Google announced a new “Designed for Families” program today to make it easier for parents to pick out Android apps for their kids. The program is designed to offer a pre-screened stamp of approval that signals an app or game has been built more responsibly with kids in mind.
The program’s guidelines have more strict rules than the overall Google Play Store, primarily focused on what content is allowed in the app, and how developers are allowed to advertise to users. Content has to be rated equivalent to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board’s Everyone or Everyone 10+ ratings, and advertisements must comply with all regulations about advertising to kids.
In addition, each app will be marked with its target audience, and must fit in one of six categories: Action & Adventure, Brain Games, Creativity, Education, Pretend Play and Music and Video.
Developers will also need to disclose whether the app allows users to interact with one another online, if it shares information provided by users with third parties and if the app shares a user’s location. While in-app purchases aren’t prohibited, Google will be keeping an eye out for overly aggressive purchase systems, and will require an adult’s password for each purchase.
Of course, it remains to be seen whether developers will opt in to the program, and whether families will actually turn to it when selecting apps. Google will announce its plans for highlighting participating apps in the Google Play Store in the coming weeks, and that will likely dictate how popular the program is. If the promotional opportunities available through participating are sufficient to boost sales, that should give developers an incentive to comply.
All of this is similar to a program that Apple launched in 2013 to regulate sales of apps in the Kids section of its App Store. Much like Designed for Families, that program has more stringent regulations around advertising and content display, as well as a system to separate apps for kids of different ages.
