Screen Time

It’s recently come to light that Apple has been cracking down on third-party parental control apps, citing security and privacy problems with the way in which developers have been forced to implement parental controls. The biggest problem this creates for end users, however, is that Apple’s own Screen Time features aren’t nearly as sophisticated as what most of the third-party apps are able to offer.

Not surprisingly, though, Apple is expected to improve Screen Time in iOS 13, with the report noting that Apple will let parents limit who their kids can contact based on time of day, so for example they could have the ability to chat with their friends disabled during certain hours, while still being able to contact their parents. While the report doesn’t make it clear, how this will work, we’re assuming that it will only apply to Apple’s built-in communications apps like Messages, FaceTime, and Phone.

On the other hand, there’s no word yet of any APIs that will allow third-party developers back into the tent. We expect it’s too soon to have that ready for iOS 13, but we’re definitely keeping our fingers crossed that Apple is already planning to address this for iOS 14, if not sooner.