Jobs’ Mob has not retracted its plans, just said it would take more time to collect feedback and improve proposed child safety features after the criticism of the system on privacy and other grounds both inside and outside the company.

Apple's promise last month to check US customer phones and computers for child sex abuse images sparked a global backlash from a wide range of rights groups, with employees also criticizing the plan internally.

Critics argued the feature could be exploited by repressive governments looking to find other material for censorship or arrests and would also be impossible for outside researchers to determine whether Apple was only checking a small set of on-device content.

"Based on feedback from customers, advocacy groups, researchers and others, we have decided to take additional time over the coming months to collect input and make improvements before releasing these critically important child safety features", the company said in a statement on Friday.

It had planned to roll out the feature for iPhones, iPads, and Mac with software updates later this year in the United States.