new Published by child safety groups Heat Initiative and ParentsTogether Action, it details the alarming presence of inappropriate apps rated as suitable for children as young as four years old in the Apple App Store. The teams worked with a researcher to review as many apps as possible within 24 hours and say they ultimately identified more than 200 apps that contained “concerning content or features” given the age they were aimed at, including chatting with strangers and a girlfriend with artificial intelligence. apps, gaming apps with hints and sexual or violent images, and AI-powered appearance rating apps. Engadget has reached out to Apple for comment and will update this story once it receives a response.
The study focused on apps with age ratings of 4+, 9+ and 12+ in categories considered “risky”: chat (including apps for chatting with artificial intelligence and strangers), beauty, diet and weight loss, unfiltered internet access (apps for access to prohibited school sites) and games. Among the findings, the report said at least 24 sex games and 9 apps for chatting with strangers were rated as suitable for children in these age groups. The study also identified 40 apps for unfiltered internet access and 75 apps related to beauty, body and weight loss with appropriate age ratings, as well as 28 shooter and crime games. In total, the nearly 200 offending apps found during the 24-hour investigation were downloaded more than 550 million times, according to the Heat Initiative.
In total, about 800 apps were reviewed, and the study found that some categories were more likely than others to host apps with unacceptably low age ratings. Of the stranger chat apps and games, “fewer were rated as suitable for children,” the report said. In most cases these were 17+. But in the categories of weight loss and unfiltered internet access, “almost all of the apps reviewed were approved for children 4+.” The report calls on Apple to improve child safety measures on the App Store, calling on the company to use third-party reviewers to verify the age ratings of apps before they are made available for download, and to make the age determination process transparent. to consumers. You can read the full report, Rotten ratings: 24 hours in the Apple App Store, Here.