14 DAY TRIAL // Canadian mobile phone maker Research In Motion has just announced plans on making a series of changes to its BlackBerry App World, starting with the fact that applications will be receiving ratings.
The company has already performed a series of changes to the storefront on the developer side, and will being some modifications to the end-user area as well, so as to enable BlackBerry owners to search apps by the rating they have.
The company notes that the new rating system has been put in place in an attempt to facilitate app discovery and software publishing to the storefront, while also increasing the control one can have over these apps.
“Our content rating system has been planned out based on input from our carrier, consumer, and developer partners to make sure we’ve implemented a content rating system that helps parents control what types of content their children have access to,” RIM explains.
“After the upgrade is complete, all applications and themes in the BlackBerry App World storefront will receive a default rating. The majority of apps will be rated G (General). If your app or theme is in one of the categories listed below, it’ll receive a rating of T (Teen).”
RIM also notes that they will be rating all apps and themes that include terms such as “BBM™”, “Facebook”, “Twitter”, “chat”, “dating”, “social networking” and “message” with T (Teen) by default.
Starting with December 15th, users will be enjoying a new mobile client on their devices, so that they are able to set rating filters to allow only specific content to be displayed when searching the store.
“The default rating filter in BlackBerry App World is set to “Adult” – which is all content in the BlackBerry App World storefront. This means that when consumers upgrade, they’ll still see your apps and themes – nothing to worry about,” RIM explains.
The upcoming BlackBerry App World 3.1, however, will offer users the possibility to change the rating filters. In the meantime, developers will be able to update their Content Rating questions, provided that they feel their application should receive a different rating.
All new applications will get through the new rating process, and developers will have to answer to the Content Rating questions.
“As you answer the Content Rating questions, your content rating will be presented to you. Any app that includes “Social networking, community or other User Generated Content” will automatically be given a “Teen” rating. Once done, your content rating is updated in the system,” RIM concludes.
