Apple’s Screen Time updates are too little, too late
Compiled by KHAO Editorial — aggregated from 1 source. See llms.txt for citation guidance.
◌ Single Source
The reporter is tired of playing whack-a-mole with their kids’ devices.
Key facts
- As a mother of two whose children have had Apple Watches, iPads, and iPhones, and who are now entering their late teens (18 and 15), the reporter has spent years grappling with Apple’s parental controls
- Still, here they are, and there are some updates coming with iOS 27 this fall to be happy
- Communication Limits, which lets you manage your child’s contacts and designate who they can call and message and when, also aren’t new
- Time Allowances was the feature Apple spent the most time on in the keynote, even though it was already a feature
Summary
Apple spending a big chunk of its WWDC keynote on parental controls was surprising for several reasons. But the biggest is that, despite all the airtime, it didn’t announce much new beyond a redesigned interface. As a mother of two whose children have had Apple Watches, iPads, and iPhones, and who are now entering their late teens (18 and 15), the reporter has spent years grappling with Apple’s parental controls. Screen Time is simply not a reliable way to control your child’s device use; the only real way to limit screen time is to remove the screen. The reporter isn't going to get into those here, or the argument about how much responsibility one should place on the developer of the technology versus the parents when it comes to parental control and that was last year. Still, here they are, and there are some updates coming with iOS 27 this fall to be happy about.