Hi Reader,

Earlier this month at their developer's conference, Apple finally handed parents the controls we've been requesting for years. This fall, with iOS 27, you'll be able to approve every website your kid visits, every new contact they add, and exactly which apps live on their phone from day one.

It's a real update. And there's a real catch.

Here's what's new:

When you set up a phone for your kid, you now choose exactly which apps they start with, instead of handing over a fully-loaded device and trying to lock things down after. For browsing, there's a new Ask to Browse feature: when your child tries to visit a new website in Safari, a request pops up on your phone. You approve or decline. You can also require approval before they add new contacts in Messages, FaceTime, or Phone (Contact Approval). And Screen Time gets real category-level limits — one hour of entertainment, 30 minutes of social, etc. — instead of one blunt daily cap.

It's a lot. And it should have existed years ago.

But here's the catch: almost none of it covers the apps where kids actually spend their time.

Communication Safety detects nudity and violence in Messages and FaceTime, not on Instagram or TikTok. Ask to Browse only works in Safari. Contact Approval only covers Apple's native apps. Instagram, TikTok, Discord, YouTube are not covered. Apple has given third-party developers the frameworks to opt in. They don't have to. And mostly, they haven't.

There are also well-known workarounds (changing the device date resets daily limits; reinstalling an app from purchase history skips Ask to Buy). And for kids 13+, most of these protections are off by default unless you turn them on.

So: use the controls. They matter, especially for younger kids. I wrote up the full step-by-step setup guide over on Substack if you want the details. (You might want to save that link for the fall, when iOS 27 is released.)

But controls aren't the whole answer. Research consistently shows that for teenagers especially, the thing that actually moves the needle isn't filters — it's conversation. Talking about why platforms are built the way they are. What the algorithm is doing. What healthy use actually looks like.

Apple can give you Ask to Browse. It can't give you the conversation about why your kid wanted to visit that site in the first place. That part is still up to you.

In Partnership,

Dr. Rupa

P.S. Hit reply and let me know which of the above parental controls you think will be most useful for your child and/or what you wish had been included in these updates.

P. P. S. If you want to go beyond settings and actually build a kid who can navigate the digital world with judgment — Tech Ready is a 5-week course for parents and tweens (5th–8th grade) to take together. We cover algorithms, the attention economy, digital identity, and how to build a family tech plan your kid actually buys into.