead, Apple added
Meanwhile, other technology companies like Meta, X and Snap have argued the onus is on the app stores themselves.
In a letter earlier this month, Meta, Snap and X came out in support of a South Dakota Senate bill that would require app stores to verify users’ ages prior to downloads.
Apple’s white paper also revealed a series of other child-oriented changes, including a new setup process for parents to set up child accounts, which are required for users under 13 and optional for minors under the age of 18.
If a parent does not immediately finish setting up a child account, child-appropriate default settings will still be enabled to allow the children to use the devices safely in the meantime.
Parents will also be able to correct the age associated with the child account if it was not properly input.
