Apple announced a set of new child safety features coming to iPhones and other devices this fall, unveiled during the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote in June 2026. The announcement marked a notable shift for a company that advocates say has long sidestepped responsibility for children’s online safety.
Sarah Gardner, founder and CEO of the nonprofit Heat Initiative, was protesting outside Apple Park in Cupertino, California — tied to a tree — when the keynote aired. It was her fifth demonstration at the site. Gardner, who has spent 15 years in online trust and safety work, says Apple “was consistently absent” from child safety conversations during her decade working alongside tech companies before founding Heat Initiative.
“Apple, as a company, tried to ignore for a long time that they were part of a child’s online experience at all,” Gardner told WIRED. While she does not consider the iOS 27 features groundbreaking, she called the keynote attention a positive step. “It’s all pressuring them to be forced to admit that they need to address child safety as a whole.”
The announcement comes as Apple faces a lawsuit from West Virginia alleging the company’s business practices safeguard child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Apple previously developed a photo-scanning tool to detect CSAM on iCloud servers but abandoned it following criticism from privacy and security experts. At the time, Apple said it “concluded it was not practically possible to implement without ultimately imperiling the security and privacy of our users.” Gardner continues to advocate for the tool’s implementation.
Gardner’s protest also drew attention to so-called “nudify” apps on the App Store — AI tools that digitally remove clothing from real photos. The Tech Transparency Project identified 47 such apps in January 2026. Apple previously removed developer accounts linked to deepfake websites after WIRED reported in 2024 that Apple’s single-sign-on system was being used to register for those sites.
Source: WIRED