They discover apps for children in the Google Play Store full of violence

Although the Google Play Store has never stood out as the most secure application repository, there are few cases in which a tool or service survives for too long infecting Android phones. Now a new alarm goes off, but not related to malware, but to the mismanagement of age limits and the type of content focused on the little ones. They discovered 36 games rated PEGI3 whose contents were full of violence and features not suitable for children.

The fact has been reported by Wired UK, who have investigated and informed Google about the fact. In their report, 36 applications with weapons, zombie killings and even mutilation of panda bears are published as PEGI3. This is the European age content rating system (Paneuropean Game Information), whose PEGI3 value indicates that they are suitable for all ages. They have also come across another 16 applications of dubious value for children by having tracking or geolocation functions, as well as betting and in-app purchases.

The problem in the lousy evaluation of these applications and games is that the contents pass any age filter in parental controls that Parents can exercise over the devices of the little ones.Thus, any minor can put himself at the controls of a machine gun to kill bloody and disfigured zombies, or perform the most lurid dental operations on panda bears. All this with the supposedly safe supervision of both Google and concerned parents.

Who rates these games and apps?

In this regard, Google's permissiveness when publishing content in its app store comes into play. Something that has brought them to the informative arena more than once due to problems of this type or related to malware. In the first place it is the developer himself who specifies what type of content he is publishing For this, Google relies on the PEGI system, but this only consists of a simple form that the developer himself completes when uploading his application or game to the Google Play Store. In short, it is the developer himself who decides how to catalog his application, being able to skip these barriers almost at will.

Secondly, PEGI reviews physical video games to ensure that the recommended age is consistent with the contents of the video games. But it seems that does not do the same with the purely virtual contents of the Google Play Store, according to what happened. Of course, Google also skips the buck. The Mountain View company has algorithms and analysis systems that do not comply as they should. Unlike the App Store, which has a human team and more restrictive systems, Google only uses computers. Something that reduces the reliability of the system and that eventually allows dangerous applications to slip through.

Why rate a game for all audiences?

According to media such as Xataka, classifying applications and games as adult titles can restrict the visibility of the content.That is, prevent it from appearing among popular titles or in the recommendations sections. However, a PEGI3 game, suitable for all audiences, would face fewer limitations in the Google Play Store

More visibility means more downloads and installations. And, in turn, more views and plays, and therefore more money for developers A technique that developers of games like Drive Die could have been exploiting Repeat, with more than 100,000 downloads, or Mad War Zombies, with more than 10,000. Both of them, games with gore and violence that have managed to overcome the barriers of Google. Meanwhile, Google takes 30 percent of the benefits of these applications. Of course the games have already been re-evaluated and some of them have been excluded from the Google Play Store.