Apple’s Communication Safety in Messages comes to six more countries

iPhone users in six additional countries have access to a tool intended to protect children from sexual predators. MacRumors reports that the countries now getting access to Communication Safety in Messages are in Europe, Asia and elsewhere.

In the coming weeks, it will be expanding to the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Japan, South Korea, and Brazil.Apple’s messaging app includes tools that warn children and provide helpful resources if they receive or attempt to send photos that may contain nudity.

You can turn on communication safety to help protect your child from viewing or sharing photos that contain nudity in the Messages app. If Messages detects that a child receives or is attempting to send this type of photo, Messages blurs the photo before it’s viewed on your child’s device and provides guidance and age-appropriate resources to help them make a safe choice, including contacting someone they trust if they choose.

Apple says that Messages uses on-device machine learning to analyze image attachments and determine if a photo appears to contain nudity. The feature is designed so that Apple doesn’t get access to the photos.

The communication safety feature requires iOS 15.2 or later, iPadOS 15.2 or later, watchOS 9 or later, or macOS Monterey 12.1 or later, and is available to child accounts signed in with their Apple ID and part of a Family Sharing group. This optional feature is off by default.