Even Garage Sale Apps are Rated Mature
Monday, August 24, 2009 at 9:01AM 
These are crazy app approval days we're living in. Today's exhibit: iGarageSale has earned the 17+ mature rating from Apple's app review process.
I've been to a lot of yard sales in my day, and aside from the occasional risque board game, I've never seen anything I would rate as 17+, although that's just what's happened to iGarageSale (review coming soon), an app that brings together multiple sources of sales, and shows the sales nearest to you.
Aaron Kardell, the developer of the app has a blog entry explaining this most recent odd rating decision:
When we originally submitted iGarageSale to Apple, we used a questionnaire provided by Apple to determine the rating. We came up with a 12+ rating, citing Infrequent Mature/Suggestive Themes and Infrequent Profanity/Crude Humor. Understand, though, that we were doing this to err on the safe side. We have yet to see a garage sale listing with profanity, crude humor, or mature/suggestive themes. However, it could happen and likely will at some point, so we thought a rating of Infrequent Profanity, etc. / 12+ would be safe.
Nine days after submitting our first copy of the app to Apple, we received a rejection notice by e-mail. The rejection notice stated: “iGarageSale 1.0 allows unfiltered access to Craigslist, which include frequent mature or suggestive themes.
Kardell goes on to cite the concern that this rating will negatively affect the perception of the app:
On the one hand, Apple accurately determined that it is possible to get to a search box for all of craigslist within the iGarageSale app. This seems to miss the point, though. The primary purpose of the app is to browse and search garage sales, and it takes a considerably more effort to get to a search box for all of craigslist, than it would to simply open up Safari and browse to craigslist.org.
What can be done? Yes, Apple has a right to "protect" their users from objectionable content, but when the content that can be accessed can be accessed just as easily using an app Apple has included (Safari) how is anyone "protected" from the material.
Tomorrow, we'll tackle some of the possible solutions, and we'd love to hear yours in the comments below.
Reader Comments (6)
The U.S. ratings are a mystery to us Europeans. You guys rate something 17+ if there is a glimpse of a nipple to be seen but an arsenal of weapons and bloody slaughter barely gets a 12+.
What's all the fuss about? So it gets a 17+ - who cares? Does anyone really check those ratings when installing stuff?
They need to be consistent. If you can reach a site with Safari, why would it matter if an app allows you access? Unless the rating is just a sneaky way to keep people from using a "safari competitor".....
I would like to check with other comprable apps to see if they have been given the same rating as well. Also nobody under 16 is going to be driving to a garage sale anyway so it is rather irrelevant.
You're all missing the point. The iPhone has parental controls built in -- they reside in the "Settings" app. Parents have the option of disabling Safari all together, and disabling apps based on the app rating. It doesn't take the sense of a billygoat to understand that if a parent has switched off access to Safari, kids could (I emphasize 'could') still find a gateway to the internet by using an app. If, however, that responsible parent has disabled Safari AND disabled any apps that carry a 17+ rating, the child is blocked (erm... protected) from the wild wild web.
Stop bashing Apple and try to put yourselves in their shoes.
Actually, I have an odd question about the App.
It sounds like the App just scrapes craigslist for garage sales and, maybe combined with the GPS, shows you garage sales close to where you are.
So why not do this with a web app? Then you don't have to worry about ratings or whatever.
@Garage Sale and @Bryman
My main issue is not the 17+ issue - although I do think when you look at some of the apps in the store with 4+ or 12+ ratings, it's overly conservative. My main issue is that the app has labels like "Frequent/Intense Mature/Suggestive Themes". This is misleading and confusing to potential customers. A better label like "Unfiltered Internet Access" that had a fuller explanation would help.
@Peter
The app makes use of the native maps implementation among other things on the iPhone, and usability would be severely diminished if it were delivered as a web app.