← Crosswalk explorer
Apple App Store Kids Category ↔ Google Play Families
7 canonical controls in Keel’s library satisfy clauses of both Apple App Store Kids Category and Google Play Families. Implement each once, attach the evidence once, and it counts toward each standard. The overlap is the work you don’t repeat.
7 shared controls
Apple App Store Kids Category · App Review Guidelines + “Design safe and age-appropriate experiences”, retrieved 2026-08-13: 8 in library
Google Play Families · Families Policies, retrieved 2026-08-13: 9 in library
Controls that satisfy both
| Canonical control | Apple App Store Kids Category clauses | Google Play Families clauses |
|---|---|---|
|
Children’s online privacy programme
A documented assessment of whether the service is directed to children under 13 or has a mixed audience, which operators collect through it, and the notice, consent, parental-rights, minimisation, security and retention duties that follow. Where the app ships through an app store, the same assessment carries that store’s audience determination — note Amazon treats under 16 as a child in the EU, Australia and Japan, so the age band recorded must be the widest one that applies.
|
1.3/childrens-privacy-law | families/console/target-audience, families/requirements/legal-compliance |
|
Children’s privacy notice (direct & online)
Direct notices to parents for each circumstance that triggers one, and a prominent online children’s privacy notice carrying the operator details, collection, use, disclosure and retention information the rule requires. The same notice work satisfies the app stores’ requirements to publish a privacy policy and to disclose everything collected from children, including through SDKs.
|
5.1.1(i), 5.1.4(b) | families/requirements/data-disclosure |
|
Minimised collection in children’s activities
Games, prize offerings and other activities aimed at children are reviewed so participation is never conditioned on disclosing more personal information than the activity reasonably needs, and the technical identifiers and location signals the app stores prohibit in children’s apps are neither collected nor transmitted.
|
1.3/no-third-party-transfer | families/requirements/child-only-identifiers, families/requirements/ad-id-permission, families/requirements/mixed-identifiers, families/requirements/phone-number, families/requirements/child-only-location, families/requirements/bluetooth-cdm |
|
App-store audience declarations & metadata
The age and audience declarations made in each app store’s console, and the store-listing metadata, are accurate, kept current when the app changes, and consistent with how the app is actually built and marketed — including the data-safety and content-rating answers the store enforces against.
|
2.3.8/for-kids-metadata | families/console/accurate-answers, families/social/rating-disclosure |
|
Child-appropriate experience & parental gates
Everything a child can reach in the app is age-appropriate, and links out of the app, purchasing opportunities and other adult-facing paths sit behind a parental gate or an equivalent barrier. Covers the store rules on content suitability, thin webview wrappers, augmented-reality safety warnings, and requirements that persist after a kids category is deselected.
|
1.3/parental-gate, 1.3/persisting-requirements | families/requirements/app-content, families/requirements/app-functionality, families/requirements/ar-safety-warning, families/requirements/ar-device |
|
Children’s advertising & monetisation controls
Ads and monetisation reaching children or users of unknown age come only from sources the store permits, carry no interest-based targeting or remarketing, present age-appropriate creative, and follow the store’s format rules on ad walls, closeability, launch interstitials, multiple placements and virtual currency. Note the stores differ sharply here: Amazon bars its own advertising and affiliate programmes outright and parental consent does not lift that, while Google permits certified SDKs and Apple permits contextual advertising only from vendors with published kids policies including human creative review.
|
1.3/third-party-advertising, 5.1.4(a)/no-third-party-analytics-advertising | families/ads/certified-sdk-only, families/ads/no-interest-based-or-remarketing, families/ads/child-appropriate-content, families/ads/legal-and-industry-standards, families/ads-format/no-deceptive-or-inadvertent-clicks, families/ads-format/no-ad-walls, families/ads-format/closeable-after-5-seconds, families/ads-format/no-launch-interstitial, families/ads-format/no-multiple-placements, families/ads-format/distinguishable-from-content, families/ads-format/no-manipulative-tactics, families/ads-format/no-forced-click-through, families/ads-format/virtual-currency-distinction |
|
Third-party SDK & API governance for children’s apps
Every third-party SDK and API in a child-directed app is inventoried with what it collects and transmits, checked against terms that permit child-directed use, and either confirmed suitable for children or gated so it collects nothing from them. This is one inventory that answers Apple’s analytics limits, Google’s approved-SDK rules, Amazon’s child-suitability test and COPPA’s diligence duty at once.
|
1.3/third-party-analytics | families/requirements/child-only-sdk, families/requirements/mixed-sdk, families/requirements/mixed-sdk-gating |
Clause identifiers (Apple App Store Kids Category and Google Play Families) are referenced factually for mapping. Keel is not affiliated with or endorsed by the bodies that publish these standards. Control descriptions are Keel’s own; a framework’s full authored control count is on its framework page.
Why this is one project, not two
On a crosswalk-native model, Google Play Families mostly lights up controls you already built for Apple App Store Kids Category. You’re not re-uploading the same screenshot for a second audit. You apply the framework and see the genuine delta worth working. That’s the whole idea behind collect once, comply everywhere.