Apple releases guide to help families build healthy digital habits

Apple and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released “Building Healthy Digital Habits: A Guide for Families.” The guide is intended to help families balance screen time with sleep, schoolwork, exercise and time with friends and family.

It recommends discussing rules with children and revisiting the family plan as they grow. The AAP also provides age-based guidance on media use, covering children from infancy through the teenage years.

Parental controls and schedules

The guide covers creating a Child Account with age-based safeguards and parental controls. It also describes Ask to Buy and Ask to Browse for reviewing new apps and websites, along with Time Allowances and Schedules for planning online time.

Parents can decide who their child communicates with. Communication Safety, enabled by default for users under 18, is designed to help protect children from viewing or sharing sensitive content.

The new features are available now through the Screen Time update in iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and macOS 27. All devices in a Family Sharing group must run iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27 and visionOS 27 to use the update.

Apple says some features may not be available in every region, language or model. Sumbul Desai, Apple’s vice president of Health and Fitness, said the guide combines AAP recommendations with Apple’s parental-control tools.