What Is the App Store Kids Category? What It Guarantees (and What It Doesn't)

When you search the App Store for a kids’ coloring app, it’s reasonable to assume a “kids” label means Apple has vetted it. Apple does have a dedicated set of rules for apps that target young users, called the Kids Category, and they’re stricter than for ordinary apps. But the rules are narrower than many parents assume, and knowing exactly what they cover tells you where you still need to check for yourself.

What Apple’s Guidelines Actually Say

The Kids Category rules come from Apple’s App Store Review Guidelines, mainly section 1.3 (Kids Category) and section 5.1.4 (Kids privacy). In summary:

• No distractions, links or purchases outside a parental gate. Kids Category apps must not include links out of the app, purchasing opportunities or other distractions for children, unless they’re in a designated area behind a parental gate.
• No third-party analytics or advertising, with limited exceptions. Apps shouldn’t send personally identifiable information or device information to third parties. Limited third-party analytics may be allowed if the service doesn’t collect the advertising identifier (IDFA) or identifiable information about children, doesn’t collect location or device information, and doesn’t use data that could identify users or their devices. Limited contextual advertising may be allowed if the service has publicly documented practices for Kids Category apps and humans review ad creatives for age appropriateness.
• Compliance with children’s privacy law. Apps must follow rules like COPPA and the EU’s GDPR. An app may ask for a birthdate and parental contact information only to comply with those laws, and must offer useful functionality or entertainment regardless of age.
• A privacy policy. Apps in the category, or that collect personal information from minors, must include one.
• Reserved wording. Terms like “For Kids” and “For Children” in app metadata are reserved for the Kids Category. Apps outside it can’t use wording in the name, subtitle, icon, screenshots or description that implies children are the main audience.
• The rules stick. Once customers expect an app to follow Kids Category requirements, it has to keep meeting them in later updates, even if the developer deselects the category.

You can read the full text yourself in Apple’s App Store Review Guidelines.

What the Rules Cover Well

Read together, these rules address the risks parents worry about most: ads that follow a child around, data leaking to third parties, and purchase or link screens a young child can wander into. If an app is genuinely following them, it’s a meaningfully safer starting point than an app with no such obligations. They line up closely with topics we cover elsewhere, including why ad-free is harder to verify than it sounds, what data kids’ coloring apps collect and why coloring apps need a parental gate.

What the Rules Don’t Guarantee

• Quality. Nothing here says the artwork is good, the interface suits a four-year-old, or the app is calm rather than stuffed with reward mechanics. Our BCA Score covers those things.
• A generous free tier. Purchases are allowed, they just belong behind a gate. An app can be fully compliant and still lock almost everything behind a subscription; see what coloring app subscriptions really cost.
• Perfect enforcement. Rules on paper aren’t the same as behavior in practice. Industry research we cite in our guide on kids’ app data found the large majority of child-directed apps reviewed failed to obtain verifiable parental consent. Apple’s guidelines are a floor, not proof that every app clears it.
• That every kids’ app is in the category. Developers choose it, and listings vary. We can’t verify an individual app’s enrollment from its store page, so we don’t treat it as a stand-in for testing.
• Everything about safety. The rules address ads, data, links and purchases. They don’t cover accessibility, screen time, eye strain, or sleep; see our guides on time limits, eyes and bedtime.

How to Check an App Yourself

1. Read the App Privacy section on the store page. “Data Not Collected” is a strong signal, but as we note in how to choose a safe coloring app, it’s a developer-supplied label.
2. Try to reach the purchase screen. Tap any lock or upgrade icon. If a parental gate stands in front of it, that matches what the Kids Category rules ask for; if you land straight on prices, the gate is missing.
3. Look for links out of the app, such as social buttons, “rate us” prompts that open a browser, or other-app promotions, and check whether they’re behind a gate.
4. Use the app for a session and note any ads, pop-ups or interruptions.
5. Check the permissions the app asks for, using our permissions red-flag checklist.
6. Set device-level protections regardless: turn off in-app purchases and use Screen Time. New age-verification laws add account-level protections but don’t replace any of this.

Our Take

The Kids Category is also separate from the age rating shown on a listing, which describes content and still allows advertising at 4+; see what 4+ means on a coloring app.

The Kids Category is one of the more useful protections Apple offers, and it’s worth knowing what it covers: ads, analytics, data, links and purchases behind a gate. It doesn’t tell you whether an app is good, calm or fairly priced, and it isn’t proof that a given app follows the rules. Treat it as a reasonable starting signal, then check the gate, the ads and the paywall yourself. That’s the approach behind every review on this site, including apps from developers affiliated with our editorial team; see our disclosure policy.

Our best ad-free coloring apps for kids ranking applies these checks to specific apps, and our best coloring apps for kids list covers the full lineup.

Sources: App Store Review Guidelines: 1.3 Kids Category and 5.1.4 Kids (Apple Developer), 99% of Kids’ Apps Fail Consent: Child Privacy 2026 (privacyterms.io, citing Pixalate)