Apple did not remove all parental controls apps from the App Store, but it did remove some of them. The company has experienced criticism on this decision. However, Apple released a statement defending its choice.

The reason? The apps were a risk to security and privacy.

What Apple says

Apple is looking out for user privacy and safety. Apple claims that these parental control apps used invasive technology called mobile device management, or MDM, which gives third-party control and access over a device. This means access to private information like location, app usage, email accounts, camera permissions, browsing history, and likely more.

Apple continues to promote healthy and safe device use by giving parents the tools they need to manage their children’s device usage. Apple claims that the only reason that these parental control apps were removed is because of the privacy and security risk.

However, that’s not what others believe.

What others say

Some of the app developers believe that Apple removed their parental control apps because of competition against its Screen Time data and are using the security risk to justify the cause. The New York Times has also expressed skepticism. The reason the opposers are skeptic is because some of these parental control apps do compete directly with Apple’s native Screen Time.

Whether these claims are true or not, Apple has removed at least 17 popular screen-time and parental-control apps over the last two years from the App Store.

See more of Apple’s side of the story in this recent press release.