Announced at Google I/O 2015 last month, Google’s new Family Friendly section of Google Play is now live.
The section has been opened to the public, and is showing a variety of new spotlight features under each section. The ‘Family’ tag is showing across the Apps and Movies & TV but Books has a specific ‘Childrens Books’, while Music doesn’t seem to be playing ball as yet.
The Family Friendly section in Apps also includes the option to view apps, games, music, videos and books featuring popular characters such as Peppa Pig, Star Wars and of course the ever popular Dora the Explorer.
The Family Category in the App section also features a drop down menu which lets parents search through titles based on age restrictions: Ages 5 & Under, Ages 6-8 and Ages 9 & Over or by different categories such as Action and Adventure, Brain Games, Creativity, Education, Music and Video and Pretend Play
The Family category is still fairly new, and appears to only be live on the web at this stage is now live on the Android Google Play store as well (version 5.6.8). Parents will see more information about the Apps, Games, Videos, Books and Music which includes a new star icon which will show the game has been deemed ‘Family Friendly’.
Parents will also get localised ratings for the content, with Australian ratings for apps, and movies showing up in the items description.
Updated:
The Google Play Store on Android is now showing all of the Family Friendly sections across Apps, Movies & TV and Books, with the Family Friendly star and ratings now showing as well.
Another bonus of the new Family Friendly section surrounds In-App Purchases (IAP), with Google ensuring that any game rated family friendly includes the requirement for a password to purchase IAP even if your account isn’t normally set up for it.
Parents wanting to know more can read up all about the new section in the Google Play support documentation. You can start checking out the Family Friendly section on Google Play right now.
I’m just about to buy an Android tablet for my son for his birthday so am really pleased to see this released at last.
Not seeing it on mobile yet, must be “rolling out”.