Over 200 dangerous “children’s” apps found in App Store

A study conducted by Heat Initiative and ParentsTogether Action found that over 200 apps rated 4+, 9+, and 12+ in the App Store contain content that is inappropriate or dangerous for children. Despite the age rating, these apps can pose a serious threat to young users.

What the experts found

The problematic apps include:

• Dangerous chatbots: Nine apps marketed as AI for communicating with children actually had adults communicating instead of neural networks.
• Sexual scenes: Found in 24 games.
• Violence and cruelty: 28 children’s shooters contained scenes of violence and blood.
• Unhealthy diet advice: 75 apps promoted dangerous weight loss methods, influencing children’s perception of their own bodies.
• Unfiltered internet access: 40 apps allowed children to freely access the internet without protection from inappropriate content.

The overall popularity of these apps is staggering — they have been downloaded more than 550 million times, highlighting the scale of the problem.

Why this matters and what to do

The study’s authors called on Apple to:

1. Strengthen age rating checks by using independent reviewers.
2. Make the app rating process transparent to users.

Problems with app moderation threaten children’s safety by exposing them to inappropriate content and interactions. The company is urged to urgently review its current app rating and monitoring practices to ensure compliance with age ratings and protect young users.