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Learn about the process and review the interactive checklist at Academy for App Success.To better serve users, it's important to provide accurate information about your app. In addition to filling in the content rating questionnaire, you'll also need to provide details about your app's target audience and content. Depending on the target audience selections that you make, your app may be subject to additional Google Play policies:
| Your app is designed primarily for children under 13 | You must comply with Google Play’s Families policy requirements, including the requirement to use only Families Self-Certified Ads SDKs to serve ads. |
| Your app is designed for everyone, including children | Any apps that have at least one target audience age group that includes children must comply with Google Play’s Families policy requirements, including the requirement to use only Families Self-Certified Ads SDKs to serve ads to children and users of unknown age. |
| Your app is not designed for children | You must still meet the requirements outlined in the Google Play Developer Programme Policies and Developer Distribution Agreement. |
Learn more about the following sections by selecting these links:
- Fill in the 'Target audience and content' section
- About target age groups
- Personal information
- Neutral age screen
- Apps with an unintentional appeal to children
- How to display the 'Not designed for children' label
Fill in the 'Target audience and content' section
If you create a new app or publish an update to an existing app, you’ll be required to declare your app’s target age group. Any apps that include children in their target audience must comply with Google Play's Families policy requirements.
Before filling in the Target audience and content section, you must have declared whether or not your app contains ads, and provided instructions for app access. You must also have added a privacy policy.
- Open Play Console and go to the App content page (Policy > App content).
- Under 'Target audience and content', click Start. If you’ve previously filled in the Target audience and content section and want to make changes, click Manage. Fill in each section accordingly:
- Target age: Select the age group(s) that your app targets. You can make multiple selections if appropriate. For details, see About target age groups.
- App details: You may be asked for additional details about how your app works. It is very important that you provide accurate answers to the questions as they relate to your app. Some of the questions are related to legal requirements. If you are unsure, please consult with your legal counsel.
- Ads: If your app is serving ads to children, you will be asked about Google Play's Families Self-Certified Ads SDK Programme or whether your app has a neutral age screen.
- Store presence: Apps that are primarily for children and apps designed for several age groups such as older audiences and children are eligible for consideration in the Expert Approved programme.
- Review a summary of your selections and click Save.
- Google will review your app to make sure that the target audience that you disclose is accurate and that your app is compliant with all Google Play Developer policies. Please note that certain developer accounts and/or categories of apps may be subjected to extended reviews, which may result in review times of up to 7 days or longer in exceptional cases. We recommend that you adjust your planning to take this into account.
About target age groups
You should only select more than one age group for your app’s target audience if you have designed your app for and ensured that your app is appropriate for users within each of the selected age group(s).
For example, an app designed for toddlers should only have the age group 'Ages 5 and under' selected.
You should only select age groups that include both adults and children if you truly have designed your app for all ages, not just because you want your app to be available to users of all ages.
Please note that if your app targets any users that are under the age of 21, you must consider if they would be considered children under their local laws. Apps that target children must comply with Google Play Families policy requirements.
Here are some tips and additional examples to help you select the most appropriate age group for your app.
Overall best practices
- Quality – Production quality and functionality make a difference, even to young children. Ensure that your app is usable for the intended age, including navigation, visuals and text or voiceover.
- Purpose and value – Think carefully about your messaging and how you're engaging children – whether through narrative, characters, levelling and reward systems or other means.
- Developmental appropriateness – Consider the presence of sensitive or mature content, concepts or themes, and whether they are appropriate for the intended age. This goes for ads and in-app purchases, too.
Ages 5 and under
Note that this age group is considered to include children in most locales.
Apps may be suitable for this age if they:
- Support non-readers, or early readers, with limited reliance on text
- Have a simple design with large iconography and clear, consistent interactive elements
- Include delightful sensory elements, colours and sounds for young children
- Centre on pretend play, simple problem solving and/or creative free play
- Include beloved characters and/or story-based themes of belonging and togetherness, family, friendship
- Are positive in tone or silly, and have a happy ending or clear takeaway
- Include mild expressions of affection, like characters hugging or holding hands
- Include a clear role for parents to play, or clear information for parents
- Depict scary, dark settings or characters in danger (think scary animals, monsters, music, backgrounds)
- Require quick reactions, fine motor skills, typing or computing
- Require short-term memory tasks or abstract thinking
- Include game penalties or punishments, as many children in this age group are still learning how to regulate their emotions and respond to failure
- Depict violence, fighting, weapons, crude humour or language, name calling, or even minimally sexual or suggestive themes, including depictions of alcohol
- Have a wide range of distracting features that might inhibit children from playing
Ages 6–8
Note that this age group is considered to include children in most locales.
