A new one published by child safety groups Heat Initiative and ParentsTogether Action details the alarming presence of inappropriate apps rated as suitable for children aged four in Apple’s App Store. The teams worked with a researcher to review as many apps as possible over a 24-hour period, and said they ultimately identified more than 200 apps with “content or features” that given the ages they rated – including stranger chat and AI girlfriend. apps, game games with sexual or violent urges and imagery, and AI-powered appearance rating apps. Engadget has reached out to Apple for comment and will update this story upon hearing it.

The research focused on apps with assigned age ratings of 4+, 9+ and 12+ in categories considered “dangerous”: chat (including AI and stranger chat apps), beauty , diet and weight loss, unfiltered internet access (apps for accessing restricted school sites) and gaming. Among the findings, the report said that at least 24 sex games and 9 stranger chat apps were labeled as suitable for children in these age groups. The research also identified 40 apps for unfiltered internet access and 75 apps related to beauty, body image and weight loss that carried these age ratings, along with 28 games of the shooter and crime. In total, the approximately 200 offending apps found during the 24-hour investigation were downloaded more than 550 million times, according to the Heat Initiative.

About 800 apps were analyzed in all, and the research found that some categories were more likely than others to carry apps with inappropriately low age ratings. For stranger chat apps and games, “very few were rated as suitable for children,” the report said. In most cases, they are 17+. But in the categories of weight loss and unfiltered internet access, “almost all apps reviewed were approved for children 4+.” The report called on Apple to do better when it comes to child safety measures in the App Store, urging the company to use third-party reviewers to verify the age ratings of apps. before it is available for download, and to make the age rating process transparent. of consumers. You can read the full report, Rotten Ratings: 24 Hours on Apple’s App Store, HERE.