On Safer Internet Day on February 7, Apple shares tools and resources designed to help families keep kids safe online. These are tools that promote the safety and privacy of children, but also parental controls that help parents understand, control and limit the time their children spend with the devices.
“Apple wants to give people technology that not only improves and enriches their lives, but also helps them stay safe online,” said Erik Neuenschwander, Apple’s director of user privacy. “We are proud to be official supporters of Safer Internet Day in Europe, and we intend to continue innovating to ensure that everyone is able to protect their family online.”
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For Safer Internet Day, Apple is also providing free training sessions, both online and at Apple Stores, with the aim of helping parents, guardians and all those involved in the education and safety of minors to make the best use of tools dedicated to families and integrated into Apple devices. In addition, apps that promote child safety, privacy and parental controls will be featured in the App Store.
Apple’s website includes a page dedicated to families that illustrates a series of tools to help parents better manage the way their children use Apple devices: iOS 16 also comes with better account setup for boys and girls in the Family Sharing feature, which now allows parents and guardians to apply parental controls right out of the box. The new feature Checklist family gives helpful suggestions, also remembering to update the settings as the boys and girls grow. With Usage timeparents can receive weekly reports on their children’s online activities and establish the time spent on the device or in certain apps. Pause of use allows you to block apps and notifications at certain times of the day, while Communications limitations allows you to establish who minors can interact with. Through Content and privacy restrictions In Screen Time, parental controls allow you to block or limit the use of certain apps or features, applying restrictions on explicit content, purchases, downloads and to protect privacy.
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On the App Store, parents have the option to limit downloads to apps that are appropriate for their children’s age and to use Ask to buy to allow or block purchases and downloads. In the Kids section, Apple enforces strict standards that require each app to protect children’s data and block age-inappropriate ads. Parents can also activate Communications security for the Messages app, view alerts and resources on your children’s devices if they receive or try to send photos that show nudity. Thanks to on-device machine learning, Messages detects and blurs the image and offers age-appropriate guidance. Apple plans to expand this feature to other regions by working with local experts.
To help you make the most of these and many other features, Apple offers a free session entitled “The ABCs: Kids and Devices”. Available online and in more than 500 stores worldwide, the Today at Apple workshop lasts 60 minutes and equips those who use Apple devices with the knowledge and skills needed to keep boys and girls safe online. Recognizing the crucial role of every teacher in this area, Apple is also offering a personalized session to members of the Apple Education Community, a professional training hub designed for those who use Cupertino technology in teaching. The course offers useful information on how to keep boys and girls safe, and how to educate them about online safety.
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