Content Ratings Ready for Action on Android Market Developer Console
Last week Google started spreading the word that a content rating system would go live for the Android Market shortly, and a Thanksgiving holiday later it is now ready to roll in the developer console. Nestled between copy protection and location settings is a rating system a la the ESRB letting a developer list an app as “Mature,” “Teen,” “Pre-Teen,” and “All.”
Sure, it still depends on the honesty of the developer and people’s ideas of what constitutes which rating will vary (especially when distinguishing between “Teen” and “Pre-Teen”), but Google has provided a set of guidelines that should make clear where an app should be designated. For instance, apps asking for location must be rated at least “Pre-Teen,” if the app publishes location data it must be rated at a minimum “Teen.” By estimation, this would make the latest Facebook update with Places support a “Teen” app, but I could be reading that wrong.
How strongly ratings are enforced and when they will make it to the Market front-end isn’t known just yet, but I’m sure we will be getting those answers in no time at all.
[via AndroidCentral]