6 ms·

Committed to a Safer Google Play for Families

37 points by WalterSobchak 7y ago

neha_t 7y ago
While the deeper review is fine, Why wasn’t this better planned with more resources allocated to the review process to keep the time in 2-3 days. And when I submitted my game - Word Hookup -for internal testing it took 8 days for approval. Why should internal testing require this prolonged review. 7 days for internal testing is a painful and unacceptable waste of devs time.
xg15 7y ago
While the content ist laudable, did they really just announce that starting September 1st, devs should plan ahead due to extended review times - and make the announcement on August 30?
- snek 7y ago
  They announced it back in may: https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2019/05/building-safer-google-play-for-kids.html https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2019/05/building-s... That article is also linked on the fourth word in this article...
  - shimfish 7y ago
    That link doesn't announce increased review times. However, reviews have been taking days for a while now. Even changing the app store icon now requires days for approval.
ilovetux 7y ago
>> Apps that include children in their target audience need to adhere to our new policy requirements including appropriate content, showing suitable ads (learn more), and disclosing personally identifiable information correctly. so youtube kids would be a flagrant violation of their new policy. why do they keep recommending this app to me? shouldn't it just be demonitized like they do to countless devs for unstated reasons. Google has less than zero trust stored and they should probably learn that this means they will lose money (sooner or later).
- Simon_says 7y ago
  Youtube Kids is videos OF kids, not videos FOR kids.
  - reificator 7y ago
    From Wikipedia: > YouTube Kids is a video app developed by YouTube. The app provides a version of the service oriented towards children, with curated selections of content, parental control features, and filtering of videos not deemed to be appropriate to the target audience.
    - gambiting 7y ago
      I mean, yes, they say that, but there's plenty of videos(on YouTube, lol) showing how to get to child-inappropriate videos on YouTube Kids(Jake Paul videos for instance, they don't show if you search for Jake Paul but there are other terms you can search for and they will show up).
      - reificator 7y ago
        And physically[0], Jake Paul is not a child, further debunking the post I was replying to initially. [0]: I'm sure there's a ton of controversy because this is the internet and that's what you people do for a living, so I'm sure I'll get some posts claiming he's as mature as a 5 year old or whatever. But Google says born in 1997, which I'm sorry to tell you means he's not a child.
        Simon_says 7y ago
        Jake Paul is mature, FOR a 5 year old.
- electriclove 7y ago
  YouTube kids has issues, no doubt. But I'm happy to see this post and their attempt to improve things in the Play Store. I think there are people at Google that want to do the right thing. Hope they can do so against motivation to blindly increase "engagement", clicks, users, monetization.
dymk 7y ago
The way easier solution to this content rating mess is don’t give your young child a phone/tablet. Give them a coloring book and a Snap Circuits kit. I realize this isn’t something Google can do something about; this is directed at the parents giving an internet connected device to a developing mind.
- dgzl 7y ago
  You think that is easy?
  - devoply 7y ago
    It is if you never start. Once your kids are hooked, forget it.
    - dgzl 7y ago
      And what about exposure from outside your control? Edit: and what about for parents who don't have the resources or ability to manage that kind of control? My point is that it's not easy, not even in the slightest.
      - dymk 7y ago
        I don’t understand why this has suddenly become so complex; you simply don’t give the kid a phone. That’s not a resource, that’s a lack of a resource. If they’re super young, they’ll entertain without electronics. Give them a coloring book. If they’re a little older, tell them to go use that Snap Circuits kit. Or here’s a ZX Spectrum and a manual on z80 asm. Or here’s a Nintendo DS and a Pokemon game.
        secabeen 7y ago
        The challenge is when all their friends have a phone, and they want one. Sure, if the culture at your kids school is no one has a phone, then no one cares. If not, it's a lot harder, and does have impacts on them socially.
DoreenMichele 7y ago
I don't envy parents trying to navigate this issue these days. It seems completely reasonable for Google to try to help them figure it out by providing some information.
prop84u 7y ago
Review times will increase to up to 7 days. My impression was that most app reviews on Google Play are automated and do not involve humans. Will Google begin to have every single kids app release go through a human reviewer?
visarga 7y ago
I'm wondering if there is any protection to changing the google account and/or resetting the phone by the child. My daughter got as far as reinstalling MacOS to get around parental controls, at which point I gave up trying to use software to limit her screen time.
- chrisjshull 7y ago
  That’s not so hard to prevent, but I think it’s awesome she went that far!
- daurnimator 7y ago
  How old was your daughter? In my mind parental controls are never going to be effective past ~9 years old.
  - visarga 7y ago
    She was 14 at the time but she had restrictions because she was preparing for the high-school entrance exam which is quite tough.
- qubex 7y ago
  The Force is strong in your daughter.
tus88 7y ago
Sounds like Google is the one not following a certain policy called federal law....costing it $200M. It's a bit like Face#### getting preachy about user privacy.
stevenicr 7y ago
Not related to the article as much as related to google decisions and android in relation to 'families' aka kids and parents.. the parental controls for time that phone went off and was available for better then nothing.. but at 14th birthday all parental control and oversight is removed. I've searched a bit, and found that maybe Disney Circle is the thing closest to what is needed in situations that I have experienced and seen others try to contend with. 'popcorn time' comes to mind as an app that was widely mentioned when searching for the right controls - from what I remember some things with that fell short. I remember some discussions about an openDNS or similar 'open-souce' dns poisoning service that was similar and competing with disney circle - but when I went to try it out I felt that is was not going to work well and I may not get it to function at all from the docs I saw. Anyhow, I really want an open source / free alternative the gives parents some controls and clearly explains to teens what is being controlled... I think all parents need the ability to turn off certain apps, or turn off all apps aside from a whitelist of apps that could be available when the others are turned off. Phones are tricky today in that we want to limit the access to the games at times, but may want to keep access to a phone app like grooveip or google voice. whether it's bed time or dinner time, I think many of us want to limit some apps but allow other functions, like actually being a phone to still work / be accessible. I know some parents want to monitor all discussions, that may be a fine choice - but whatever other monitoring may be available, I'd like the kids to have notices about the monitoring.. from parents, from apps, from govments.. While I'm pouring out mu wishlist here, I want an app that monitors for 'bad words lists )editable and subscribable ) - so that a notice can be sent to parents if words like suicide or kill are detected via text or audio.. but not send entire conversations to parents to pry into every detail, and likely miss important things by getting too much data. In short, I think google's decision to remove all parental oversight at 13 is not good, and affordable options for better monitoring are not available at the moment - and we should do more and better. While I'm wishlisting, why the hale don't we have auto detection for curse words in youtube videos (and some other words) and the ability to censor them with beeps or silence - some of the gaming youtubers may be entertaining enough to watch but some of the language that is used so much that it injects itself into the daily vocab of kids like an overplayed rap song is too much. Youtube has the power and code already there for transcribing, it could do this kind of thing easy right? I have one step-kid that will not use youtube on phone at all do the kids only version at 12 1/2 years old.. and another over 13 that watches so much I worry and wonder.
einpoklum 7y ago
Google Play is safest when you don't use it. Google has too much control over our lives already.
- jrugk 7y ago
  Thanks for your thoughtful comment.
Arbalest 7y ago
Safer for families? How about not advertising to children whose decision making process is very much compromised, in not being formed yet? Any attempt to claim they are making things "safer" is simply lip service to a cause that they, by design, are not in favour of. My children will not be watching commercial TV nor having access to "smart" devices unless things radically change (and hopefully I can stick to it).
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

