Apple released a guide today, written with the American Academy of Pediatrics, that pairs the pediatric group's screen time advice with the parental controls built into Apple devices. The document, "Building Healthy Digital Habits: A Guide for Families," is meant to help parents balance screen time against sleep, exercise, schoolwork, and time with friends and family.
The guide walks families through six steps: starting a conversation about screen time, creating a Child Account with age-based safeguards, setting website and app safety options including Ask to Buy and Ask to Browse, building a device schedule with Time Allowances and Schedules, managing who a child can communicate with, and revisiting the plan as kids grow. Communication Safety, which Apple says is on by default for users under 18, is part of the communications step and is designed to protect kids from viewing or sharing sensitive content.
The guide also includes the AAP's screen time guidance broken out by age group, from infants through teens, so families can weigh choices about media use at each stage.
Sumbul Desai, M.D., Apple's vice president of Health and Fitness, said the guide was built to combine the AAP's guidance with tools already in Apple's products. "Together, they're designed to adapt to each family and each child's stage of development, giving parents a useful starting point to decide what works best," she said.
Mark Del Monte, the AAP's chief executive officer, said the partnership is meant to widen access to the group's Family Media Plan. "We are proud to partner with Apple to expand access to the Family Media Plan, helping parents create routines that promote balance, safety, and healthy development," he said.
The release lands as Apple's next major operating system versions near their public debut. Public beta 4 builds for iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, tvOS 27, and watchOS 27 went out in late August, and at that point the finished versions were a few weeks away.
Apple has kept up a steady cadence of software releases in recent months, from a fourth AirPods beta firmware build aimed at features arriving with iOS 27 to a security-focused macOS Tahoe 26.6 update in July.
