Apple's Child-friendly Communication Safety Feature

It was reported earlier this month that Apple was attempting to bring its Communication Safety feature to more nations, and it appears the upcoming round of expansion will include six additional nations. Children are protected by an opt-in feature called Communication Safety in the Messages app on all Apple platforms when receiving or sending photos that are pornographic.

It will be expanding in the upcoming weeks to the Netherlands, Belgium, Japan, South Korea, and Brazil in addition to a sixth nation that Apple ostensibly did not name. Late in 2021, the United States were the only country where the Communication Safety feature was made available; a few months later, it was also made available in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

According to Apple, when the feature is activated, nudity-containing photos are blurred, and the child will be warned, given access to useful resources, and given the option to message a trusted adult for assistance if they so choose.

Photos are completely scanned on-device, and Apple is not given access to the messages, which are still end-to-end encrypted. One component of Apple’s efforts to assist in protecting children online is communication safety.