Apple App Review Guidelines Updated With More Child Protections

Apple has updated its app review guidelines in order to comply with new rules governing access to content from children under 13 years old.

As noted by MacRumors, recent updates to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) include new guidelines for how websites, apps, and third-party networks should handle the personal information of children.

As a result, Apple's app review guidelines now state:

17.3: Apps may ask for date of birth (or use other age-gating mechanisms) only for the purpose of complying with applicable children's privacy statutes, but must include some useful functionality or entertainment value regardless of the user's age

17.4: Apps that collect, transmit, or have the capability to share personal information (e.g. name, address, email, location, photos, videos, drawings, persistent identifiers, the ability to chat, or other personal data) from a minor must comply with applicable children's privacy statutes

COPPA requires parental permission for the collection of data for kids under 13. But the last major update to the law was in 1998 - before Facebook, Twitter, or smartphones. So the Federal Trade Commission kicked off a review of the law in 2010, soliciting comments before releasing several recommendations for how to fix it in Sept. 2011. After several public comment periods, final rules were released in Dec. 2012, which went into effect on July 1.

The FTC laid out eight amendments to COPPA, one of which boosted the list of "personal information" that cannot be collected without parental consent to include geolocation information, photographs, and videos.

As Apple moves deeper into the education sector, meanwhile - Los Angeles recently inked a $30 million deal for iPads - the company has added a "Kids Apps" section to its guidelines, which will allow official iTunes access to those under 13. Apps intended for younger users, however, must follow certain guidelines:

• Apps primarily intended for use by kids under 13 must include a privacy policy
• Apps primarily intended for use by kids under 13 may not include behavioral advertising (e.g. the advertiser may not serve ads based on the user's activity within the App), and any contextual ads presented in the App must be appropriate for kids
• Apps primarily intended for use by kids under 13 must get parental permission or use a parental gate before allowing the user to link out of the app or engage in commerce
• Apps in the Kids Category must be made specifically for kids ages 5 and under, ages 6-8, or ages 9-11

Meanwhile, as MacRumors noted, Apple updated its section covering contests, sweepstakes, lotteries, raffles, and gambling. Apps with real-money gaming - like poker or casino games - must have licenses to do so and only be available in areas that permit such behavior. The apps in question must also be free on the App Store; "apps that use IAP to purchase credit or currency to use in conjunction with real money gaming will be rejected," the guidelines state.