Apple 'passes the onus onto parents' in new child safety feature revamp

The new features were announced at an Apple conference this week. (Reuters: Carlos Barria)

Apple has revamped its child safety controls to allow parents to manage the apps, websites and contacts their children can access.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the changes were in part inspired by Australia's under-16 social media ban.

Apple's vice-president of health and fitness, Sumbul Desai, said the new tools would let parents "tailor their kids' digital journey".

Apple has announced new child safety controls that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says are inspired by Australia's under-16 social media ban.

The new controls will allow parents to manage the apps, websites and contacts their children can access on their Apple devices.

The prime minister said Apple chief executive Tim Cook called him to give him the heads up about the changes being made to the products.

"Mr Cook told me these changes are in part inspired by Australia's world-leading social media age ban, as well as the continued research Apple is undertaking into the impact of social media on kids," Mr Albanese said.

Anthony Albanese says Apple's chief executive called him about the new features. (ABC News: Adam Kennedy)

"I welcome this announcement, and I am proud of the world-leading work Australia is doing to fight for a safer online world for our children."

Lisa Given, a Distinguished Professor of Information Sciences at RMIT University, said that while the changes from Apple were a step in the right direction, it was another example of tech companies passing the buck on to parents.

"I think one of the challenges with this is that type of a shift puts a lot of control into parents' hands, but that means the onus is on the parents," she said.

She said that "Australia has definitely got the world talking about this issue" and acknowledged that the Apple changes were likely driven by the social media ban.

Australia's world-first social media ban for under-16s is two months old, but teenagers say they have found ways around it.

But she said there had been a lot of pushback from tech companies that believed a social media ban "shouldn't be met at the platform or app level, it should be managed at the device level".

Australia's social media ban, which began on December 10, stops children under 16 from creating and using accounts on several social media platforms.

In June 2024, Australia's eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said the Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society had looked into options for policing phone manufacturers when it came to an under-a