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With iOS 17.4 in the EU, iPhone users can install apps outside of the App Store for the first time. Although Apple says that apps from its App Store meet all of its standards for quality, privacy and security, by law the company cannot control the availability of apps on third-party app markets.
Apple warns that apps outside the App Store may contain hate speech, extreme violence, encourage the consumption of illegal drugs, pornography and more. iOS Parental Controls lets parents choose whether family members can install apps from alternative app markets — here’s how…
Third-party application markets can be installed via the web. iOS includes basic protections to prevent users from accidentally installing alternative app markets. (Critics would describe these ‘scary sheets’ as unfair deterrents to user acceptance.)
When you click the link to install the app market, a standard system sheet will confirm whether you want to continue. If you don’t install the app market at all, it’s not possible to install apps that originate outside of Apple’s App Store walled garden.
However, parents may be concerned that their children may not understand what this means and continue anyway. In these cases, you can use screen time limits to completely disable the installation of third-party app markets. You can also use Screen Time on your own device to configure the same setting for yourself.
- In the Settings app on iOS 17.4 in the EU, go to Screen Time.
- Continue to set screen time on your device or choose your child’s device through Family Sharing.
- In the time menu, go to ‘Content and privacy restrictions’ -> ‘App installs and purchases’.
- Change the ‘App Marketplaces’ setting to ‘Don’t Allow’ to block third-party app installation from sources other than the App Store.
Parents may want to set an age rating instead of blocking all third-party stores outright. Age restrictions will apply to apps installed from third-party marketplaces.
You can control the age rating of all apps installed on your device — from Apple’s App Store or elsewhere — through Screen Time. In the “Content and privacy restrictions” menu, tap “Content restrictions” and set the age rating for “Apps”.
Similar restrictions are also available in MDM profiles for enterprises to control the distribution of applications on a managed fleet of iPhones for employees. Companies can set the “allowMarketplaceAppInstallation” flag to false to prevent any third-party app marketplaces from being installed on the device, thus blocking sideloading of non-App Store apps.
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