Apple has announced plans to introduce a range of new child safety features, including a system that allows parents to share their kids' age ranges with apps, in a bid to improve online safety for minors. The company outlined its plans in a whitepaper, stating that the features will be rolled out "this year."

The move comes as companies like Meta, Snap, and X have called for platforms to be responsible for verifying the ages of users at the OS or app store level. However, Apple has argued that age verification at the app marketplace level would require users to hand over "sensitive personally identifying information" to the company, which would compromise user safety and privacy.

Instead, Apple's age sharing system will allow parents to share their kids' age ranges with app developers, but only if they choose to do so. The feature will not provide kids' actual birthdates, and parents will be able to disable sharing at any time. Developers will be able to request the age ranges using a new API that Apple claims is a "narrowly tailored, data-minimizing, privacy-protecting tool."

In addition to the age sharing feature, Apple is also refreshing the App Store's age ratings system. The company is expanding the system from four thresholds to five, with new categories including Age 4 plus, 9 plus, 13 plus, 16 plus, and 18 plus. Developers will be required to highlight whether their apps contain user-generated content or advertising capabilities that can impact the presence of age-inappropriate content, and if their apps have their own content controls.

Apple is also making it easier for parents to set up Child Accounts, introducing a new setup process and allowing parents to fix the age associated with the account if it wasn't set up correctly. The company claims that the App Store won't show kids apps with age ratings "in the places where we feature apps on our storefront" that are higher than what their parents set on their accounts.

The introduction of these new features marks a significant step forward for Apple in terms of child safety online. While the company has faced criticism in the past for not doing enough to protect minors, these new features demonstrate a commitment to improving online safety and giving parents more control over their kids' online experiences.

It remains to be seen how effective these new features will be in practice, but Apple's efforts are likely to be welcomed by parents and child safety advocates alike. As the tech industry continues to grapple with the challenges of keeping minors safe online, Apple's move is a positive step in the right direction.