Apple Lets Parents Approve Who Their Kids Can Message

Welcome to Parent Pixels, a parenting newsletter filled with practical advice, news, and resources to support you and your kids in the digital age. This week:

• Apple’s new parental controls will allow parents to set extra protections for teens and approve new contacts in their child’s messages, among other settings.
• What’s in the APA’s new health advisory on AI and your child’s well-being? We break down the details for parents.
• Plus, the latest on the TikTok ban, which has been rescheduled more often than your flight on a budget airline.

Digital Parenting

📱Apple rolls out new parental controls this fall: Just in time for back-to-school season (and kids asking for new iPhones), Apple is rolling out new parental control features with the release of iOS 26 later this year. The updates will give parents more ways to create safer, age-appropriate experiences for kids and teens on Apple devices. 

Here’s what’s coming:

• Easier setup for Child Accounts, which enables kid-friendly default settings
• Age-range sharing with apps to tailor experiences based on your child’s age
• Extra protections for teens (ages 13–17), including content filters and communication limits
• More detailed age ratings in the App Store (13+, 16+, 18+)
• Parent approval for new contacts, letting you decide who your child can message
• Expanded Communication Safety, including blurring nudity in Shared Albums and alerting users if nudity is detected during a FaceTime video call

These new tools will be free when iOS 26 launches later this year. In the meantime, you can already access Apple’s built-in parental controls — including screen time limits, app approvals, and purchase restrictions — by adding your child to a Family Sharing group. Here’s how to get started.

🤖 APA releases advisory on kids and AI: Artificial intelligence (AI) is popping up everywhere — but how can parents ensure their kids are using it safely? The American Psychological Association (APA) recently released a health advisory on AI and adolescent well-being, with recommendations for parents, tech companies, educators, and policymakers, and more. 

Some takeaways for parents include:

• Teach kids that AI relationships aren’t human relationships, even if they feel like it.
• Use safety settings to make AI for kids different than AI for adults, such as setting screen time limits and using any available content and language filters (unfortunately, many popular AI chatbot platforms lack any meaningful parental controls).
• Encourage the use of AI for active learning, such as brainstorming and organizing information, rather than passively asking AI to write an essay or generate sources.
• Talk to kids about misinformation and that chatbots aren’t a substitute for professional health advice. While kids might feel more comfortable talking about their problems with ChatGPT, they should also be encouraged to talk to an adult.

The health advisory also includes common-sense recommendations for tech companies that are similar to ongoing conversations about social media safety: kids need better protections from harmful content, and tech companies should take greater steps to create age-appropriate experiences for their youngest users. 

For parents, it’s more important than ever to stay involved in what their kids do online, including what apps they use and what they type. If you don’t feel comfortable talking to your kid about AI, that’s understandable — but kids are using it, and it’s shaping their online experiences.

Here’s a place to start: We put together a guide to talking to your kids about the difference between AI friendships and in-person ones. Check it out.

Coming soon: Want to monitor what your child sends on Snapchat, Discord, Roblox, and more? Keep your eyes peeled on the BrightCanary app 👀

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Parent Pixels is a biweekly newsletter filled with practical advice, news, and resources to support you and your kids in the digital age. Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox a day early? Subscribe here.

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Tech Talks

AI tools can be helpful when used wisely, but they can also blur boundaries and spread misinformation. Whether your child is using ChatGPT to study or exploring AI companions like Replika or Character.ai, it’s important to check in regularly. Here are some conversation starters to help your child think critically, stay safe, and understand the limits of AI.

1. “What do you think makes a good use of AI for schoolwork, and what crosses the line?”
2. “If you used AI to explain something confusing, how would you double-check that the explanation is actually correct?”
3. “Have you ever talked to an AI chatbot just for fun? What was that like?”
4. “If an AI writes something for you, do you feel like it’s still your work?”
5. “How can you tell if something an AI says is just made up?”

What’s Catching Our Eye

⏲️ Remember the TikTok ban? President Trump has pushed back the sell-by date again — and he says he has a buyer lined up. The Chinese government would need to approve the sale before it’s official, though.

🛑 The Dutch government recommends that children under 15 stay off TikTok and Instagram, citing psychological and physical problems among kids that use the platforms.

🤨 How can you tell real parenting advice from misinformation on social media? CBS spoke with Emily Oster of Parent Data. Her recommendations include looking for credentials, being mindful if someone is selling an easy solution to a hard problem, and more.