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Apple has updated its app-review guidelines, in part to comply with new COPPA rules regarding access to information from children younger than 13 years old. The new guidelines address many privacy concerns related to children using mobile devices.
The new Kids Apps section of Apple's App Store Review Guidelines says apps created for that age group have to include a privacy policy, must not use behavioral advertising (ads based on the user's activity within the app), and need kids to obtain parental approval to make in-app purchases or use outbound links to leave the app.
For more news, advice, and tips, check our guide to online security.
It also specifies that apps in the Kids Apps section "must be made specifically for kids ages 5 and under, ages 6-8, or ages 9-11."
Hopefully, these new guidelines will help prevent incidents like the one our sister site Consumerist wrote about a few months ago, in which a 5-year-old Littlest Pet Shop player incurred $120 in in-app fees.
Source: The Guardian
—Carol Mangis
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