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AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

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Re: AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

#91

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

thatsethnz wrote: post #25

> "No free games or games with In-App Purchases" This is a great rule. As a father of similarly aged kids (10, 9, 4) this is exactly what I would like to have happen at my house. Unfortunately, I have found games like this difficult to surface on the app store. Is there a decent source for games like this? Also, Apple needs to think of the impact that the prevalence of these kinds of apps has on their revenue - I spe…

In-app purchases are important for non-gaming apps like audio book stores, ebook stores, and anything that has pay-as-you-go content.... and anything with a free trial like VPN apps which give you a free week tor whatever before billing you monthly.

Re: AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

#92

Post by taeric »

wvenable wrote: post #87
taeric wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I get what you are saying, claiming it has never been easier is somewhat silly. It was never required in the past. So, as easy as it may be now, it is still harder than many times before. Worse, as well intentioned and correct as your advice is, you are still many zero days from a hosed machine. Sure, you don't let them download arbitrary apps. Doesn't matter if they visit some sites.

When I was kid in the 80's and 90's, I had unfettered access to my computer. I had video game systems. I had portable video games systems. I ran an adult BBS when I was 13. There was no controls at all in those times. You still had the option to give your kid a device or not -- same as now. And you can connect that to the Internet or not -- same as now. But now you can actually have much more fine-grained control --…

I was a kid in the same times. Yes, for those of us lucky enough to have access to machines that had good modems (or, well, any modem), some semblance of this was possible. To argue it is at all at the same scale, though, is rather wrong.

The comparison was "it has never been easier." Back then, just don't buy that rather expensive modem and let the kid take up the home phone. Nowadays, it is "don't buy the entry level game system or ubiquitous computing device."

It really is vastly harder nowadays, because of how ubiquitous networked devices are. Can it feel easier? Sure, but I guarantee that most motivated kids can and will outsmart most parental controls used by less than tech savvy parents.

Re: AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

#93

Post by Spivak »

Tainnor wrote: post #31
2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s not really a fair argument. Parents have been over worked for decades. But 30, 20, even 10 years ago (first iPad was released 10 years ago!) you couldn’t accidentally buy digital rubbish. The kids sat in front of a TV and you had to beg your parents for toys. Now toddlers can discover things for themselves and frankly a lot of content for kids is trash. We haven’t caught up with how to deal with this.

You deal with this by not giving your one-year old an iPad.

Yeah! Sit them down in front of a TV to watch reruns of cartoons or give them a magazine to read both full of ads for toys like the good ole days!

Re: AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

#94

Post by darrinm »

Everybody wants a different set of App Store rules. The problem is that there is only one App Store and one company choosing the rules. With competing App Stores (e.g. “Great for Kids Store”, “Adults Only Store”) we’d have freedom of choice instead of single corporate rule.

Imagine if one company set the rules for allowable websites. What would (wouldn’t) they ban?

Instead the Web is wonderfully open and parents, schools, individuals, even nations can choose configurable filters to have a web that aligns with their values.

Re: AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

#95

Post by fakedang »

seanalltogether wrote: post #22
kartayyar wrote: post #6

90% of this could be summarized as freemium has made software worse. But I don't think I like any solutions which involves giving Apple more power to disintermediate developers from users even more. I consider limiting the kinds of apps that developers can build a free speech issue. I think making an "Editors Choice Lite" label would help. I.e. that apps can sign up for an optional extra level of vetting to indicate…

I'm convinced the app stores would look very different if they supported free trials and version upgrade pricing. Its weird that we've dropped the fundamental distribution features that powered the software and games industry for such a long time.

Isn't the freemium model an extension of the software trials models?

Re: AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

#96

Post by maxgashkov »

wvenable wrote: post #35

I'm a parent -- it's never been easier to control what your children are doing on devices. My son isn't an admin on his laptop. I don't let him download arbitrary apps and he doesn't even own his own i-device yet. He's only slightly older than Miguel's kids, and he has a Switch (with parental controls on), but I don't see any need to give him his own iPad. When he wasn't old enough to learn about dark patterns, we di…

I'm not a parent but all practices described in the article infuriate me as well. I'm not sure why should I try to deduce if the next app I will install uses any of them -- and you don't even need to lock down APIs to prevent this.

All you need is a simple 'complain' function in App Store that will trigger a review by human with following expulsion of offending app (and probably the developer account too).

Re: AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

#97

Post by r00fus »

Spivak wrote: post #93
Tainnor wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You deal with this by not giving your one-year old an iPad.

Yeah! Sit them down in front of a TV to watch reruns of cartoons or give them a magazine to read both full of ads for toys like the good ole days!

They could gasp play with other things like legos or drawing/construction. My twin girls in gradeschool love building stuff, roleplay and make believe.

Honestly that’s what I used to do as a kid when stuck indoors (which is more prevalent these days)

Re: AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

#98

Post by zem »

kartayyar wrote: post #6

90% of this could be summarized as freemium has made software worse. But I don't think I like any solutions which involves giving Apple more power to disintermediate developers from users even more. I consider limiting the kinds of apps that developers can build a free speech issue. I think making an "Editors Choice Lite" label would help. I.e. that apps can sign up for an optional extra level of vetting to indicate…

I would not want to limit the apps a developer can build, but I would definitely like to see clear warning labels so that users can filter efficiently

Re: AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

#100

Post by fakedang »

Tainnor wrote: post #28
trashburger wrote: post #3

Solution: don't let your kids use internet-connected devices until they are of the age where they are capable of independent thought. Making App Store stricter won't fix anything.

The whole article hinges on this "we need to protect our children!" argument, but I'm baffled that anyone would think it's a good idea to give your one-year old an iPad. Technology is a tool. It is dangerous precisely because it is powerful. Don't give technology to people who are not responsible enough to understand this, instead of trying to restrict its power for those people who can actually deal with it. I hate…

Americans and Brits have always been obsessed with trying to protect their children, from experience. Mainland Europe is slowly joining the bandwagon too, what with all the "Let's think about the children" talk, which never was much of an issue 10-20 years back. The wealthier folks of East Asia and Latin America behave similarly to Americans, while the not so wealthy take a totally hands-off approach, perhaps being able to do so because kids are already brought up to be wary of ads and scammy marketing. The situation is reversed in the Middle East, where wealthy parents take a hands-off approach to raising children, relying on one or more nannies, while less affluent parents aggressively monitor content (largely to prevent kids from vulgar content or hidden monetary charges).

Disclaimer: these are all just my honest observations, not assertions.

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