Apple’s new parental controls are for keeping Apple out of trouble
Apple’s new parental controls are for keeping Apple out of trouble
苹果推出的全新家长控制功能，旨在让苹果免受监管麻烦
Apple expanded its toolkit for parents at WWDC, but pushed developers to step up. 苹果在 WWDC（全球开发者大会）上扩展了家长控制工具包，同时也敦促开发者们承担更多责任。
When Apple put child safety front and center at WWDC on Monday, its stated goal was helping parents fine-tune their kids’ online experiences and avoid excessive screen time. But amid a global debate over internet regulation, its latest updates also looked like a defensive move in a brewing fight against Meta and other app developers. 周一，当苹果在 WWDC 上将儿童安全置于核心位置时，其宣称的目标是帮助家长微调孩子的在线体验并避免过度使用屏幕。然而，在全球互联网监管辩论的背景下，这些最新更新看起来更像是苹果在与 Meta 及其他应用开发者日益激烈的博弈中采取的一种防御性举措。
Apple announced an expanded toolkit for parents through its child accounts at WWDC, including a greater ability to customize kids’ allotted screen time and the ability to block gory or violent images in messages before kids see them. Raja Bose, Apple’s director of trust, safety, and values product marketing, touted some of the ways Apple believes it can be useful for kids to have access to devices. “On one hand, there’s so many benefits to your child having their own device,” Bose said. “You rest easier since you can stay in touch, know where they are, and provide them with great apps that can help them learn and grow.” But he then acknowledged the risks of unfettered access to the internet before kids are ready. 苹果在 WWDC 上宣布通过儿童账户为家长提供扩展的工具包，包括更灵活地自定义孩子的屏幕使用时间，以及在孩子看到信息前拦截血腥或暴力图片的功能。苹果信任、安全与价值观产品营销总监 Raja Bose 强调了苹果认为儿童使用设备所带来的益处。“一方面，孩子拥有自己的设备有很多好处，”Bose 说，“你可以更安心，因为你能随时保持联系、了解他们的位置，并为他们提供有助于学习和成长的优质应用。”但他随后也承认，在孩子尚未准备好时无限制地访问互联网存在风险。
The company emphasized a few key principles in its presentation of the new child safety features: that parents should be the ones to decide what their kids have access to, that Apple’s recommendations will be shaped by expert research that balances risks and benefits of technology for kids, and that some harmful things on the internet are outside its own control. “While Apple’s powerful controls help parents manage which apps their child can access, and when, it’s developers who play an important role in ensuring kids are getting age-appropriate experiences within apps,” Ann Thai, Apple’s senior director of marketplace platforms and technologies, said during the presentations. 苹果在介绍这些新儿童安全功能时强调了几个核心原则：家长应是决定孩子访问权限的最终决策者；苹果的建议将基于平衡技术风险与收益的专家研究；以及互联网上的一些有害内容超出了苹果的控制范围。苹果市场平台与技术高级总监 Ann Thai 在演讲中表示：“虽然苹果强大的控制功能可以帮助家长管理孩子访问哪些应用以及何时访问，但开发者在确保孩子在应用内获得适龄体验方面发挥着重要作用。”
“It’s developers who play an important role in ensuring kids are getting age-appropriate experiences within apps” “开发者在确保孩子在应用内获得适龄体验方面发挥着重要作用”
The last point sounded like a message not just to Apple customers, but for politicians and regulators debating who should be responsible for keeping kids off certain parts of the internet. As policymakers have grown increasingly enthusiastic about age-gating, Meta and other app and website developers have been forced to roll out age-checking systems in some countries, including the UK, Australia, and parts of the US. In turn, they’ve backed proposals that would put the onus on app stores to verify users’ ages instead, then send signals about those ages to app developers. 最后这一点听起来不仅是传达给苹果用户的，更是传达给那些正在争论“谁该负责阻止儿童接触互联网特定部分”的政客和监管机构的。随着政策制定者对年龄限制（age-gating）的热情日益高涨，Meta 及其他应用和网站开发者被迫在英国、澳大利亚和美国部分地区推出了年龄核查系统。作为回应，他们转而支持那些将责任推给应用商店的提案，即由应用商店负责验证用户年龄，并将年龄信息发送给应用开发者。
