Inappropriate apps rated as safe for young children dominate the App Store, the report warns

New published by child safety groups Heat Initiative and ParentsTogether Action describe the alarming presence of inappropriate apps rated as suitable for children aged four and under in Apple’s App Store. The groups worked with a researcher to review as many apps as possible within 24 hours and say they eventually identified over 200 apps that contained “relevant content or features” given the age they were rated for – including stranger chat and AI girlfriend apps, game apps with sexual or violent prompts and images, and AI-based appearance rating apps. Engadget has reached out to Apple for comment and will update this story once it hears back.

The research focused on apps assigned age ratings of 4+, 9+ and 12+ in categories considered ‘risky’: chat (including AI and stranger chat apps), beauty, diet and weight loss, unfiltered internet access (applications to access prohibited sites in schools) and games. Among the report’s findings, it said at least 24 sex games and 9 apps for chatting with strangers were marked 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 image and weight loss carrying these age ratings, along with 28 shooter and crime games. In total, about 200 offending apps spotted during the 24-hour investigation were downloaded more than 550 million times, according to the Heat Initiative.

A total of around 800 apps were reviewed and the research found that some categories were more likely than others to carry apps with inappropriately low age ratings. For unfamiliar chat apps and games, “fewer were rated as suitable for children,” the report said. In most cases they were 17+. But in the categories of weight loss and unfiltered Internet access, “almost all of the apps reviewed were approved for children over 4.” The report calls on Apple to do better when it comes to child safety measures in the App Store, calling on the company to use third-party reviewers to check the age ratings of apps before they become available for download, and to make the age rating process transparent to users. You can read the full report, Rotten ratings: 24 hours on Apple’s App Store, here.