Apple and Google: Stop showing kids inappropriate ads!
Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai
Kids as young as 4 are getting targeted with wildly inappropriate ads in apps downloaded from Apple and Google. Parents have reported ads for 17+ rated content, like immersive sex games, gambling, and zombie-killing apps, showing up in apps for children—even a coloring game for 4 year olds.
Apple and Google say that ads in third-party apps aren’t their responsibility, but that’s ridiculous. They provide the platforms for these apps and can ensure the content is appropriate. As giant companies that make billions a year from advertising, they also have the power and the responsibility to fix this problem.
Parents should be able to trust that a game for kids won’t have R-rated content in them anywhere. As one shocked mom wrote on an Apple message board, you wouldn’t expect a movie theater to show toddlers ads for 50 Shades of Grey.
Tell Apple and Google to mend their broken ads system and protect children now.
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To:
Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai
From:
[Your Name]
Dear Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai,
By failing to ensure that apps downloaded from your platforms’ only show age appropriate adverts, you are exposing children as young as 4 to wildly inappropriate content—including ads for immersive sex games, gambling, and 17+ rated horror apps.
This is completely unacceptable. Your companies make billions of dollars a year from advertising. You have the power and the responsibility to fix this broken system.
We call on you to take immediate steps to ensure that all ads shown in apps from your platform are age-appropriate, and to expel all apps from your platforms that do not comply. Parents should be able to trust that a game for kids won’t have R-rated content in them anywhere. It is on you to step up, enforce your own guidelines and protect kids now.