Apple has vehemently fought these bills. CEO Tim Cook reportedly called the governor of Texas in an unsuccessful bid to stop him from signing an app store-level age verification rule and visited Capitol Hill to lobby against similar legislation the company has warned could negatively impact user privacy. The Apple and Google-backed group Chamber of Progress has backed proposals like the Parents Over Platforms Act, which would not require strict age verification of users’ accounts, and places some added responsibility on developers like Meta. 苹果一直强烈反对这些法案。据报道，CEO 蒂姆·库克曾致电德克萨斯州州长，试图阻止其签署应用商店层面的年龄验证规则，但未获成功；他还曾前往国会山游说，反对类似的立法，苹果警告称这些立法可能会对用户隐私产生负面影响。由苹果和谷歌支持的组织“进步商会”（Chamber of Progress）支持了诸如《平台之上的家长法案》（Parents Over Platforms Act）等提案，该法案不要求对用户账户进行严格的年龄验证，而是将部分额外责任置于 Meta 等开发者身上。
Apple has complied with age verification rules when necessary — it began requiring information like a credit card or government ID to create a new Apple account in Texas earlier this month. And its WWDC presentation followed a long tradition of companies attempting to demonstrate they can protect kids without regulation, something Meta has also done. But it put a particular emphasis on the need for developers to pitch in. 苹果在必要时也遵守了年龄验证规则——本月初，它已开始要求德克萨斯州的新用户在创建 Apple 账户时提供信用卡或政府身份证件等信息。此次 WWDC 的演示延续了科技公司试图证明其无需监管即可保护儿童的传统，Meta 也曾采取过类似做法。但苹果此次特别强调了开发者需要共同参与。
“We believe every app has that same responsibility” “我们相信每一款应用都负有同样的责任”
“Many apps already offer parental controls to help shield kids from content they shouldn’t see,” Thai said. “We believe every app has that same responsibility.” Thai touted the company’s APIs that developers can use to allow for parent approvals within apps and protect kids from being exposed to nudity. (Even as Apple executives made these announcements inside Apple Park, protesters outside its visitors center were demanding the company remove apps that use AI to virtually undress users, including X’s Grok.) “许多应用已经提供了家长控制功能，以帮助保护孩子免受不宜内容的影响，”Thai 说，“我们相信每一款应用都负有同样的责任。”Thai 宣传了苹果的 API，开发者可以利用这些接口在应用内实现家长审批功能，并保护孩子免受裸露内容的侵害。（就在苹果高管在 Apple Park 内发布这些公告的同时，其访客中心外的抗议者正要求苹果下架那些利用 AI 对用户进行“虚拟脱衣”的应用，其中包括 X 平台的 Grok。）
Apple executives emphasized that they’re following the guidance of medical experts, including through the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Family Media Plan, which promotes a nuanced approach to media consumption, rather than strict screen time limits. Apple similarly wants to avoid dictating from above how much screen time kids should have. During the event, Apple’s VP of health, Sumbul Ahmad Desai, said that “every child is unique, and parents are in the best position to decide what works for their family.” It’s positioning its products as the best way for parents to enforce those decisions — but not a silver bullet for making the whole internet safe. 苹果高管强调，他们遵循医学专家的指导，包括参考美国儿科学会的“家庭媒体计划”（Family Media Plan），该计划提倡以细致入微的方式管理媒体消费，而非简单粗暴地限制屏幕时间。苹果同样希望避免从上而下地规定孩子应该使用多久的屏幕。在活动期间，苹果健康副总裁 Sumbul Ahmad Desai 表示：“每个孩子都是独特的，家长最清楚什么方案适合自己的家庭。”苹果将其产品定位为家长执行这些决策的最佳工具，但并非让整个互联网变得安全的“灵丹妙药”。