Apple Communication Safety for kids coming soon to UK after US launch

Last December, Apple launched Message Safety for kids in the US with iOS 15.2 to help protect them from viewing or sharing nudity photos. Now, a subscription feature that parents can set up is coming soon in the UK.

As reported by The Guardian, Apple has shared its communication safety in messages for children, which will soon appear on British iPhones.

Let me remind you how Apple describes the subscription feature:

The Messages app includes tools to alert kids when they receive or send nudity photos. These features are not enabled by default. If parents agree, these warnings will be enabled for child accounts in their family plan.

When enabled by a parent using Family Sharing to control a child’s device, a nudity photo “will be blurred and the child will be alerted, presented with helpful resources, and reassured that it’s OK if they don’t want to view This”. A photo.”

A similar experience occurs if a child tries to send a nude photo. Apple says, “In both cases, kids are given the option to send a message to someone they trust for help if they want to.”

It’s important to note that this feature doesn’t give Apple access to any of the photos. All processing is done on the device to determine if a photo contains nudity, and messages remain end-to-end encrypted.

It’s not clear if Apple will be able to launch the “Communication Security in Messages” feature for UK users when iOS 15.5 goes public, or if it will make it available sooner via a server-side switch.

How to turn on the iPhone Messages safety feature for kids

You’ll need to use the Apple Screen Time feature on an adult’s device to set up Kids’ iPhone Messages Security (requires Family Sharing). Learn more about setting up family sharing here if you haven’t already.

When available in your region:

On an adult iPhone or iPad, open the Settings app. Select Screen Time. Swipe down and select the child you want to set iPhone message security for.

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