More pressure on the App Store
Bad press and legislative action make tough reading for Apple
The last 12 months have not been happy ones for the App Store. But the storm has not yet passed, as a slew of new allegations and obstacles have assailed the digital storefront.
The first is a report from the non-profit watchdog group Campaign for Accountability, which claimed to reveal “major weaknesses in Apple’s App Store child safety measures” that would allow underage users to gain access to adult content.
The group created an Apple ID for a fictitious 14-year-old user. Despite registering their age, the account was able to access apps with restricted content very easily. When downloading adult apps, the user was asked to confirm they were over 17. But doing so merely involved tapping ‘OK’, granting access to the app, despite their age clearly falling below the limit. These apps included ones displaying pornography, in violation of App Store rules.
As well as this contentious issue, a South Korean parliamentary committee has passed a bill that would prohibit Apple and Google from forcing developers to use both companies’ in-app payment systems and so taking a cut.
It’s a further blow to Apple’s App Store, which is still reeling from a year of bad press, developer discontent, and allegations that Apple is using it monopolistically.