Apple today held a questions-and-answers session with reporters regarding its new child safety features, and during the briefing, Apple confirmed that it would be open to expanding the features to third-party apps in the future.Apple has revealed three new child safety features in future iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 versions, macOS Monterey, or watchOS 8.Apple's new Child Safety FeaturesThe first is the optional Communication Safety feature that can be enabled in the Messages app for iPhone, iPad, Mac. This will warn parents and children when they receive or send explicit photos. Apple stated that the Messages app will use machine learning on the device to analyze attachments. If a photo is found to contain explicit sexual material, it will automatically blur the image and warn the child.Apple will also be able detect child sexual abuse material (CSAM) images stored within iCloud Photos. This will allow Apple to report the instances to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a non-profit organization working in collaboration with U.S. authorities. Apple today confirmed that this process will apply only to photos uploaded to iCloud Photo and not to videos.Apple will also expand guidance in Siri and Spotlight Search across all devices. This means that additional resources will be available to parents and children to keep them safe online and help them with unfavorable situations. Siri will direct users to the right resources to help them file a report on child exploitation or CSAM.Expanding to Third-Party AppsApple stated that it doesn't have any announcements to make today, but that expanding child safety features to third-party users would be a great goal. Apple didn't give any examples but it could open up the possibility of the Communication Safety feature being made accessible to apps like Snapchat and Instagram so that explicit images received by children are blurred.Apple's CSAM detection system may be extended to third-party apps that upload photos from other than iCloud Photos.Apple didn't give a timeline for when child safety features might be extended to third parties. The company noted that it still needs to test and deploy the features and that it will need to make sure that the privacy and effectiveness of any expansion are not compromised.Apple stated that it is expanding the features of third-party apps was its general approach. This has been true since the App Store was introduced to iPhone OS 2 in 2008, which supports third-party apps.
