Apparently in response to user demand the Android Market is to start displaying content ratings on all mobile applications in a few weeks time, and there will be an option of 4 content rates, All, Pre-teen, Ten and Mature.
According to an article over on Mashable by Jennifer Van Grove, and by way of Android-developers Blog this new app rating system means all Android developers updating app or submitting new apps will have to include a rating as stated in the Android Market guidelines.
Although developers have the option to set their own app rating, the Android team reserve the right to re-rate any app if a user flags the app as incorrectly rated.
Apparently according to Eric Chu of the Android Developer Ecosystem, if a developer ignores the content rating request their app will be treated as a “Mature” app by default when made visible to users.
So what do Android users think about this new content rating system, good thing or bad thing? Does the Android Market really need a rating system as surely even though an app may be rated “Mature” it doesn’t stop younger people from downloading the app anyway so what good do ratings really do?