Nick Whigham* says Apple has been accused of systematically killing an industry of apps that fight iPhone addiction and control screen time.
Photo: Medhat Dawoud
Apple has defended itself after being accused of “systematically killing” independent screen time apps, which give parents control over what their kids do on their phone.
If you read the news, it’s hard to miss the torrent of articles in recent years exploring the harmful side effects of our hyperconnected world where smartphones are seldom out of reach.
The growing trend of digital wellness has spawned an industry of companies that offer ways to monitor and limit the time we spend online — a particularly desirable thing for young people.
However, some of those companies have accused Apple of “systematically killing the industry” by imposing restrictions on their screen time apps or kicking them out of the App Store all together.
In a piece in The New York Times last month, the CEO of a popular parental-control app for the iPhone called OurPact complained about getting booted from Apple’s online store, which reportedly accounted for 80 per cent of the company’s revenue.
“They yanked us out of the blue with no warning,” Amir Moussavian told the paper.
Other apps were forced to remove features that allowed parents to control their children’s device.
Over the past year, Apple has removed or restricted at least 11 of the 17 most downloaded screen-time and parental-control apps, according to analysis by The New York Times and app data firm Sensor Tower.
Both Apple and Google (the owner of Android operating system) have jumped on the digital wellbeing bandwagon with their own apps and tools launched last year.
But the iPhone maker is ostensibly worried about other parental control apps that give too much power to someone who doesn’t own the device.
“We recently removed several parental control apps from the App Store, and we did it for a simple reason: they put users’ privacy and security at risk,” the company said in a statement.
“Apple has always believed that parents should have tools to manage their children’s device usage.”
“It’s the reason we created, and continue to develop, Screen Time,”
According to the tech giant, it is worried about a technology called Mobile Device Management, or MDM, which gives “third party control and access over a device and its most sensitive information including user location, app use, email accounts, camera permissions, and browsing history.”
The company started looking into such apps in 2017 and updated its guidelines to put them in breach of its App Store rules and notified companies giving them 30 days to comply with the new guidelines.
Apple (and other tech giants) have been facing growing calls from critics that their control over marketplaces like, in this case, the App Store should require them to be broken up in the name of market competition.
A cynic might think Apple is targeting companies that compete with its own Screen Time app.
It’s a suggestion the company denies.
“Contrary to what The New York Times reported … this isn’t a matter of competition,” Apple said.
“It’s a matter of security.”
* Nick Whigham is news and technology reporter for news.com.au. HQ. He tweets at @NWWhigham.
This article first appeared at www.news.com.au.
