Google Introduces Ratings For Apps and Games on Android Market

Google is to begin adding age ratings to apps and games in its Android Market. Developers who add an app from next week  will have to grade their apps between All, Pre-Teen, Teen and Mature. Those who don’t will automatically be placed in the “Mature” category. Devs will have a few weeks to update their existing apps with a rating.

The ratings are the usual: Teen for references to drugs, gambling or offensive language etc. and those that include graphic violence or pornography be listed under Mature.

More interestingly, any app that uses location services (GPS etc.) cannot be rated in the All category, with Google saying “apps that ask to access course or fine location data should be rated “Pre-Teen” or above.” Any app that lets users publish their location should be rated in the teen category. This is the same for apps that let users communicate with other people, so Twitter and email apps will presumably go into the Teen rating, too.

While not a huge step forward, it’ll give parents a little more control and prevent kids seeing many of the questionable apps you see littering the Android Market. I’m not a big fan of Apple’s (now former) strict rules and regulations but hopefully it’ll give people a bit more clarity and control of what they see on the store.

In the bigger picture, it’s nice seeing Google moving in and sorting the Android Market out a bit. If you use Android you’ll be aware how, well, crappy a lot of the apps are. While this won’t sort that problem out hopefully we’ll see a slightly more firmer hand by Google. Open’s great, but sometimes I wish there was some Jobsian-style control; someone telling developers to stop making bloody soundboard apps if nothing else.