Tech giant Apple has credited Australia’s world-first social media ban for under-16s as an inspiration for a new suite of child-safety controls on its devices, in an endorsement the Albanese government is using to defend a policy its own regulator has openly questioned.
Apple chief executive Tim Cook telephoned Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday to brief him on the iPhone maker’s announcement, the prime minister’s office said in statement. Albanese said Cook told him the changes were “in part inspired by Australia’s world-leading social media age ban”, along with the company’s own research into the impact of social media on children.
Apple’s announcement of the child-safety tools, made at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in California on Tuesday (AEST), did not mention Australia. The tech giant said the features were grounded in guidance from clinical and child-development researchers and online safety experts, and that it was adapting the American Academy of Paediatrics’ Family Media Plan into a guide for parents using its devices. The company has been contacted for further comment.
The new safety tools, which will come through software updates later this year, include a simpler process for setting up a child account, a new “Ask to Browse” control that requires children to seek a parent’s permission before opening a website in Safari, and “Time Allowances” that cap time spent in app categories such as games and social media.
Apple is also redesigning its Screen Time dashboard and expanding Communication Safety, which already blurs nudity detected in Messages and FaceTime, to block violent and gory images. The features will arrive with the iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and macOS 27 operating system updates.
“Our approach to helping families create safer digital experiences is grounded in the belief that every child is unique,” said Sumbul Desai, Apple’s vice president of health and fitness.
Albanese welcomed Apple’s announcement and used it to defend the government’s social media ban, which took effect on December 10. He said more than 5 million accounts held by under-16s had since been removed, deactivated or restricted, and that a number of nations were following Australia’s lead with their own age restrictions.
“Social media companies have a social responsibility, and we make no apology for holding them to account to help keep kids safe,” Albanese said. Cook also invited him to visit Apple on his next trip to the United States, an offer he said he would take up.
Cook is in his final months as Apple’s chief executive. The company announced in April that he will step down on September 1 and become executive chairman, a role in which he will engage with policymakers around the world. John Ternus, Apple’s head of hardware engineering, will take over as CEO.
Apple’s controls are device-level parental settings, not the account-level prohibition which Australia’s social media ban imposes. The law requires platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat to take “reasonable steps” to remove under-16s, placing the legal obligation on the companies. Apple’s tools instead rely on parents to switch them on and enforce them.
The child-safety features were one part of a developer conference dominated by Apple’s overhaul of its Siri voice assistant and other artificial intelligence tools. Several of the parental controls extend functions which Apple has offered for years, and the package reads in part like an effort to get ahead of tightening regulation of children’s technology use.
Cook’s endorsement of Australia’s under-16s social media ban lands as the ban’s record is contested at home. eSafety reported a 37 per cent drop in under-16s holding accounts by March, but found close to 70 per cent of surveyed parents said their children still held an account on a major platform. No platform has been fined.
eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant called the outright ban “a very blunt force approach” and said in recent comments to this masthead she was “not really keen on it”.
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David Swan is the technology editor for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously technology editor for The Australian newspaper.Connect via X or email.