Inappropriate apps deemed safe for young children dominate the App Store, the report warned

A news Published by child safety groups Heat Initiative and ParentsTogether Action, it details the alarming presence of inappropriate apps suitable for children under the age of four in Apple’s App Store. The teams worked with a researcher to review as many apps as possible within a 24-hour period, ultimately identifying more than 200 apps that they rated as “relevant in content or features” based on age, including stranger chat and AI girlfriend. apps, gaming apps and apps that contain sexual or violent warnings and images and AI-powered appearance rating apps. Engadget has reached out to Apple for comment and will update this story when we hear back.

The research focused on apps with an age rating of 4+, 9+ and 12+ in the categories considered “risky”: chat (including AI and stranger chat apps), beauty, diet and weight loss, unfiltered internet access (including apps). access to prohibited areas in schools) and play. Among the findings, the report states that at least 24 sex games and 9 unknown chat apps were marked as appropriate for children in these age groups. The study also identified 40 unfiltered internet access apps and 75 beauty, body image and weight loss apps with these age ratings, along with 28 shooting and crime games. Collectively, the 200 offending apps seen in the 24-hour study were downloaded more than 550 million times, according to the Heat Initiative.

A total of around 800 apps were reviewed, and the study found that some categories were more likely than others to carry apps with an inappropriately low age rating. Less popular chat apps and games “were rated less suitable for children,” the report said. In most cases, they were over 17 years old. But in the categories of weight loss and unfiltered Internet access, “nearly all of the apps reviewed were approved for children 4 and older.” The report calls on Apple to do better with regard to child safety measures in the App Store, urging the company to use third-party reviewers to verify the age rating of apps before they are available for download, and to make its age rating process transparent. to consumers You can read the full report, Rotten Ratings: 24 hours on Apple’s App Store, here.