Report: App Store Hosts Hundreds of Inappropriate Apps Rated Safe for Kids

Apple’s App Store is hosting hundreds of inappropriate apps that are rated as suitable for children as young as 12, according to a new report.

Nonprofit organizations Parents Together Action and Heat Initiative reviewed 800 apps in 24 hours and uncovered 200 apps with inappropriate content rated as “safe” for children 12 and younger, and in some cases as young as four.

These included apps offering services like AI face rating, AI girlfriends, stranger chat, adult-themed gaming, fasting and weight loss tracking, beauty filters, as well as drug-dealing simulators, and violent games.

The report also uncovered multiple VPNs rated as suitable for children, which could potentially then be used to access things like pornography and extremist content freely inside environments like a school or family home’s Wi-Fi network.

There are allegedly also plenty of anonymous chat apps available on the App Store, allowing young children to send each other private end-to-end encrypted messages. The report’s authors point to studies showing that this type of anonymous chat can exacerbate cyberbullying, alongside the associated issues like depression and self-harm.

Certain categories of apps fared worse in terms of getting age-appropriate ratings. For example, in categories like weight loss apps and unfiltered internet access apps, nearly all apps reviewed by the report were approved for kids 4+.

“Both Apple and the app developers are financially incentivized to distribute the apps as widely as possible because more downloads often mean more users engaging in the app,” the report says. “There are no third-party, child-development experts or organizations involved in ensuring the age ratings are appropriate.”

The authors urge Apple to institute “an independent, third-party review and verification of the age ratings of apps before they are made available to children in the Apple App,” similar to The Motion Picture Association (MPA) for the film industry.

Apple has yet to comment on the report at the time of writing.

About Will McCurdy

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I’m a reporter covering weekend news. Before joining PCMag in 2024, I picked up bylines in BBC News, The Guardian, The Times of London, The Daily Beast, Vice, Slate, Fast Company, The Evening Standard, The i, TechRadar, and Decrypt Media.

I’ve been a PC gamer since you had to install games from multiple CD-ROMs by hand. As a reporter, I’m passionate about the intersection of tech and human lives. I’ve covered everything from crypto scandals to the art world, as well as conspiracy theories, UK politics, and Russia and foreign affairs.

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