Child-Friendly Apps Are Easier To Find In Google Play, Filters For Age And Interest Are Now Available

Google has announced in April that they will be revamping Google Play Store and shift its gear towards families. Today at the I/O Developer Conference, Google announced that the mobile market will be more child-friendly.

Parents who will be searching the Google Play Store for apps for their children will easily find it because a button designed as a green, smiley faced star icon will be shown in child-friendly apps, games, movies, and more. Another feature rolled out by Google is the "Children's Books" button wherein parents can filter the kid's age and the genre of the book.

With the help of the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC), Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), Pan-European Game Information (PEGI), Australian Classification Board, Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) and Classificação Indicativa (ClassInd), Google will be able to rate apps and games according to age.

They will be using the same ratings such as E for Everyone, T for Teens, M for Mature and many more. Parents using Google's Play Store can then restrict downloading if and when a child attempts to download an app or a game that is not his or her age range.

Google will also highlight the apps that have in-app purchases in order to notify the parents so they can avoid mishaps from happening. These changes will still include the top charts where parents can view what the best apps are in the market for their children as these will have recommendations as well.

There has been no specific date as to when these features will be rolled out but Google shared that it will be available in the coming weeks. It remains unclear if the changes will be integrated all at once or if these new features will be rolled out one at a time.

It has been found out that parents with children who are 12 years old and younger make up at least a third of the users of Google Play Store thus the effort to make the mobile market more child-friendly.