Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, February 23 (Xinhua) according to the latest research released by Comparitech, nearly 25% of children's apps on Google Play Store do not meet the age-appropriate design specifications published by the Office of the Information Commissioner (ICO).

The age-appropriate design specification of ICO, which came into effect in September 2020, stipulates that online services must follow 15 standards to protect children's online data and privacy. The specification applies to all services for children under the age of 18 in the UK and requires online services to conduct data protection impact assessments and provide transparent and tailored privacy policies for children.

Comparitech studied a total of 402 Google Play Store children's apps, and CTOnews.com summarized the main data as follows:

The privacy policies of 96 applications (23.9%) do not comply with ICO design specifications

These 96 apps have been downloaded more than 383 million times and have won the "expert approval" badge of Google Play.

22 apps (5.5%) claim to be not targeted at children, but involve child-specific content in the app and have a PEGI 3 rating (for all age groups)

46 applications (11.4%) collect personal data without publicizing child-specific policies, or are vague, do not provide a clear explanation, or are not clear about their data collection practices or third-party sharing.

Sixteen applications (4%) collect data without parental permission or without an appropriate agreement.

12 applications (3%) do not collect data themselves, but work with third parties that may collect data.

Google then responded:

Google Play attaches great importance to the protection of children, the platform has developed stringent policies and procedures, and invested a lot of resources in related functions.

Applications for children must comply with our Google Play family policy, which requires developers to comply with all relevant laws and all Play developer program policies, and to impose additional privacy, monetization and content restrictions.

Developers are responsible for ensuring that their applications comply with all relevant laws and are accountable to target audiences such as children.

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.