On September 29, 2026, Apple released "Building Healthy Digital Habits: A Guide for Families," a new guide developed with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)[1]. It helps families balance screen time with sleep, exercise, schoolwork, and time with friends and family, and is designed to be used alongside the parental controls added in iOS 27 and related updates.
Pediatric Advice Paired with Built-In Apple Tools
The guide walks through expert advice from the AAP together with the management tools built into Apple products. Dr. Sumbul Desai, Apple's vice president of Health and Fitness, noted that every family approaches technology differently and said she hopes the guide gives parents a useful starting point for deciding what works best[1].
The AAP also said that working with Apple expands the reach of its Family Media Plan and helps parents build balanced, safe habits[1][2]. The AAP's screen time guidance includes age-specific information from infants through teenagers[1].
Six Steps for Families
The guide lays out six steps for setting up household rules[1].
The first step is to start a conversation about screen time as a family, with tips for sharing goals in a way that makes children feel they are part of the plan. Next, parents create a child account, which turns on age-appropriate protections and gives parents access to parental controls for managing their child's experience.
The third step is setting up safety for websites and apps. Families can review new apps and sites together and configure "Ask to Buy"-style approvals and website access requests. The fourth is building a device schedule, using Time Allowances and Schedules to balance online time with sleep, schoolwork, and exercise.
The fifth is managing communication. Parents decide who a child can communicate with, and Communication Safety is turned on by default for all users under 18 to protect them from viewing or sharing sensitive content[1]. The last step is to keep talking as children grow and adjust the family plan over time.
What iOS 27 Adds
The new features the guide relies on arrived on September 14, 2026 with iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27[2]. According to Apple, the main additions are[2]:
- Simplified setup: new child accounts come with a curated selection of essential apps.
- Ask to Browse in Safari: requires parental approval before a child visits a new website.
- Expanded Communication Safety: in addition to nudity, it now blocks gore and violent content in shared images and videos, including in live FaceTime calls.
- Time Allowances: expert-informed, age-tailored guidance for Social Media, Entertainment, and Games categories.
- Redesigned Screen Time: an overview of usage with one-tap controls to adjust access in the moment.
Things to Keep in Mind
To use the new Screen Time features, every device in the Family Sharing group must be updated to iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, and visionOS 27[1][2]. Even one device left on an older OS means the new features will not be available. Some features may also be unavailable depending on region, language, and device model.
Summary
Apple has published a family guide with the AAP that shows how to use the strengthened parental controls in iOS 27 in six steps. Features such as age-based Time Allowances and Ask to Browse are built to support parents and children as they set things up together. Because every device in the Family Sharing group needs the OS update, it is worth checking the software version of each family device before getting started.
Source: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/09/apples-new-child-safety-features-now-available/
