Which Apps Are Best for Your Children?

We have ESRB ratings for video games and the Motion Picture Rating System (G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17) for movies, but what ratings do we have for apps?  From toddlers to teens, it would be helpful to know which apps will help to educate, entertain, and stimulate our kids without worry of inappropriate content, in-app purchases, and advertisements.

Additionally, it would be great to have somewhere to go where you could select the best app based on your child’s age and the type of app you are looking for (mathematics, critical thinking, social skills, special needs, etc.).  The major app stores do not support this kind of detailed search.

A lot of times our kids come to us about the apps they want to play, based on what their friends or playing or what they see on the Internet or TV.  Ideally, it’s best if we as parents introduce our kids to apps that they can play, especially ones that we can feel safe about and already have a sense on what the app is about.

Moms with Apps Website

I’m happy to say that as of last month, a new website, Moms with Apps, has been introduced that helps you search through the myriad of kids apps out there.  Using this website, you can feel comfortable in knowing apps are appropriate, you can know ahead of time if the app collects personal info or encourages in-app purchases, and you can sort them according to the attributes you are interested in (science, culture, numbers and letters, shapes, social skills, etc.)

But it gets even better.  Through the Moms with Apps website, you can also search for apps that work without Internet.  This is a great resource, especially when you are driving in the car or flying on a plane.  You need great educational apps that will capture your kids’ attention…and still work without WiFi.

After searching for social skills, this is one of the apps I pulled up.  It reminded me of my 8-year-old son, whom I affectionately call “one sock” because he’s always missing a sock!  You can see by looking at the “What’s Inside” column, because it’s grayed out, that the app doesn’t collect any personal info, has no in-app purchasing, does not connect kids to a web browser for videos, info. etc.  I can also clearly see that Adventures of One Sock is only available in the Apple App store.

Lastly, Moms with Apps goes one step further and actually introduces you to the developers who make the apps.  They give a profile of each app developer, giving you a more personal side of the creator behind the app, as well as an easy way to click through to their website.

So, Who’s Behind Moms with Apps?

Moms and dads are a big part of it.  In the early days of apps, there were hardly any kids apps available.  So when Susy Christiansen, CEO of Busy Bee Studios, began creating some of the first apps dedicated to children, you could hardly find her apps in the iTunes App store.  There were just too many apps and no great way to search for kid apps.  Suzy banded together with other childrens’ app developers (the beginnings of Moms with Apps) to help get the word out about their apps outside of the App store.

As other app developers seemed to be more aggressive in collecting personal data, serving up advertisements, and offering in-app purchases, this group of developers decided it was time to expand their circle to other childrens’ app developers who had the same integrity and wanted to be transparent about what’s in the apps.  As parents themselves, they committed to high standards for protecting kids’ privacy and building great family-friendly apps.

Here’s a list of the guidelines app developers most adhere to before being certified by Moms with Apps.

They created Moms with Apps and today they have over 285 developers certified and over 885 apps approved.  Moms with Apps focuses on “What’s Inside” each app, which they believe is changing the conversation with developers, so they begin with parent concerns in advance of creating an app.  Developers are learning that creating apps that speak to parents concerns are actually a selling point to their apps.  Moms with Apps is helping to make big shifts in how apps are created.

Moms with Apps focuses on smaller developers and helps them get the word out about their apps by adding them to their database once their apps have been approved.  Many of the developers Moms with Apps works with have 3 or less employees and 50% of them are developing apps part-time, hoping to build up to full-time at some point.

So you won’t find Angry Birds or Where’s My Water in the Moms with Apps database.  The reason is strategic.  What makes Moms with Apps strong is the collaborative community they have created with developers, based on common values.  This is their strength.  As Lorraine Akemann, co-founder of Mom with Apps states, “if their community is is drowned out by bigger name companies, they will weaken.”

The Moms with Apps website is free to use.  The apps in their database cost anywhere from free to $29, (a great developed by a speech pathologist which integrates the clinical practices she uses with her patients).

A Mom’s Perspective

I remember looking for educational apps for my young kids years ago.  It was like looking for a needle in the haystack.  I found a lot of good ones by doing a lot of searching on Google and finding blogger’s recommendations, but that took a lot of time and perseverance.

I love that I can go to a website like Moms with Apps and sort apps based on interest as well as know what could happen once the app is used.  Moms with apps does contain apps that do collect personal information,  offer in-app purchasing, point out other apps a child might like, and more.  However, the difference is, the developer discloses it BEFORE you buy the app and you are well aware.

With the upcoming Holidays, you can go to the Moms with Apps website and search for “Halloween” and find a number of apps for kids to enjoy around this fun season.  If you search for “Halloween” in the Apple App or Google Play stores, you’ll get a huge amount of apps served up, but then you need to go through each one individually to see if it’s appropriate for your child.  And even then, you have no idea whether there are in-app purchases encouraged, personal information is being gleamed, or if there are links that go to an external website.

Check out Moms with Apps to begin taking charge of the apps your kids play and know “What’s Inside” the app ahead of time.

* This article is brought to you by Moms with Apps and The Motherhood.  All opinions are my own.