Google Play today announced a series of changes to its programs and policies around apps designed for children. The company is describing the update as an expansion of its previously launched “Teacher Approved” program, which includes a review process where teachers and experts vetted apps not just for safety and security elements, but for educational quality and other factors.
The newly revamped policies will now impact how apps qualify for this program, which allows apps to gain entry to the Play Store’s “Kids” tab.
These changes should help to streamline some of the policies around apps made for children which, in turn, will increase the number of apps that become eligible to be reviewed for the Teacher Approved program. In addition, these policy updates and other changes will push Android app makers to come into compliance with stricter regulations and laws around software targeting children.
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Before, Google Play ran two (sometimes overlapping) programs around apps aimed at kids.
App developers were required to participate in Google’s “Designed for Families” program if their app was aimed at children, and could optionally choose to participate in the program if their app targeted both kids and older users. The Designed for Families program included a number of requirements around the app’s content, its functionality, use of ads, data practices, use of warning labels, feature set, underlying technology components, and more.
Any apps in this program were also eligible to be rated for the Teacher Approved program, which had stricter guidelines, but entry was not guaranteed.
Now, the additional policy requirements for the Designed for Families program are being rolled into the Play Store’s broader Families Policy. This latter set of guidelines requires apps to comply with applicable laws and regulations relating to children, like the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), for example. The Families Policy also prohibits access to precise location data, prevents developers from transmitting device identifiers from children, and includes additional privacy and content restrictions, among other things.
For developers, the merging of the Designed for Families requirements into the Google Play Families Policy simplifies and strengthens the rules for developers around apps that target kids. And, with this change, all the apps that meet the now more robust Families Policy will become eligible to apply for the Teacher Approved program
