Four-year-olds ‘exploited' by tech giants' app store age ratings
The recommended app store ages for some of the most popular apps, such as Candy Crush Saga, Whiteout Survival and Toca Boca World, are much younger than the limits set by developers in the terms and conditions. This leads to young children being left in the 'firing line' of in-app purchases, targeted advertising and data processing, campaigners say.
The Good Law Project and 5Rights, a charity protecting children's digital rights, have filed a legal complaint with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) over the issue.
Candy Crush Saga, which has 275 million monthly users, has an age rating of 4+ on Apple and 3 on Google, but its terms and conditions say players have to be at least 13. For Toca Boca World, which has 60 million monthly users, the ages are 4+ on Apple and 3 on Google but the terms and conditions say under-18s need parental consent. Whiteout Survival, which has 10 million monthly users, is rated 4+ on Apple and 7 on Google but its policies set a minimum age of 13 and under-18s need parental consent.
All these games are free to download but generate revenue from in-app purchases, as well as data processing and advertising. Apple and Google can take up to 30 per cent of this revenue.
The disparity is created by the app stores rating on content of the games but developers state ages based on data-processing laws.
Of the top 500 apps by in-app revenue, 45 per cent display a lower age rating in the app store than terms and conditions and 74 per cent have a lower app-store age than the privacy policy, the complaint says.
Duncan McCann, Good Law Project's tech and data policy lead, said: 'These tech giants are refusing to do the right thing and act, simply because it is so lucrative not to do so.'
Leanda Barrington-Leach, executive director of 5Rights, said: 'It is unfathomable how Apple and Google can so blatantly mislead consumers.'
The CMA is investigating whether Apple and Google have 'strategic market status'. If the regulator finds that they do, it can impose conduct requirements on them.
Apple said: 'We are committed to protecting user privacy and security and providing a safe experience for children.'
Google said: 'Google Play does not control app ratings — these are the responsibility of the app developers and the International Age Rating Coalition. Ratings in Europe (including the United Kingdom) are maintained by Pan European Game Information.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
27 minutes ago
- BBC News
Norwich Castle fully reopens after years of restoration work
A medieval castle keep is to reopen to the public after five years of restoration and building revamp of Norwich Castle, which will be unveiled on Thursday, has included restoring original floor levels in the Grade I listed keep, re-creating the great hall, and creating step-free access from the basement to the rooftop began in 2020 but there were delays caused by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Workers also uncovered hidden Norman and Victorian features that had to be preserved, meaning the reopening date was pushed back Royal Palace Reborn project has cost £27.5m, about £7.5m more than the original estimate. A documentary about the overhaul has been premiered in Norwich this Channel 4 film, being screened at Cinema City, is narrated by Sir Stephen Fry and follows the highs and lows of the work at the 900-year-old Pestell, the museum's archaeology curator, said that watching it "does remind you of all of the stages that you go through". He added: "You live so much in the moment trying to solve the latest problems and get things done that you forget all of the things that you've achieved in the past."It's been really interesting looking at those various stages again."When you look back, these are just some of the challenges that you overcome." The Castle: Rebuilding History was created by Norwich production firm Eye Film, which spent years with the restoration director Charlie Gauvin said: "The renovation of Norwich Castle marks a landmark chapter in the city's history."What started out as a passion project for Eye Film will now reach audiences worldwide."This documentary captures the scale and ambition of the transformation, while offering an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at the challenges along the way." The show will air on Channel 4 on 24 will be public screenings at Cinema City until 23 August and at Abbeygate Cinema in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, on 12 August. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Telegraph
27 minutes ago
- Telegraph
This company could be key to cashing in on AI