Apps may be suitable for this age if they:
- Support early readers or writers, with limited reliance on text
- Contain positive feedback for those more sensitive to failure and eager to improve
- Contain funny and/or popular characters or stories, even slapstick humour and hyperbole
- Contain positive role-modelling
- Utilise badges, collecting characters, unlocking levels or other age-appropriate incentives
- Relate to early education, like language development, early literacy and basic maths
Apps may not be suitable for this age if they:
- Include themes, colours, characters or music meant for very young children
- Feature stereotypical or unrealistic messages about bodies, including characters or activities that emphasise appearance (for example, makeover games)
- Include demeaning, objectifying or sexualised representations of characters or relationships
- Depict realistic aggression, violence or injury (including current events)
- Include a search feature
Ages 9–12
- Require logic or spatial problem solving, but not necessarily deductive reasoning and abstract thinking (which may still be too hard)
- Support academic subjects commonly taught at this age
- Include opportunities for creative self-expression and personalisation (but with limited, supervised sharing features)
- Contain less sophisticated humour, themes, characters or tasks
- Rely on gameplay that's too monotonous or simple
- Include demeaning, objectifying or sexualised representations of characters or relationships
- Include swearing or profanity
- Feature stereotypical or unrealistic messages about bodies, including characters or activities that emphasise appearance (for example, makeover games)
- Depict inappropriate behaviour such as realistic aggression, violence or injury (including current events)
- Allow opportunity for direct interaction between users
Ages 13-15
- Contain more sophisticated storylines, characters, humour, challenges or game mechanics
- Support academic subjects commonly taught at this age
- Contain age-appropriate social features and plug-ins
- Contain age-appropriate information about identity, self-perception and adolescence
Apps may not be suitable for this age if they:
- Glamourise violent, stereotypical, demeaning, objectifying or highly sexualised representations of characters or relationships
- Encourage risky behaviour such as challenges that could result in physical injury
Ages 16–17
- Support academic subjects commonly taught at this age
- Contain popular characters and subjects for teens
- Include elements of more complex problem solving
- Contain age-appropriate social features and plug-ins
- Help express emotions in a positive way
Apps may not be suitable for this age if they:
- Depict extreme violence, or sexual or domestic violence
- Have addictive elements
- Have high spend thresholds
Ages 18 and over
Personal information
Any collection of personal and sensitive information from children, such as name or email address, must be disclosed and should be collected with parental consent, if required. We advise you to take time to thoroughly consider, research and understand how any SDKs or APIs used in your app may collect user data. Reading through any documentation for these SDKs or APIs is a good starting point. Remember that any data exfiltrated from your app is your responsibility. Please also consult Play’s user data policy and applicable legal regulations in your target country for more guidance.
Neutral age screen
A neutral age screen is a mechanism to verify a user's age in a way that doesn't encourage them to falsify their age and gain access to areas of your app that aren't designed for children, for example, an age gate. An example of this would be a system that asks users to freely enter their day, month and year of birth. An incorrect setup of a neutral age screen would be presetting the birth date to the required age (for example, 13 years old) or indicating that a certain age is required to access areas of the app. Additional guidance on age screens may be found on the FTC website.
If your app's target age groups include both children and older audiences, any ads that may be shown to children must comply with Google Play's Families Self-Certified Ads SDK Programme. A neutral age screen must be implemented so that any ads not suitable for children are only shown to older audiences.
For apps whose target audience is solely children, all ads must come from a self-certified ad SDK.
Apps with an unintentional appeal to children
We want to make sure that apps with a content rating below That are not designed for children don't inadvertently attract them.
If your app is not designed for children but your listing contains marketing elements that may appeal to them (such as youthful animation or young characters in the graphic assets), choose Yes.
If your app is not designed for children and you believe that your store listing does not contain any marketing elements that may appeal to children, OR if you’re unsure, select No.
How to display the 'Not designed for children' label
- Open Play Console and go to the App content page (Policy > App content).
- In 'Target audience and content', click Start or Manage.
- In the 'Target age group' section, select non-children age group(s), considered the 13 and over categories.
- In the 'Store presence' section, next to the 'Appeal to children' question, select Yes.
Note that even if you selected No, Google may disagree. If that happens, you'll have the following options:
- Remove any marketing elements in your store listing that may appeal to children, including those that have been identified by our review team.
- Select Yes instead, so that the 'Not designed for children' banner can appear in your store listing.
- Change the target age group(s) of your app to include children (which will require complying with the Google Play Families policy).