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Google Hit With FTC Complaint Over 'Inappropriate' Kids Apps (nbcnews.com)
The Federal Trade Commission is being asked to investigate how apps that may violate federal privacy laws that dictate the data that can be collected on children ended up in the family section of the Google Play store. From a report: A group of 22 consumer advocates, led by the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown University Law School, filed a formal complaint against Google on Wednesday and asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether the company misled parents by promoting children's apps that may violate the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and Google's own policies. "The business model for the Play Store's Family section benefits advertisers, developers and Google at the expense of children and parents," Josh Golin, executive director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, said in a statement. "Google puts its seal of approval on apps that break the law, manipulate kids into watching ads and making purchases."
Among the examples cited in the complaint are a "Preschool Education Center" app and a "Top 28 Nursery Rhymes and Song" app that access location, according to an analysis by privacy research collective AppCensus. Other apps, including "Baby Panda's Carnival" and "Design It Girl -- Fashion Salon," were among those listed that sent device identification data to advertising technology companies, allowing them to build a profile of the user. The complaint also spotlights several apps that may not be age appropriate, including "Dentist Game for Kids," which lets the player give the virtual patient shots in the back of their throat.
Among the examples cited in the complaint are a "Preschool Education Center" app and a "Top 28 Nursery Rhymes and Song" app that access location, according to an analysis by privacy research collective AppCensus. Other apps, including "Baby Panda's Carnival" and "Design It Girl -- Fashion Salon," were among those listed that sent device identification data to advertising technology companies, allowing them to build a profile of the user. The complaint also spotlights several apps that may not be age appropriate, including "Dentist Game for Kids," which lets the player give the virtual patient shots in the back of their throat.
shots in the back of the throat - I'm surprised it was ever considered child friendly.
I don't remember it having anything to do with dentists, though.
Hand out large fines the folks making the bad decisions. Refund all purchases for kids apps, ban the app makers and google from making kids apps for 5 years
Certainly, I don't want kids to by spied upon, but this is just the tip of the reprehensible iceberg of Android permission problem. The bottom line is: Android should not allow any application to ask for any unnecessary permission, yet, Android ecosystem is overrun with permission problems, and they are doing nothing about it. They just don't care.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
And you trust government to enforce that? You are a slaver.
Of course not. They will slap them on the wrist, issue a fine and stick it in their pocket. The kids and parents who actually were harmed won't see a single red cent.
Got to love 'merica.
I donâ(TM)t agree with the degrees of societal sanitization that some parents inflict on their children, but thatâ(TM)s their choice. I *do* take offense whenever these helicopter parents expect others to enforce their shitty censorship on everyone else.
Video games were supposed to turn my generation into murderous monsters, as television and movies were supposed to the generation before. I remember maturity ratings slapped on games and music to âoeprotectâ us impressionable youth.
When is this going to stop? If you donâ(TM)t want your kids playing Fortnight or listening to Drake, then use your height/weight advantage and set some rules.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
When's your next parole hearing?
Since she was two or three years old, my daughter has had a "doctor" play set which includes a stethoscope, thermometer, syringe for giving "shots", otoscope for looking in ears, etc. How *exactly* is playing professional harmful to her?
Perhaps this is coming from one of those people who confuses toast with firearms, and apparently also shots with some kind of criminal violence?
Nazi homosexual recruiter RAY MORRIS pushing debunked Nazi propaganda even after corrected, #ROPE
LOL. That made me laugh. Thank you.
Hang em high. We won't tolerate Nazi faggots around these parts, we will dox em all.
This is just another example of parents putting the responsibility of raising their children onto someone else. Online or app access should start off tightly controlled and become less restrictive as the child ages. Setting a good foundation when the child is young should pay dividends as they age. Anyone who is depending on the government to protect their child should probably be sterilized before being allowed to pollute the gene pool any further.
Any apps with ads are not appropriate, so that rules out 99.99% of apps I guess.
Developers on Android get away with a lot that they really shouldn't. I have report several apps to Google that were listed a kid friendly. They were mostly games that looked safe but had a very dark side. Google offers a system that shows what ages apps are suitable for but takes no responsibility for developer compliance with their stated standards. Parents also need to take responsibility and understand that is they cannot blame others when they are too lazy to monitor what their children are exposed to.
The approach taken by Apple is worse but Google should do more to police their store and remove apps that are not compliant. All Google seems interested in is their 30% cut and expect to do very little to earn this.