Questor is The Telegraph's stock-picking column, helping you decode the markets and offering insights on where to invest The importance of data has come to the fore once again with the rise in AI and the rapid growth of its applications across our professional and personal lives. Equally as important is the infrastructure that facilitates the processing and dissemination of data, and digital infrastructure has been a sector of growing relevance and excitement in recent years. Investors have been attracted by the combination of growth opportunities as the demand for data services is projected to expand over the coming decades, and the reliable income – often inflation-linked – that the assets typically generate. Following recent equity market turbulence, we have seen a renewed investor interest in the more defensive characteristics of infrastructure investing, especially given the M&A transactions to have been announced across the London-listed infrastructure investment company universe so far during 2025. This serves to highlight the ongoing disconnect between private and public market valuations. One way to access this secular growth theme is through Cordiant Digital Infrastructure, the first London-listed digital infrastructure specialist investment company that launched in early 2021. The strategy provides investors with exposure to assets underpinning the digital economy, including data centres, mobile telecommunications and broadcast towers, and fibre-optic networks. While these might not be the most glamorous businesses on first inspection, they are increasingly critical as societies and economies digitise – and assets can benefit from the combination of national strategic importance and barriers to introducing competing assets. The strategy is global, but the portfolio is centred around two key businesses in Central Europe, namely Emitel, the dominant broadcast and telecom infrastructure provider in Poland, and České Radiokomunikace (CRA), a leading Czech Republic operator with a blend of towers, fibre and expanding data centre capacity. Together, these two investments accounted for around 83pc of Cordiant's portfolio as at March 31 2025, and both benefit from highly visible contracted revenues, often inflation-linked. This helps to offset concerns an investor might have around portfolio concentration, particularly given the diversified nature of each of the two businesses and the number of underlying infrastructure assets each company owns. Cordiant is managed by a specialist investment manager, with the core team comprising a mix of former industry executives and private market investing specialists, following the team's 'Buy, Build & Grow' strategy. The team has proved its abilities in driving both organic and inorganic growth at Cordiant's portfolio companies, with Emitel and CRA having delivered robust revenue and EBITDA growth since acquisition. Indeed, CRA's growth has accelerated under Cordiant's ownership, and the data centre and cloud business services expansions that are under way offer the potential for value growth as the business segments develop further. Other portfolio companies include Irish fibre infrastructure platform Speed Fibre, New York data centre business Hudson, Belgian data centre business Datacenter United, and Belgian towers business BTC – collectively representing circa 17pc of the portfolio by value. These investments have helped to increase diversification across the portfolio, but the investment case remains dominated by the Central European businesses, for now. Alongside the growth opportunities embedded within the portfolio, income remains a central part of Cordiant's investment case. The company follows a progressive dividend policy, with dividends of 4.35p declared in respect of the year to March 31 2025, up 3.6pc on the previous year and more than fully covered. Additionally, the cash-generative nature of the portfolio and contractual, often inflation-linked, nature of the revenues should pave the way for further dividend growth over the coming years. In seeking to address questions around capital allocation and persistent share price discounts, the fully independent board allocated up to £20m to share buybacks in early 2023, which has been executed sporadically, the last occasion being July 2025. Nonetheless, the shares have staged a significant recovery since trading around 62p in early 2024, to above 90p since late May 2025. We would also highlight that, while the company has not been as active with share buybacks as some other listed infrastructure investment companies, the board and manager have been very active in acquiring shares – creating strong alignment with shareholders – with aggregate insider ownership of approximately 2pc of the company. Indeed, management fees are based on market capitalisation rather than net asset value, creating further incentive for the manager to narrow the share price discount to NAV. Similarly, the performance fee is based on the lower of NAV or share price total returns. The company is relatively conservative with its approach to use of debt, with consolidated net gearing representing approximately 40pc of gross asset value, and net leverage a 4.5x multiple of portfolio EBITDA, with limited refinancing risk until 2029. Similarly, the portfolio's valuation is undemanding when contrasted against listed comparables. This adds another layer of value beyond the share price discount. Questor last tipped Cordiant in mid-September when the company was trading around 81p. Since that time the NAV per share has grown (to 129.6p at March 31 2025 from 120.1p a year earlier), mirroring the growth of the underlying portfolio, and the discount has narrowed. However, the shares still sit on a double-digit discount of around 25pc and offer a dividend yield of 4.5pc. For investors who can stomach the portfolio's concentration, Cordiant offers an attractive combination of potential growth in both capital and income, with multiple layers of value, and a manager that is highly incentivised to narrow the share price discount further.
