News Addict rejected again
Well News Addict has been rejected again. Apparently I must rate the app at 17+ and maybe then I will be accepted. Apple told me my app provides unrestricted access to the internet. However I only allow access to specific news sites so its far from open access to the internet. A user can’t even type a url in my News app. If I have to rate News Addict at 17+, it means every app that provides any kind of internet access will soon have to offer a 17+ rating or face possible rejection.
Browsing around iTunes, I looked at other similar apps. All of my competitor news apps are rated 4+ and are allowed in the store. I even looked at browser replacement apps, they all are rated at 4+ even though these allow true unrestricted access to the internet. Even the “iPron private browser” made to specifically browse content that may fit the 17+ rating has a 4+ rating.
The problem with rating all these apps at 17+ is the rating system is not useful for parents and makes users wonder what the issue is with an app. Twitter clients 17+… Facebook 17+… News Apps 17+… Instant messaging 17+… Social Apps 17+… Drawing apps 17+… (I could draw something obscene…) Games with Leader boards 17+… (no telling what gamer tags people will be using).
I also tested out parental blocking. Even if you decide to block all your apps, apple’s safari and other apps are still accessible. Apple provides separate controls for disabling those. So if a parent uses parental blocking only, the rating system is pretty much worthless without also manually blocking apple’s own built in apps one at a time.
Apple needs to rate apps based on what they actually contain not what they might be used for. This is the equivalent of putting 17+ ratings on TV sets because they have the potential to play R rated movies.
