News from the IT family on September 30th: Apple Company released a blog post today (September 30th), stating that it has collaborated with the American Academy of Pediatrics to publish "Building Healthy Habits: A Family Guide," integrating authoritative pediatric recommendations into the parental control tools built into the iOS 27 system.
Apple stated in an official blog post that it hopes to help family members jointly explore and develop healthy digital habits through the "Family Media Plan," thereby achieving a balance between screen time and time for sleep, exercise, schoolwork, as well as time spent with friends and relatives.
In terms of the operational framework, this "Guide" proposes six steps:
- Let's start discussing the topic of screen time, and provide some tips to parents to help them communicate effectively, set reasonable expectations, and make children feel like they are participants in planning the process.
- Create a child account to enable age-based protection measures and allow parents to manage their child's digital experience through parental control features.
- Adjust the security settings of the website and App, including "ask before purchasing" and "request to browse", so that parents and children can jointly review the new App and the website.
- Arrange device usage times. With the help of the "time quota" and "schedule" functions, balance internet time, sleep, schoolwork, physical activities, as well as time spent with friends and family.
- Manage communication content. Parents can decide who their children can communicate with, and at the same time, the communication security features for all users under 18 years of age are enabled by default to help prevent children from viewing or sharing sensitive content.
- Continue the conversation as the child grows, and provide long-term guidance on adjusting family plans.
In terms of age segmentation, the American Academy of Pediatrics also provides detailed recommendations for screen time by age group, covering infants, toddlers, school-age children, and adolescents. Parents can choose media usage strategies and restrictions that match their child's developmental stage.
In terms of push notifications, the new features will be introduced with system updates such as iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27. Reports cite a blog post stating that all family members' devices need to be upgraded to the corresponding versions in order to enable the full functionality, which will help children use products such as iPhone 18, Pro 18, iPhone 18, Pro Max 18, iPad 18, Pro 18, MacBook Air 18, and MacBook Pro 18 in a more scientific and reasonable manner.
IT reported a blog post stating that Sumbul Desai, Vice President of Health and Fitness at Apple and a medical doctor, said: "Every family uses technology products in their own way. Therefore, we want to integrate the reliable guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics into the tools built into our products. By combining the two, we aim to adapt to the different stages of growth for each family and each child, providing parents with a practical starting point to choose the supervision method that best suits their family. We hope this guide will facilitate easier parent-child conversations, provide families with the necessary resources, put this guide into practice, and adjust methods as children grow, helping them to develop healthy digital habits that can be integrated into daily life."
