But no official support yet from Apple or Google.
The proposed system was reported last week but will be formally launched today in Washington by US Senators Kelly Ayotte and Mark Pryor, CTIA CEO Steve Largent; and ESRB president Patricia Vance.
It will publish ratings for violence and sexual content on a five-point scale from “everyone” to “adults only.”
The system will be voluntary and operated by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, which has run similar ratings for computer and video games in the US since 1994.
Reaction will be mixed to such an initiative. In one sense, as a voluntary in-house initiative, it will head off any statutory action. But it will also be carefully scrutinised to see how workable it is.
With hundreds of thousands of apps in the market, and a huge number made by 'bedroom' developers, one wonders how easy it would be to get buy in from developers and properly monitor the output.
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Under the CTIA programme, developers will answer online questions about content, social networking features and the sharing of user location data. Once the questionnaire is completed, the app will receive its rating in seconds.
Participating in the new ratings system are Microsoft., AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA, Sprint Nextel and U.S. Cellular.
Neither Google or Apple is on-board.
Both would no doubt insist that their own approvals systems do the job perfectly well thank you very much. Indeed Apple is often accused of being too heavy headed.
Christopher Katsaros, a Google spokesman, said: “We’ve put a lot of effort into Android Market’s rating system, which now works well globally.
“While we support other systems, we think it’s best for Android users and developers to stick with Android’s existing ratings.”
Apple has not commented.
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