37 points by WalterSobchak 7y ago

While the deeper review is fine, Why wasn’t this better planned with more resources allocated to the review process to keep the time in 2-3 days. And when I submitted my game - Word Hookup -for internal testing it took 8 days for approval. Why should internal testing require this prolonged review. 7 days for internal testing is a painful and unacceptable waste of devs time.

xg15 7y ago

While the content ist laudable, did they really just announce that starting September 1st, devs should plan ahead due to extended review times - and make the announcement on August 30?

snek 7y ago
They announced it back in may: https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2019/05/building-safer-google-play-for-kids.html https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2019/05/building-s... That article is also linked on the fourth word in this article...
- shimfish 7y ago
  That link doesn't announce increased review times. However, reviews have been taking days for a while now. Even changing the app store icon now requires days for approval.

ilovetux 7y ago

>> Apps that include children in their target audience need to adhere to our new policy requirements including appropriate content, showing suitable ads (learn more), and disclosing personally identifiable information correctly. so youtube kids would be a flagrant violation of their new policy. why do they keep recommending this app to me? shouldn't it just be demonitized like they do to countless devs for unstated reasons. Google has less than zero trust stored and they should probably learn that this means they will lose money (sooner or later).

Simon_says 7y ago
Youtube Kids is videos OF kids, not videos FOR kids.
- reificator 7y ago
  From Wikipedia: > YouTube Kids is a video app developed by YouTube. The app provides a version of the service oriented towards children, with curated selections of content, parental control features, and filtering of videos not deemed to be appropriate to the target audience.
  - gambiting 7y ago
    I mean, yes, they say that, but there's plenty of videos(on YouTube, lol) showing how to get to child-inappropriate videos on YouTube Kids(Jake Paul videos for instance, they don't show if you search for Jake Paul but there are other terms you can search for and they will show up).
    - reificator 7y ago
      And physically[0], Jake Paul is not a child, further debunking the post I was replying to initially. [0]: I'm sure there's a ton of controversy because this is the internet and that's what you people do for a living, so I'm sure I'll get some posts claiming he's as mature as a 5 year old or whatever. But Google says born in 1997, which I'm sorry to tell you means he's not a child.
      - Simon_says 7y ago
        Jake Paul is mature, FOR a 5 year old.
electriclove 7y ago
YouTube kids has issues, no doubt. But I'm happy to see this post and their attempt to improve things in the Play Store. I think there are people at Google that want to do the right thing. Hope they can do so against motivation to blindly increase "engagement", clicks, users, monetization.

