AppleApple is introducing a highly flexible Time Allowances feature this fall, offering parents granular control over how long their children can spend in specific app categories, such as Entertainment, Games, and Social Media. To take the guesswork out of digital boundaries, the system provides automatic, age-tailored setup recommendations based on clinical and child development research. Parents can use these expert-backed starting points as a baseline and easily adjust the daily limits to fit their family's needs.
Alongside category limits, the update introduces a customizable daily Schedules feature to help kids stay focused when it matters most. Parents can restrict or open access to specific apps at different times of the day or week, making it simple to lock down distracting social or gaming apps during school hours while keeping educational tools open.
The rollout is part of a broader child safety suite previewed by Apple today, designed to provide families with intuitive, expert-guided tools to build safer digital habits. With software updates landing this fall, the comprehensive safety package will also feature a simplified device setup experience, a new Ask to Browse system for web access, and a fully redesigned Screen Time dashboard.