Children’s apps: Kids Category, Designed for Families and child privacy
Apps for children are held to a higher standard than other apps on both platforms. The reasons are practical: children cannot meaningfully consent to data collection, advertising built for adults is inappropriate for them and the law in many countries imposes extra duties on anyone who handles children's information. The stores add their own rules on top of the law.
The rules apply more widely than many developers expect. An app does not have to be marketed to children to be covered. If young people plausibly use it, reviewers can apply the children's standards, which is why general-audience apps sometimes discover the rules only after they attract a young audience.
The areas that matter most are advertising, personal data, permissions, external links and communication between users. In each, the expectation is that the app asks for as little as possible and avoids anything that could expose a child to a stranger or to commercial pressure.
How Apple approaches it
Apple's Kids Category rules are in guideline 1.3. They limit third-party analytics and advertising, restrict links that lead out of the app or to purchases without a parental gate and require content suited to the chosen age band. Guideline 5.1.4 extends privacy expectations to any app children are likely to use, and the child-safety rules around user-generated content sit alongside them.
How Google Play approaches it
Google Play runs the Designed for Families programme, with its own policy, plus the Families Self-Certified Ads SDK Program, which limits advertising in children's apps to certified SDKs. The Child Endangerment policy treats child sexual abuse and exploitation material, and features that could facilitate grooming, as a zero-tolerance category.
Where the two platforms differ
- Apple frames its rules around the Kids Category and related privacy guidelines. Google runs a named programme with a certified list of advertising SDKs.
- Both prohibit behavioural advertising aimed at children.
- Both limit permissions to what is strictly necessary.
- Both require parental gates or equivalent controls before external links or purchases in children's apps.
- Both apply child-safety rules to chat, upload and sharing features, where enforcement is strictest.
What reviewers typically check
- Which advertising and analytics libraries are present and whether they are acceptable for children's apps.
- Whether permissions requested are strictly necessary for the app's function.
- Whether links and purchases are protected by a control a young child cannot easily pass.
- Whether content and any social features suit the age band the developer selected.
- Whether the app could plausibly attract children even if it was not designed for them.
Key terms
- Kids Category
- An Apple App Store category for apps designed for children, with its own restrictions.
- Designed for Families
- Google Play's programme for apps directed at children, with additional policy requirements.
- Parental gate
- A check intended to prevent a young child from reaching external links or purchases.
- Behavioural advertising
- Advertising targeted using information about a person's behaviour, which is restricted for children.
- Self-certified SDK
- An advertising library that has committed to Google's rules for child-directed apps.
Common questions
No. If children are likely to use it, reviewers can apply the children's standards.
Children cannot judge advertising or consent to data collection, so both stores limit it.
They overlap with them, but the stores' rules are separate and can be stricter.
Apple guidelines on this topic
Google Play policies on this topic
Platform rules change often. This page is a plain-language overview written by AppReviewFix, not official guidance. Check the App Store Review Guidelines and the Google Play Developer Program Policies for the exact current wording.