dymk 7y ago

The way easier solution to this content rating mess is don’t give your young child a phone/tablet. Give them a coloring book and a Snap Circuits kit. I realize this isn’t something Google can do something about; this is directed at the parents giving an internet connected device to a developing mind.

dgzl 7y ago
You think that is easy?
- devoply 7y ago
  It is if you never start. Once your kids are hooked, forget it.
  - dgzl 7y ago
    And what about exposure from outside your control? Edit: and what about for parents who don't have the resources or ability to manage that kind of control? My point is that it's not easy, not even in the slightest.
    - dymk 7y ago
      I don’t understand why this has suddenly become so complex; you simply don’t give the kid a phone. That’s not a resource, that’s a lack of a resource. If they’re super young, they’ll entertain without electronics. Give them a coloring book. If they’re a little older, tell them to go use that Snap Circuits kit. Or here’s a ZX Spectrum and a manual on z80 asm. Or here’s a Nintendo DS and a Pokemon game.
      - secabeen 7y ago
        The challenge is when all their friends have a phone, and they want one. Sure, if the culture at your kids school is no one has a phone, then no one cares. If not, it's a lot harder, and does have impacts on them socially.

DoreenMichele 7y ago

I don't envy parents trying to navigate this issue these days. It seems completely reasonable for Google to try to help them figure it out by providing some information.

prop84u 7y ago

Review times will increase to up to 7 days. My impression was that most app reviews on Google Play are automated and do not involve humans. Will Google begin to have every single kids app release go through a human reviewer?

visarga 7y ago

I'm wondering if there is any protection to changing the google account and/or resetting the phone by the child. My daughter got as far as reinstalling MacOS to get around parental controls, at which point I gave up trying to use software to limit her screen time.

chrisjshull 7y ago
That’s not so hard to prevent, but I think it’s awesome she went that far!
daurnimator 7y ago
How old was your daughter? In my mind parental controls are never going to be effective past ~9 years old.
- visarga 7y ago
  She was 14 at the time but she had restrictions because she was preparing for the high-school entrance exam which is quite tough.
qubex 7y ago
The Force is strong in your daughter.

tus88 7y ago

Sounds like Google is the one not following a certain policy called federal law....costing it $200M. It's a bit like Face#### getting preachy about user privacy.

stevenicr 7y ago

Not related to the article as much as related to google decisions and android in relation to 'families' aka kids and parents.. the parental controls for time that phone went off and was available for better then nothing.. but at 14th birthday all parental control and oversight is removed. I've searched a bit, and found that maybe Disney Circle is the thing closest to what is needed in situations that I have experienced and seen others try to contend with. 'popcorn time' comes to mind as an app that was widely mentioned when searching for the right controls - from what I remember some things with that fell short. I remember some discussions about an openDNS or similar 'open-souce' dns poisoning service that was similar and competing with disney circle - but when I went to try it out I felt that is was not going to work well and I may not get it to function at all from the docs I saw. Anyhow, I really want an open source / free alternative the gives parents some controls and clearly explains to teens what is being controlled... I think all parents need the ability to turn off certain apps, or turn off all apps aside from a whitelist of apps that could be available when the others are turned off. Phones are tricky today in that we want to limit the access to the games at times, but may want to keep access to a phone app like grooveip or google voice. whether it's bed time or dinner time, I think many of us want to limit some apps but allow other functions, like actually being a phone to still work / be accessible. I know some parents want to monitor all discussions, that may be a fine choice - but whatever other monitoring may be available, I'd like the kids to have notices about the monitoring.. from parents, from apps, from govments.. While I'm pouring out mu wishlist here, I want an app that monitors for 'bad words lists )editable and subscribable ) - so that a notice can be sent to parents if words like suicide or kill are detected via text or audio.. but not send entire conversations to parents to pry into every detail, and likely miss important things by getting too much data. In short, I think google's decision to remove all parental oversight at 13 is not good, and affordable options for better monitoring are not available at the moment - and we should do more and better. While I'm wishlisting, why the hale don't we have auto detection for curse words in youtube videos (and some other words) and the ability to censor them with beeps or silence - some of the gaming youtubers may be entertaining enough to watch but some of the language that is used so much that it injects itself into the daily vocab of kids like an overplayed rap song is too much. Youtube has the power and code already there for transcribing, it could do this kind of thing easy right? I have one step-kid that will not use youtube on phone at all do the kids only version at 12 1/2 years old.. and another over 13 that watches so much I worry and wonder.

einpoklum 7y ago

Google Play is safest when you don't use it. Google has too much control over our lives already.

jrugk 7y ago
Thanks for your thoughtful comment.

Arbalest 7y ago

Safer for families? How about not advertising to children whose decision making process is very much compromised, in not being formed yet? Any attempt to claim they are making things "safer" is simply lip service to a cause that they, by design, are not in favour of. My children will not be watching commercial TV nor having access to "smart" devices unless things radically change (and hopefully I can stick to it).

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]