Parent Guide to Google Play
Google Play now makes it easy to find and enjoy family-friendly content for your entire family. To help you get started, explore the topics below.
Spot family-friendly content
The star badge tells you the audience the content was designed for:
- Family-friendly: Both kids and adults
- Age: Kids of a specific age between 0-12
Note: The way star badges are assigned works differently across content types.
Browse the Family section
- Open the Play Store app on your device
.
- Touch Apps, Games, Movies & TV, or Books.
- Touch the button with the star icon
. This may say Family or Children's Books.
- From here, you can also browse content by age, family categories, or popular characters.
.
. This may say Family or Children's Books.The search results in these sections are automatically filtered so you only see family-friendly content. To see unfiltered results, touch See all results.
Prevent accidental or unwanted purchases
Apps and games that include in-app purchases have an "In-app purchases" label under the Buy or Install button.
For apps and games that are labeled for ages 0-12 on the star badge, a password is required for in-app purchases, even if you don't usually require one.
To help prevent accidental or unwanted purchases across Google Play, turn on password protection.
Ads in Family apps
Some apps and games in the Family section show ads inside the app. When the developer tells us they've included sponsored ads in their app, you'll see an "Ad-supported family app" label under the Buy or Install button.
Ads are expected to be consistent with the content rating of the app or game. However, Google doesn't control the content of all the ads that you see.
If you have a bad experience with spammy, deceptive, or inappropriate ads, let us know.
Note: The "Ad-supported family app" label lets you know when you may see paid advertising in an app. However, this doesn't always take into account other kinds of commercial content, like promotions for in-app products, or recommendations for a developer's other apps.
Check an app's privacy policy
All apps and games that have a star badge have to include a link to their privacy policy at the bottom of the app details page.
We recommend that you review the privacy policy before downloading the app to learn how the app collects and uses personal information.
Content ratings & parental controls
If you share your device with children in your family, we recommend that you set up parental controls to block downloads or purchases of content in Google Play by maturity level.
When you're searching, you may see some mature content. However, parental controls will prevent anyone from downloading or purchasing it.
Report a problem
We do our best to make sure any content with a family star meets a high standard for quality and age appropriateness.
If you find inappropriate content, let us know.
Shana is a Google Play expert and author of this help page. Help her improve this article by leaving feedback below.