A large group of developers who make parental control apps have banded together to demand that Apple come up with a technical solution that will allow them to continue to work on the iPhone. They’ve gone so far to create a website and propose a specification for an API that would give their apps enough access to track and limit usage of apps.

The move is necessary because Apple had begun blocking many of these apps recently because they took advantage of the Mobile Device Management (MDM) features on the iPhone. Apple has set a policy that those features should only be used by companies.

There were two ways to interpret that move. The first is that it was part of a larger review of MDM usage following what Apple saw as Facebook’s abuse of the feature earlier this year. The second way, as these app makers argue, is that it’s simply an anti-competitive way to protect Apple’s own Screen Time and parental control features. “When Apple released its own screen time management tool, it also started removing established brands from the store or blocking updates to their apps,” they write on their website.

1/ This article, if true, is deeply disturbing. When it comes to our children’s & our personal digital consumption, users want & deserve more options & access to diverse apps/controls to meet our often specific & niche management needs, not less. https://t.co/UUvJJp1nzF — Tony Fadell (@tfadell) April 28, 2019

As Jack Nicas at the New York Times notes, this move was spurred in part by encouragement from a former Apple executive, Tony Fadell. In a Twitter thread earlier this year, Fadell argued that Apple should create a full-featured API so companies could create full-featured parental track apps that could potentially work across different software platforms.

The Times has also reportedly seen a message from Fadell to the developers that reads “I will push it out to the world — just make sure it’s done BEFORE WWDC.’” The timing is significant. It may put pressure on Apple to respond at an event that’s typically a celebration of its software prowess — or at the very least ensure that concerns about anti-competitive practices at Apple would be on people’s minds during the event.

Such worries will be on everybody’s mind anyway. Just yesterday Apple published a page defending its App Store practices. The company was responding to an antitrust lawsuit with huge implications and a formal EU investigation, both of which are currently ongoing.

The worries over Apple pulling third-party Parental Control apps were large enough that Apple felt compelled to respond with a long letter defending its decision. The company argued that it pulled the apps because allowing them to use MDM outside a corporate context was dangerous:

Apple has always supported third-party apps on the App Store that help parents manage their kids’ devices. Contrary to what The New York Times reported over the weekend, this isn’t a matter of competition. It’s a matter of security. In this app category, and in every category, we are committed to providing a competitive, innovative app ecosystem.

In calling for an API, the group of developers is asking Apple to put in real technical work to back up its commitment to a “competitive, innovative app ecosystem.” The developers are calling for “at least one of the following”:

1. Access to app usage data 2. Ability to block app access 3. Ability to filter web traffic

It’s likely to be a difficult ask. Proposing a spec for an API is one thing, actually convincing Apple that it’s the right methodology and will protect user privacy is quite another — to say nothing of convincing Apple to put in the engineering effort to create it.

We’ve reached out to Apple for comment and will let you know if we hear back.