Monday, July 27, 2009

iPhone 17+ Ratings - A better solution

After submitting the PasswordWallet 4.4.7 update to the iTunes App Store for review, I received an unpleasant surprise from Apple: All apps with embedded browsers (that can open arbitrary URLs) must be given a rating of 17+.

So instead of changing my rating to 17+, I tried something a little different in PasswordWallet: I queried the system's own Parental Controls. If the Parental Controls disable Safari, I disable PasswordWallet's browser. Nice and simple. Seems to me this would be an ideal solution. I'd honor the OS's Parental Controls and filter web content the exact same way the OS does. So I submitted my app with these settings.

Apple did not agree. PasswordWallet is now rated at 17+.