The Guardian
27 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘Sometimes I overshare': Adam Buxton on fear, fun, finance – and falling out with friends
On a muggy summer day, Adam Buxton is talking me through the songs on his debut album, Buckle Up. 'There's one on there called Standing Still,' he says, 'which was written when I was feeling absolutely bleak and lost and is about opening a packet of pasta when all the pasta spills. I thought: 'You can get a joke in there about being a fusilli billy and maybe that will distract a bit from the more earnest and pain-laden lyrics about how, every morning, I drink a cup of tea and it helps me with all the thoughts I have to smother.'' What are these thoughts? 'I get overwhelmed by the world and, the worse the news gets, the harder it bites,' he says. 'I get existential fear and I think I should go and join Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and work with them. But then, is that really the best use of my talents? My wife is like: 'Please don't join MSF. It's really helpful to have you around here. And, also, I think you're good at doing your podcast and that helps people.'' Buxton, 56, cuts a pensive figure as he strokes his grey-streaked beard. He has travelled to the Guardian's London offices from his home in Norfolk, where he lives with Sarah, their three children and their dog Rosie, who regularly features on his podcast. The Adam Buxton Show began in 2015, the year that his longstanding comedy partner, Joe Cornish, went off to make movies. During Covid, at a time when people were more isolated and atomised than ever, Buxton's gentle, affable chat won a vast and loyal fanbase. Conversation is important to Buxton. He was raised in west London by his journalist father, Nigel, who was travel editor of the Sunday Telegraph, and Chilean mother, Valerie. He has described his dad as 'gruff, pompous, conservative and harshly critical of nearly everything I enjoyed as a youngster and beyond', while his mum was his 'ally', someone who squared up to his father and encouraged Buxton's love of music and eventual TV and comedy career. 'Watching my parents, the problem was they didn't talk enough,' he says. 'Stubbornness, pride and hurt feelings prevented them. It's probably why I feel it's ultimately a good thing to talk more rather than less … Sometimes I feel I overshare and sometimes I can hear my dad or even my mum going, 'It's too much – say less.'' Buxton's readiness to talk about his own life encourages his podcast guests to let their guard down. His friend Louis Theroux opened up about his drinking problems, admitting that during the pandemic he would regularly be parenting his three sons hungover. 'I did sometimes wonder if you could do the job drunk,' he told Buxton. 'Maybe that's controversial, but I'm going to say yes.' Singer Pauline Black talked about performing in front of skinheads who were on speed in the 1970s and constantly fearing racist violence. Zadie Smith reflected on the 'death terror' that inspires her. How does Buxton approach such a wide range of guests? 'I'm always just looking for a moment of genuine connection,' he says. The guests aren't all celebrities. The Syrian refugee Hassan Akkad described being detained and tortured by the police for attending a protest, then paying smugglers to take him on a dinghy from Turkey to Greece. Once the overfilled boat began to sink, he swam for seven hours to make it to Lesbos. 'It's valuable for people to be able to talk to each other about complicated things,' Buxton says. 'I grew up in a house with parents who I didn't agree with politically, but that didn't stop me loving them. The problem now is that people are very prepared to think the worst of anyone. That seems to be the default position, to read the most bad-faith version of whatever's going on in the situation.' Over the past few years, for the first time, he's had some permanent fallings out with friends over politics. 'It was really shocking when it happened, because I sat down with them and tried to get past it,' he says. ''Surely we can talk about it?' I said. 'We've got too much in common.' And it was so upsetting and frightening when it was apparent that we couldn't. It completely threw me for a loop for a while.' He has written two memoirs: Ramble Book, published in 2020, about his life in the 1980s and the death of his father in 2015; and 2025's I Love You, Byeee, which covers his TV career in the 1990s and the death of his mother in 2020. He spent nine months caring for his father after he was diagnosed with cancer. 'Before he moved in, I'd imagined conversations filled with tender reminiscences, confessions and closure,' he writes. 'In the end, we were just two uptight men who found it easier to be on our own.' His mother's death felt more sudden, despite her health deteriorating over a number of years. 