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Mobile apps have become an important part of children’s daily lives in today’s digital age, as they use mobile apps on a daily basis for multiple reasons, including learning, playing games, and watching videos. Since kids of today spend a significant amount of time using mobile apps on smartphones and tablets, it is important to ensure that the apps that children are using are both child-friendly and safe.

 

No doubt that digital exposure is important in this digital age, and it can provide many educational and entertainment benefits; it also comes with its fair share of risks, and therefore, it is important to mitigate those risks by choosing child-friendly and safe apps for children. So for this reason, we have discussed a few points that explain what makes a mobile app child-friendly and safe.

Age-Appropriate Content

A mobile app is considered to be safe and child-friendly if it has age-appropriate content. Not all apps are designed with children in mind, and the majority of the apps are made for adults. Child-friendly apps are the ones that offer age-appropriate content that is developmentally appropriate for specific age groups. These apps typically carry age ratings or categories like 3+, 7+, or 12+, which helps parents decide whether the app is suitable for their children or not.

 

Parents should make sure that the app doesn’t have violence, strong language, or mature themes and promotes positive messages, kindness, and cooperation.

Easy-to-Use and Intuitive Interface

Most children have limited reading skills and digital literacy, which makes it essential for mobile apps to be easy to use and have an intuitive interface. A child-friendly app has simple navigation with large icons, bright visuals, and minimal text so that children can use the app independently without getting confused. The app should not have complex menus or multi-step processes and should provide clear cues to guide actions like the UC Browser.

No Unsupervised Communication

You will find most apps today to have chat features, comment sections, or the ability to interact with strangers. This is something that poses a serious risk for children, as they can get exposed to inappropriate content. A safe and child-friendly app doesn’t have an unsupervised communication channel and offers only pre-set phrases or stickers instead of open text-chat. If a communication channel does exist, it should be under parents’ supervision so that they can monitor and control them.

Strong Privacy Policies and Data Protection

When we talk about mobile apps, then an element that is usually overlooked is data privacy. Data privacy is a crucial element of mobile apps that shouldn’t be overlooked. Some apps collect personal information without proper consent. A child-friendly and safe mobile app is one that has strong privacy and data protection policies, complies with regulations, and explains what data is collected and for what reason.

Limited or No In-App Purchases

Since children have limited digital literacy and understanding, they can accidentally make in-app purchases and microtransactions for premium or locked content. These purchases can occur without the consent of parents and quickly add up to surprise them with unexpected bills.

 

Safe apps are the ones that have limited or no in-app purchases, require parent approval for purchases, and avoid pushy pop-ups that encourage children to buy extra and make in-app purchases. Facebook Messenger is a good example of an app with no in-app purchases. You can download Facebook Messenger for Android.

Parental Controls and Settings

Lastly, parental controls and settings are necessary for safe and child-friendly apps, as these features allow caregivers and parents to set time limits, schedule usage, choose which features and contents are accessible, and track usage statistics. Parental controls and settings should be password-protected so that they are accessible to parents only and they can track the activity of their children to stay informed.