What you need to know
- Apple has reinstated parental control app OurPact after removing it a few months back.
- The decision comes as Apple took on control apps after stating they posed a security risk towards its users.
- OurPact is now available on the App Store.
Apple has had a change of heart and reinstated parental control app OurPact after initially removing a few months back over concern of the technology used. OurPact announced that it is now available again in the App Store and can be downloaded.
OurPact, the top-rated parental control platform, today announced its reinstatement to the iOS App Store after a period of removal, during which Apple reviewed its policies on all parental control apps. Despite initially citing data concerns as the reason for these removals, OurPact has been thoroughly reviewed by the Apple team and confirmed to pose no data security risk to children's devices. The return of OurPact's parent and child applications to the iOS App Store restores the software's cross-platform availability."This is a major milestone, not only for our team and industry, but for iOS families everywhere," said Amir Moussavian, Founder and CEO of OurPact. "Screen time is an epidemic, and parents need innovative solutions to counteract its impact. We're excited to work alongside Apple in this space and to continue progressing alongside the technology we're helping families manage."
Back in April, a New York Times piece explored apps like OurPact and the way handle controlling app access. It strongly insinuated the move could have been related to Apple's own Screen Time feature which competed directly with this apps.
Apple's Phil Schiller came out and denied the report with a strong statement that argued that the MDM feature, or multi-media device management, was culprit. MDM is what companies and their IT departments use to manage devices like smartphones or computers.
However, Apple subsequently updated its App Store policy to permit apps from using MDM. That was the first step in allowing parental control apps back and OurPact's return to the App Store seems to be the final nail in the coffin for this issue.
