Children’s Apps & Privacy Issues

You may have read online about the FTC’s recent report on privacy disclosures in mobile apps for children. The title of the report was “Mobile Apps for Kids: Current Privacy Disclosures are Disappointing” – Ouch! It all centers around “COPPA” or the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and the FTC’s implementing Rule which asks mobile apps that are targeted at children younger than 13 to provide and obtain parental consent before they collect personal information from children. The FTC found that the mobile apps market (for both Apple and Android) is lacking in the way it discloses information to parents about whether an app presents the risk of collecting or sharing their child’s personal information. (If you’re interested in reading the entire report you can find it here.)

Now, to be fair the report did not actually study whether or not apps were actually collecting personal information. They only studied whether or not the apps were providing and obtaining parental consent. So there’s no need to panic and think that your child is being spied on. That’s not the case but the FTC wants you to know exactly what you’re getting when you purchase an app targeted towards your child. One of the things that the FTC is encouraging mobile app developers to do is inform parents if an app connects with social media or contains advertising. I think this is terrific. None of my children has a Facebook account so it really doesn’t make sense that a children’s app should allow them to post something to Facebook, or even visit the site. It has also always bothered me when a “kid’s app” has linked out to the internet, especially for advertising. There is the matter of it being the wide open internet not to mention the frustration for young children who don’t know how to get back to the app they’ve suddenly exited. It’s possible to set up restrictions so that children can’t use Safari or make in-app purchases, etc. but parents have to know that they need to do this. This is where the disclosures are so important. If you know what’s in an app you can then take the steps to prevent your child from getting into trouble or running up your iTunes bill.

The FTC has suggested that the App Store and Android Market make changes to the way they communicate information about the apps’ data collection and interactive features. The report calls the stores the gatekeepers of the app marketplace and says that they should do more. I agree, there is much that could (and should) be changed within the App Store and hopefully those changes will come. In the meantime the FTC will be watching for developers to make these changes of their own volition and you should be looking too. I’ve been impressed with the way the Moms with Apps group (of App Friday fame) has immediately taken on this challenge. They are a group of family friendly developers and they have taken the FTC’s charge to heart. Developers are changing their privacy policies, removing links to their app’s Facebook pages, making in-app purchases harder to find and more. All of this takes time and they must go through the process of submitting new updates to Apple. From what I’m seeing the Moms with Apps developers are not only complying with COPPA and the FTC report’s suggestions, they are going above and beyond. I’d like to commend them on leading the way for the children’s app industry.

Going forward parents should look for apps that have fully disclosed things like in-app purchases, social network integration, advertising, Game Center integration, push notifications and links to the developer’s website. That is the new standard and this is what you should expect. Developers who want to truly create quality apps with children’s best interests at heart will be fully transparent and they are the ones I will look to when purchasing apps for my own family.

*Moms with Apps Website: The developer sidebar lists app developers who offer clear disclosures of in-app features in their product descriptions.