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“Apps intended for kids may not include third-party advertising or analytics”

developer.apple.com

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Re: “Apps intended for kids may not include third-party advertising or analytics”

#71

Post by TheCapn »

kerng wrote: post #26

I totally agree with this! I built a game and naively added ads to it as it seemed a good way to monetize. The game started to be really liked, and had 300k+ downloads overall. Many kids started playing it also. Luckily I realized quickly that kids play on the devices of parents and so the ads they might see are at times super inappropriate! Then I removed all ads, I'd rather make less money but have people play and…

Do you morally disagree with advertising/tracking monetization as a whole or just those particularly geared towards vulnerable populations? (children in your instance)

I have my professional job developing software solutions for clients on a contractual base, but for a period after I graduated university I dabbled in mobile development and made the decision during that time that I'd never bloat my crappy apps with ads or tracking. I can't particularly articulate why I'm against that business method as a whole, but something always felt wrong in subjecting people to tracking/advertisements for my own monetary gain... if I'm not producing something worth paying outright for then I'm not going to skim pennies off the privacy of my users.

Re: “Apps intended for kids may not include third-party advertising or analytics”

#72

Post by Creationer »

Apple should just go all in:

Disable free to play games targeted at children completely. Require every children's game to have an upfront price (I suppose the $0.99 minimum app charge at least).

This would be great news for the market - game developers would focus on building more rewarding gaming experiences, instead of just endless skinner boxes. It would also help sell Apple devices, since developers would not need to target the lowest-common-denominator for mass advertising appeal.

Re: “Apps intended for kids may not include third-party advertising or analytics”

#73

Post by panpanna »

duxup wrote: post #45
panpanna wrote: post #9

Google please steal this idea. Edit: current policy is "Ads in your app that are served to children need to be appropriate and served from an ads network that has certified compliance with our families policies." See https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2019/05/building-s...

Considering the state of the play store and such ... probably nobody is paying attention.

A year ago I would have agreed but a lot has happened lately.

Play store went from 3.2m to 2.6m apps last year. When it comes to rejecting apps that violate their tos they are pretty trigger happy.

Re: “Apps intended for kids may not include third-party advertising or analytics”

#74

Post by nicholashead »

move-on-by wrote: post #34

So far the only kids apps I've used with my little one is 'Sesame Street' and 'PBS Kids Video'. He loves Elmo, and its very handy in the pediatrician's waiting room to have a distraction. I also run a PiHole, and to my displeasure, I've found both these apps use Google Analytics. PBS Kids Video goes a few steps further and uses Google AdWords as well as ScorecardResearch analytics. These publicly funded apps are siph…

Also, PBS Kids Video straight up wouldn't play videos at all unless I whitelisted certain analytics domains.

Re: “Apps intended for kids may not include third-party advertising or analytics”

#75

Post by munk-a »

Despegar wrote: post #70
munk-a wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The market is never going to do that at large - but I hope someone somewhere manages to kill tracking and third party data-reselling into non-existence.

If you think about it Apple is basically the corporate manifestation of GDPR. They can just decide whatever they want and everyone has to comply or get out. In the real world someone has to file a complaint with the DPC, it gets investigated, gets appealed for years. https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/21/french-data-protection-wat...

That's correct, and quite terrible IMO - I'd prefer to have a non-private entity serving as the gate keeper to walled gardens like these... or just not have walled gardens.

Re: “Apps intended for kids may not include third-party advertising or analytics”

#78

Post by duxup »

panpanna wrote: post #73
duxup wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering the state of the play store and such ... probably nobody is paying attention.

A year ago I would have agreed but a lot has happened lately. Play store went from 3.2m to 2.6m apps last year. When it comes to rejecting apps that violate their tos they are pretty trigger happy.

I feel like they're trigger happy... but via automation and scripts that I'm not sure are getting that much.

Like the volume is down, but for all I know it's just the same actors getting the same stuff out there.

It's really hard to tell.

Re: “Apps intended for kids may not include third-party advertising or analytics”

#79

Post by anbop »

robbrown451 wrote: post #20

Is this a new change? What is the backstory on this? And how is "third party" defined? Sounds easy to game by having it only directly communicate with the server of the app developer, and having it completely impossible for Apple to tell whether or not they are then communicating with a third party service.

An ad network is not going to trust your stream of requests, taking you on your word that your requests are coming from actual users and that the ads are getting shown back to actual users.

Re: “Apps intended for kids may not include third-party advertising or analytics”

#80

Post by [deleted] »

arenaninja wrote: post #66

Good; I only wish this is where applications on phones had started to begin with. Try giving a toddler a phone and they'll figure out navigation controls on their own easily, but once ads start playing they'll smash it because they have no clue what to do. Ads have no place in apps for kids

[deleted]
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