Marco.org

(photo from Macworld: App Store rating system)

This is the dialog that will show for all “17+” unfiltered-internet apps.

What bothers me is the wording:

This product contains material that may be objectionable to children under 17.

When this displays for Instapaper Free and Pro 2.1, and every other unfiltered-internet app updated after last week, it’s incorrect. The product doesn’t “contain” objectionable material any more than Safari does. But they need to use the same message for us that Grand Theft Auto would get because they don’t have a rating category to distinguish us.

The only responsible solution is to make an “Unfiltered internet content” rating category, and display a separate version of this message if that’s the reason why it’s rated 17+, such as:

This product is capable of showing unfiltered internet content that may be objectionable to children under 17.

And use a similar notification on the App Store page for the app instead of “Frequent/Intense Mature/Suggestive Themes.”

I’d have absolutely no problem with that.

And it’s more useful to parents, too. Many parents don’t want their kids playing games that contain objectionable content, but they trust their kids to be able to responsibly use applications that could show such content but usually don’t, or don’t unless the kid tries to find such content themselves (like a web browser).