# What to check before installing a kids app

> Both app stores tell you whether a kids app has ads, purchases and data collection. Here is exactly where each disclosure is, and what it leaves out.

Source: https://apps.swtlm.com/blog/what-to-check-before-installing-a-kids-app · TLM Apps — focused mobile apps from a team of engineers.
Published: 2026-07-17 · Updated: 2026-07-17 · TLM Software Design

Both stores put the answers on the listing page, before you install: Google
Play shows a **Contains ads** label under the install button and an **In-app
purchases** price range, and the App Store lists **In-App Purchases** with
prices on the product page. Neither tells you how often an ad appears or how
aggressive the purchase flow is, which is why the six checks below take about
ninety seconds and are worth doing.

We fill these disclosures out for our own kids apps, so what follows is a
description of forms we have submitted rather than a guess about them.

## The ninety-second check

## What each disclosure does not cover

**"Contains ads" has no volume dial.** An app with a small banner and an app
that plays a thirty-second unskippable video between every level carry the same
label. The label is a yes/no for the presence of an ad SDK.

**The purchase range is not the monetization design.** Two apps can both say
`$0.99 – $9.99` and behave completely differently: one sells a single unlock at
$2.99, the other sells nine tiers of currency to a child who has run out of
lives. The range is a ceiling, not a shape.

**Data safety is a self-declaration.** Developers fill in a form, the store
publishes it, and enforcement is by spot check and complaint. That is not
worthless, since a false declaration is a policy violation with real
consequences, but it is a claim somebody signed rather than an audit somebody
performed.

Ads and purchases are a judgement call. **A purchase flow a child can complete
alone is not.** Before you hand the phone over, check that purchases require a
password or Face ID every time: iOS Screen Time → Content & Privacy
Restrictions, and Google Play → Settings → Authentication. It takes a minute
and removes the entire category of problem.

## The parental gate, and why its details matter

Apple's App Review Guideline 1.3 requires apps aimed at children to put "a task
not easily completed by a young child" in front of purchases and links out of
the app. That is a low bar written loosely, and the gap between meeting it and
meeting it well is most of the difference between the good kids apps and the
rest.

Three details are worth noticing when you open one yourself.

**What the gate protects.** The purchase flow is the obvious one. The less
obvious ones are external links — support email, the privacy policy, the
developer's other apps on the store — the "rate this app" prompt, and any
control that changes a privacy setting. An app that gates only the shop has
left a child a route to the store listing and to a review box.

**Whether it can be brute-forced.** A gate that asks the same question until
you get it right is a gate that a determined seven-year-old passes by trying.
The version that holds up generates a fresh problem after a wrong answer, and
asks something arithmetic rather than something you read — two-digit,
multi-operand mental arithmetic works at any reading level and in any language.

**Whether it remembers.** This is the one almost nobody checks. A gate with a
"remember me" is a gate that ran once, on a phone that then changed hands. In
our own apps a pass covers one visit to one surface and nothing is persisted:
back out and return and it asks again, and sending the app to the background —
the moment the phone is actually handed over — drops the adult screens off the
stack so a resume lands the child back where they were.

If you want to test one in ten seconds: open the parental gate, answer it
wrongly on purpose, and see whether you get a new question or the same one.

## What "no ads" should mean

There is a version of ad-free that survives inspection, and a version that does
not.

The weak version is "no ads today". The app ships with no ad SDK bundled, ads
arrive in version 2.4, and nothing in the listing ever said otherwise.

The strong version is **there is no ad code in the app at all**. It is
verifiable indirectly: an app with no advertising SDK usually declares no
advertising ID in its data disclosure, and it usually cannot be free-with-a-huge-purchase-range,
because there is no revenue model left to explain the free tier.

The same reasoning applies to purchases. "Nothing to buy inside" is a much
stronger statement than "no ads", because it means the app cannot be quietly
converted into a shop later without a paid update.

## How our kids apps answer these

Because a checklist written by someone selling apps is worth checking against
those apps.

- **[Match & Spot](https://apps.swtlm.com/kids-memory-game)** — paid up front, and there is no
  billing code in the app at all. Nothing inside it can be bought, so no
  purchase flow exists for a child to find. Fully offline.
- **[Sudoku Junior](https://apps.swtlm.com/kids-sudoku-game)** — free to try, one family unlock at
  a single price, no ads, fully offline. The unlock sits behind a parental
  gate.
- **[Spell & Collect](https://apps.swtlm.com/word-puzzle-game)** — no ads, pack unlocks rather than
  currency, and it plays offline once a pack has been downloaded.
- **[Robot Programmer](https://apps.swtlm.com/robot-programmer-game)** — free, no ads, nothing to buy,
  fully offline. It asks for no permissions at all: no notifications, no camera,
  no microphone, no contacts, no location, and no advertising identifier, so
  there is no iOS tracking prompt for a child to tap through.

None of them shows an ad. That is not true of everything we make: several of
our puzzle games for adults run banners and interstitials, which their cards
say plainly. We hold the kids apps to a different line because a six-year-old
cannot evaluate an ad, so there is nothing for them to consent to.

## Where to go from here

If the concern is what happens on a plane or in a tunnel, "offline" is a word
with three different meanings on a store listing —
[offline games for kids](https://apps.swtlm.com/blog/offline-games-for-kids) separates them. If the
concern is the money rather than the ads,
[what a puzzle game subscription costs](https://apps.swtlm.com/blog/what-a-puzzle-game-subscription-costs)
does the arithmetic. And every kids app we make is on the
[Kids page](https://apps.swtlm.com/kids), each card carrying its ad behaviour and its price before
you tap anything.

## Frequently asked questions

**Where does Google Play say whether an app has ads?**

Directly under the install button, as a small 'Contains ads' label. It is set by the developer and it is all-or-nothing: it tells you ads exist, not how often they appear or whether they are full-screen.

**Where does the App Store say whether an app has purchases?**

'In-App Purchases' appears on the product page, and tapping it lists the most popular items with prices. That list is the fastest way to see whether an app is a one-time unlock or a subscription.

**What does the Data safety section actually tell me?**

What the developer declares the app collects and shares, and whether data is encrypted in transit and can be deleted. It is a self-declaration, checked by the store only in spot checks — so treat it as a claim someone signed rather than an audit.

**Does 'Teacher Approved' or 'Made for Kids' mean no ads?**

No. Both mean the app met a policy bar for content and for how ads are targeted — behavioural advertising is not allowed to children — but an app in either programme can still show ads.

**What is the single fastest check?**

Read the in-app purchase price range on the listing. A range like $0.99 to $99.99 tells you far more about how the app makes money than any description does.