One thing we enjoy at our house on Christmas eve is tracking
Santa as he flies around the world. Our friends at NORAD (North
American Aerospace Defense Command) provide a great website and mobile app dedicated to this difficult task!
Undoubtedly, the NSA is also tracking Santa, but I guess their app
isn't public yet. And I feel like I am on the opposite spectrum
from the NSA. They've been tracking everyone, and I can't
even keep track of what my kids are accessing on the various
different devices they use or what those apps are doing. With my
kids clamoring for movies, apps and games for Christmas, the
customer star rating system is wholly inadequate. That
antiquated feedback system doesn't give me any idea of whether
a mobile app gets 5 stars for an adult or 5 stars for a five-year
old! I'm also frustrated with the parental controls in general
on Apple and Android devices. 
NORAD now has the ability to track Santa's
movements across the globe so my kids know when Santa approaches,
and we still don't have a good way to filter media on mobile
devices!
What I want for Christmas is a better parental control system to be implemented by either Apple or Google. I'm not calling for a mandatory rating system (I don't think Bass Pro Shops or Bank Of America need to have a parent-friendly rating on their apps). However, I would like some sort of feature that blocks everything – websites, apps, music, videos – that are not at least a certain rating when my 9-year old is using the device. The issue is that the rating needs to reflect both content and privacy to be relevant to interactive programs. The Motion Picture Association of America's and the Entertainment Software Rating Board are not quite suited for this because they only take content into account. The FTC is not well suited to this because, well, because. Last month, I wrote a post about Carnegie Mellon's independent mobile app grading system called privacygrade.org. This is a great step too, but it only deals with privacy and it has not yet been universally adopted.
I'm dreaming of a control system that automatically blocks everything that lacks a particular content rating and privacy rating or that is not rated for one of them at all. For Christmas this year, I am simply asking Santa to help Apple and Google implement a better rating system for content and privacy in our devices. Something easy (kid's thumbprint login activates the controls) that blocks everything that isn't rated a certain level for adult content (one third party rating system) and privacy (another third party rating system). How hard could it be?
I hope you are all set to track Santa's sleigh with your kids this year! And I hope 2015 will bring better parental tracking capabilities for our kids' devices!
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