Google Play Store: Could your store listing unintentionally appeal to children?

[sorex]

Hello,

It appears that we need to go through some extra process to comply to Google's wishes.

But I wonder what they mean with...

Could your store listing unintentionally appeal to children?

Where will they draw the line?

Is this only valid for the description text or the icon aswell?

Even if your store listing description doesn't attract children just 1 color in your icon might attract a person/child for some reason.

The same can go for words in the description or app title.

Take bionoid as example... I would say it's for 13+ but I remember that a female colleague said once
"my 8 year old son is playing a binairy game all the time and when it started I noticed your name, is that really you?"

so younger people are able to understand & play it aswell.

How on earth can you perfectly age rate your apps and answer that quoted text above?
not every child has the same IQ/interest/prefereces/triggers.

 

[hookshy]

But I wonder what they mean with...

I understood that even if the app is not for children but accidently can get a child attention then they will flag the app and tell users this is not an app suited for children use !
I see they want to target more the app search and installs.
I guess unless the game or app is for small children to raise the audience age so you might not have problems.

 

[sorex]

I just did a small test...

a kid who's a fan of Pokemon enters poke as search term in google play's search under apps > games.

on the first row of the search result is "Zynga Poker".

not really meant for children but how can you be held responsible that it shows up in the list and that the kid might install it?
it's shows PEGI 12 but I guess everyone of any age can install it, not?

 

[andymc]

I've had this on my games, but I now just list them all as 13+ as my target groups. Most of my players are over 40 anyway (old retro games). This also has an effect on your advertising income as you can't select sensitive cats for ads. I tested this by making my games family friendly, but my income more than halved. So I've gone back to being aimed at teens and up, my income went straight back up.

 

[drgottjr]

the only logic to it is: if your app has been flagged, it's been flagged. you make a polite appeal. as as been mentioned a few times on the forum, the app is unflagged after the author has responded. there is no way to know what triggers the process. clearly, there could some child somewhere in the world who might be attracted to some completely incidental aspect of your presentation on play.