In today’s digital world, kids have access to different types of apps, including a food delivery app, more than ever before. At the same time, parents want to protect their children from inappropriate content. Let’s find out what to avoid while developing a food delivery app for your business.
Introduction
A report in 2022 showed that most children aged 3-17 went online via mobile phones (69%) and tablets (64%). Today, critical understanding is a core component of media literacy, as it enables children to understand, question, and manage their surroundings. While going online can be of great benefit, there can also be risks to children’s well-being and safety.
Considerations For Food Delivery Apps
Food delivery apps connect customers with restaurants and couriers to order meals on demand. So beyond just displaying menu content, additional age-related factors include:
Ordering Workflow
Enable parental controls and approvals around orders. Limit how frequently or late at night kids can order without guardian consent.
Delivery Process
Live order tracking allows kids and parents to monitor meal delivery in real-time for safety. Tamper-proof packaging also prevents order tampering.
Ratings and Reviews
Reviews inform restaurant choices but should be monitored and filtered for inappropriate content. Separate adult and kid community features.
Payments
Store payment credentials securely. Authenticate your identity at checkout. Disable one-click ordering for young users and require parental purchase approval.
Achieving Age-Appropriate App Design
Designing an app with safety, responsibility, and accountability at its core ultimately gives peace of mind to every family that relies on your service.
Additionally, have thorough age verification measures during signup flows to confirm users are providing accurate birth dates. Leverage confirmation codes sent to parent emails or phone numbers for extra authorization.
Support parental controls and restrictions based on each child’s age, like order frequency, delivery times, spending caps, and more. Enable guardians to customize app permissions and features quickly.
Compliance Considerations
Apps processing data from children under 13 have additional compliance considerations under COPPA regulations in the United States:
- Post and adhere to a privacy policy covering child data
- Get verifiable parental consent to collect personal information.
- Provide parental access to edit or delete child data.
Apps allow communication between users, which opens the door for concerning interactions. Moderating this is extremely difficult. Meeting age rating guidelines indicates your app has taken steps to keep kids safe from both inappropriate content and contacts.
How is A Food Delivery App Age-Rated?
By understanding the rating systems of both the Play and App Store platforms, you can gain the basic knowledge needed to age-rate an app.
Google Play Store Ratings
There are over three million apps in the Google Play Store. Each goes through a thorough review process. The Google Play Store has an entire “family” section with three age categories:
- Rated for 5 and Under
- Rated for 6–8-Year-Olds
- Rated for 9+
There is also a broad “Parental Guidance” section with apps deemed generally suitable but not beholden to a specific age range. Developers must fill out the rating questionnaire thoroughly and accurately. If the rated age range seems inappropriate or details were left out, Google can remove the app entirely.
Apple App Store Ratings
In the past, App Store age ratings were considered inconsistent and too low compared to other platforms. However, Apple has since updated its guidelines and rating process to be more aligned.
Like Google, Apple bases its 4+ to 17+ age rating tiers on developer responses to rating questionnaires. Apple also considers things like:
- Realistic violence
- Sexual content or nudity
- Simulated gambling
- Alcohol, tobacco, drugs, or criminal behavior encouragement
Although food delivery apps, like other delivery apps, contain no content related to the above-mentioned points, both stores check them, as many other fakes often pop up to ramp up the downloads under fake names.
Best Practices for Age-Appropriate Apps
Once you have understood what content makes an app inappropriate, you can easily prevent it from happening. If you want the right age rating for your app’s user base, below are the following practices you should follow:
- Review all rating guidelines closely and design app content accordingly
- Be thorough and accurate when filling out rating questionnaires
- Work with developers experienced in designing age-appropriate apps
The right rating helps parents trust that an app is safe for their child’s use. It should be a priority for any app targeting young users. Moreover, you have to stay up-to-date on the latest regional regulations affecting minors using apps.
By taking a proactive approach and building protection for young users into an app’s core flows and functions, food delivery businesses demonstrate their commitment to trust and safety for the whole community. This gives both kids and parents comfort and confidence in using the app.
The Appeal of Clone Apps
As a delivery startup founder with limited time and resources, leveraging an existing clone app solution can make the development process faster and more affordable. Clone apps provide a ready-made, white-label starting point with proven food ordering functionality and processes.
Speed
By customizing a clone rather than building an app from scratch, you can launch your delivery operations in weeks rather than months. Since the app has already been made, you will be involved when it is ready to launch under your business alias.
Cost
Pre-built features and infrastructure significantly reduce development and testing costs compared to custom development. In other words, you don’t have to hire any designers or developers to create the infrastructure of the food delivery app. Also, most clone apps have a one-year maintenance and update period after launch.
Reliability
Clone apps have been refined through real-world use, ensuring stable ordering management and delivery tracking.
When vetting clone app vendors, be sure to assess their experience creating apps specifically for the food vertical, as well as their compliance capabilities with safety regulations. Prioritizing child data privacy and age-appropriate design practices should be non-negotiable, even when using clone apps. With the right provider partnership, you can quickly launch a customized food delivery app that meets the highest security and responsibility standards for your customers.
Conclusion
As an entrepreneur entering the booming food delivery space, developing a seamless, user-friendly app is essential. Moreover, ensuring your app appropriately protects and serves users of all ages should be a top priority. When you build strong safeguards into an app from the ground up and make it genuinely age-appropriate, it reassures parents and grows your potential customer base.