'The ones who really love you, you end up taking for granted,' he told Cornish in a podcast episode recorded a few months later. 'I just had it in my head that we were going to have another chapter and she would be with us. I was totally sideswiped by her death.' Hearing him grapple with his bereavement has helped me with my own grief over the death of my mother. At the end of I Love You, Byeee, he thanks his mother for loving him and apologises for not taking the time to talk to her more about her life. It's a regret I've often had myself, holding on to questions that will now never be answered, and there is a comfort in hearing that expressed by someone else. How is he coping now? 'I feel as if I've really been in the hole with grief for ages, looking through photos, thinking about it, talking to relatives, maybe spending too much time there and not moving on sufficiently,' he says. 'I really miss them and that doesn't go away. I'm surprised how much that doesn't go away.' He is still haunted by one song that reminds him of his mother, Randy Crawford's One Day I'll Fly Away. 'I listened to that song the night after she died, since it's one of her favourites, but this time I suddenly heard such darkness in it,' he says. 'She sings, 'I follow the night / Can't stand the light / When will I begin / My life again?' and it made me think of where my mum might be and I began to feel so fearful. There's grief and then there's fear and the fear is worse.' Buxton went to the fee-paying Westminster school in London, which is where he became friends with Theroux and Cornish. It was while studying at Cheltenham College of Art that he began tinkering with the self-filmed sketches he sent to the Channel 4 show Takedown TV, and which formed the basis for the Adam and Joe Show. This began in 1996, and included everything from a toy-themed recreation of The English Patient, to Buxton's father being filmed as he explored the nightclubs of Ibiza. At a time when shows such as Spitting Image and Brass Eye were skewering politicians and celebrities, Buxton and Cornish preferred to make fun of themselves. The show was axed after four series, and the pair went on to work together on the radio. With the 30th anniversary of the Adam and Joe Show coming up, does he think they will ever make another TV series? 'Never say never, but it would be quite weird,' he says. 'Over the years, we've discovered the podcast is a good medium for us because we know how we fit together in that world. We do the Christmas podcast together every year and I don't think that's going to stop anytime soon.' With a new celebrity-fronted interview podcast seemingly popping up every week, does he worry about the future of his show? 'I don't think about it really,' he says. 'I'm not on social media, I don't check numbers and I gauge it by whether I'm still getting sponsors. I do sometimes think, if the sponsors went away and it wasn't financially worthwhile, would I still do it? And I think I would. It is fun. I'll probably only stop when Rosie dies.' From 2007 to 2009, he co-hosted a BBC Radio 6 Music show with Cornish, which included jokey radio jingles. He sees his album as a natural progression for this musical tinkering – a selection of 'proper music' with a funny edge, written by him over five years and produced by Joe Mount of indie group Metronomy. The 15 tracks span everything, from fast-paced electropop about sitting on the moral fence (Dancing in the Middle) to 1970s Brazilian bossa about drying the dishes (Tea Towel), Dylanesque folk singing about differing musical tastes (Skip This Track) and thundering jungle breakbeats for a love letter to wearing shorts (Shorts). This solo project puts him centre stage, but he is still keen to work with others. 'I like anything where it's collegiate and you have an experience with people,' he says. 'That's why I always wanted to go into the [I'm A Celebrity] jungle. Now I do get offers to go in there but I think I'm too old. I don't know if I could hack it physically.' What if they offered you a million pounds? 'It's not about the money, man – it's about the experience,' he laughs. 'I'd do it for free if the right people were in there.' He's also keen to act more: in 2007, he was cast in Edgar Wright's romp Hot Fuzz, where he played a local journalist who meets a grisly end. 'I'm hoping I might be entering my more castable years as an older man. It might be easier to slot me into a few creepy old guy roles. That's the dream: get a part on a show that ends up doing really well. You just show up, you don't have to write it and you don't have to worry about it, just hang out with talented people. That would be really good.' Adam Buxton's new single Doing It Wrong is out on Decca. His album Buckle Up is released on 12 September
