Apple Highlights Age Ratings in iOS App Store With New Icons - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Apple Highlights Age Ratings in iOS App Store With New Icons

by

Apple yesterday rolled out another tweak for its iOS App Store, adding age rating icons to the top section of each app's information page. While the ratings have long been included in app details at the bottom of the pages, the new icons are much more prominent to help parents quickly assess whether a given app might be age appropriate for their children.

app_store_age_rating
The change comes roughly two weeks after Apple added new "Offers In-App Purchases" labels to relevant App Store listings in another effort to make parents and other customers more aware of potential costs involved with apps.

Top Rated Comments

ArtOfWarfare Avatar
170 months ago
Every science teacher ever is probably going bananas over the lack of units with that number. 9+ What!? Is that how many hours the app runs?

I feel parents may not understand either. Having the words "For Ages" above it would be useful.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
roland.g Avatar
170 months ago
Unfortunately what iOS App store does not do well is make it easy to search for educational games, learning, and creativity apps by age range. So it isn't easy to determine which "Children's" category apps are better for a 3 and 5 year old than for a 8 or 10 year old.

With so many apps available, it's a lot of junk to wade through.

AppShopper is pretty much a useless site and app too, and not just for Kids stuff but their entire search engine and paradigm is flawed for the consumer. It's only useful if you know what you are looking for, in which case I wouldn't need their site.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Klae17 Avatar
170 months ago
OUR CHILDREN NEED PROTECTION!! They need iBubbleSuits.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
charlituna Avatar
170 months ago
I think Apple's age ratings are really messed up. I have played some really gruesome games that were only rated 9+, while some 12+ apps have apparently no inappropriate content at all. And google chrome is rated 17+ just because there is 17+ stuff on the internet. :rolleyes:

The developers pick the rating that's why it's so messed up.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
170 months ago
And that's the underlying issue of trying to cater to all that kind of "weird"/"mistaken" stuff--going for the lowest common denominator doesn't really result in all that much good for the majority (whether most realize it or not).
Wait, isn't a very low lowest common denominator a good thing? The stupid people would be those who are big prime numbers.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

Tim Cook Rainbow

Apple CEO Tim Cook Stepping Down, John Ternus Taking Over

Monday April 20, 2026 1:33 pm PDT by
Apple CEO Tim Cook is stepping down as Apple's chief executive officer, and hardware engineering chief John Ternus is set to take over, Apple announced today. Cook will continue on as Apple CEO through the summer, with Ternus set to join Apple's Board of Directors and take over as CEO on September 1, 2026. Cook is going to transition to executive chairman, and he will "assist with certain...
Four iPhone 18 Pro Colors Mock Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching in September With These 10 New Features

Monday April 20, 2026 7:13 am PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not launching until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component will be moved under the...
macOS 27 on MacBook Pro

macOS 27 Will Mark the End of an Era

Saturday April 18, 2026 6:45 am PDT by
During its Platforms State of the Union segment at WWDC 2025, Apple revealed that macOS 26 Tahoe is the final major macOS version for Intel-based Macs. The upcoming macOS 27 release will be compatible with Apple silicon Macs only, meaning that you will need a Mac with an M-series chip or a MacBook Neo with an A18 Pro chip in order to install the software update. macOS 27 should be available...