How parents can judge a children's app

What does this article check?

Every one of the five questions below is something any parent can answer for themselves within a few minutes of opening an app, with no technical background needed and no report to wait for. The principle behind all of them is simple: the safest setting should be the default a parent meets the first time, not a hidden option that takes searching to find. This is what we hold ourselves to in everything we design: collect as little data as possible, use no addictive techniques, and design a clear role for parents inside every experience. The questions below turn that commitment into something any parent can verify for themselves, in any app, not only ours.

What data does the app ask for?

Open the sign-up screen and notice every field requested before your child is allowed to play. A real name, a phone number, a precise location: fields an app aimed at a child rarely needs to function. Ask one question of every field: what actually breaks in the play if you leave it blank? If the answer is nothing, that field is being collected for some purpose other than serving your child. The US Federal Trade Commission, in its COPPA compliance guidance, requires that a child's personal information be kept only as long as reasonably necessary for the specific purpose it was collected for, not indefinitely, and a privacy policy naming no clear retention period is a sign worth stopping at.

Is there a reward loop designed to prevent stopping?

This is the sharpest and hardest check, because a well-designed reward loop does not announce itself. Its sign is not that the app is fun; fun is legitimate and expected. Its sign is that stopping feels like a loss rather than a natural end: a daily streak that breaks if the child does not open the app today, a random reward that keeps them trying because they never know when it lands, or a countdown that manufactures artificial urgency. Watch your child at the exact moment they are asked to stop: if their frustration is about interrupting ordinary fun, that is normal, and if it looks closer to losing something they were about to get, that is a loop deliberately built for that exact feeling. Good design does the opposite: it turns stopping itself into a moment of accomplishment rather than loss, by giving the child a short summary of what they achieved before the screen closes.

Are ads clearly separated from play, in a way a child understands?

Try using the app yourself for a few minutes before your child does, and notice one thing: do you know clearly when play ends and an ad begins, or does it take an adult's attention to tell the difference? If the line is not clear to you, it will not be clear to your child either. This is not a theoretical worry: the US Federal Trade Commission requires compliance with truth-in-advertising standards when marketing directly to children or to their parents on their behalf, and it has actually pursued deceptive designs of this kind; among them a $245 million settlement with Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, over design patterns that pushed players, children included, toward purchases they never intended.

What do parents see, and does the child know they can see it?

Look for a single parent dashboard that explains within a minute what your child is doing and what you can change. A dashboard that needs a long explanation or a separately configured, complicated account is not a real role. It is one more chore most parents abandon after the first attempt. The condition most often missed matters just as much: your child should know their parents can see. Covert monitoring a child discovers one day breaks trust at that exact moment, while visibility declared from the start turns into ordinary conversation between a child and their parents. When you look for this dashboard, try asking yourself one practical question: do you understand within a minute what your child is doing right now, or does it take many taps to reach one simple fact?

How does a session end when your set time is up?

Set a timer and watch what actually happens when it runs out, not what the app claims will happen. A well-designed session brings your child to a natural stopping point close to the set time: a level completes, or a chapter closes. An app that cuts your child off mid-attempt, or offers one more round with a doubled reward at the exact moment it is time to stop, is a design that treats your set time as an obstacle to route around rather than a limit to respect. The World Health Organization recommends no more than one hour a day of sedentary screen time for children aged two to four, with less being better; the younger the child, the more the length of a session itself becomes part of judging an app's safety, not only how it ends.

Where should you start?

You do not need to try all five questions at once. Start with one the next time your child opens a new app, and its answer alone will likely tell you a great deal. You can read how we design a safe digital experience for children to see the same ground from the side of whoever builds the app rather than whoever judges it, or look at our safety commitments.

References

• US Federal Trade Commission, COPPA six-step compliance plan, retrieved 6 September 2026: https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/childrens-online-privacy-protection-rule-six-step-compliance-plan-your-business
• US Federal Trade Commission, Advertising and Marketing to Children page, retrieved 6 September 2026: https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/advertising-marketing/children
• World Health Organization, guidelines on physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep for children under 5 years of age (2019), retrieved 6 September 2026: https://www.who.int/news/item/24-04-2019-to-grow-up-healthy-children-need-to-sit-less-and-play-more

Quick questions

If an app's store listing shows no ads, does that mean it truly has none?

The store description alone is not enough. The best practical check is using the app yourself for a few minutes before your child does, and noticing whether an ad screen appears between levels or after a video closes, since marketing copy and an app's actual behavior do not always match.

My child does not want to stop using the app. Is that normal?

Some reluctance is normal and not a cause for concern. The sign worth watching for is different: stopping feels like a loss rather than a natural end, as if progress breaks or a reward that was close gets lost. That specific feeling is what a deliberate reward loop is built to produce, not ordinary fun on its own.

Is turning on device-level parental controls enough to check any app?

It is a useful step, but not enough on its own. Device controls govern what gets installed and total time used, and do not examine what is inside a specific app: what data it collects, its reward loop, or its ads. The two checks complement each other rather than one replacing the other.