One thing I love about having parental controls installed on my children’s devices is the fact that if they install an app, they cannot use the app until I specifically allow it. This gives me the necessary time to research the app and make sure it is appropriate for my child to use. For those parents that aren’t technically inclined, trying to find out whether or not this particular app is safe for kids can be a daunting task.

There are 4 easy steps to learning if an app is safe for kids

Step One – Look at the age rating in the App Store or Google Play Store. Google Play will have ratings from the ESRB, which rates all video games for consoles and PCs. This is another great reason Android should your first choice for a device for your kid. Apple does have its own rating system as well, but many have stated that it doesn’t work as well.

The age rating will tell you exactly at what age it would be appropriate for your child to use the particular app. An app rated T for Teen is approved for teenagers over the age of 13. An app rated E for Everyone means it is safe for even your toddler to use.

Step Two – Look at the number of downloads the app has received. All apps will display the number of times the application you are looking at has been downloaded to a device. The higher the number, the more likely the app is legit.

Step Three – Read some reviews. Each app will also display the reviews it has received in the store. Sometimes these reviews cannot be trusted (like when children give Boomerang a bad review because they don’t approve of the restricted access they have on their device). Make sure to read many of the reviews and see exactly what the majority of the people are saying. Are there a lot of reviews that say the app doesn’t work or is buggy? Reviews will give you a great general idea on whether or not the app will be safe for your child.

Another thing to be aware of when reading reviews is to pay attention to how many reviews the app has. If it only has a few, and they are all glowing, those are probably just from the app creators friends, so I wouldn’t trust them too much.

Step Four – Do a Google search for a parental review on the app. A good parental review will tell you exactly what kids are using the app for and why or why not it is safe for certain ages. We are going to start featuring more parental reviews of individual apps here on the Boomerang Blog, so definitely pay attention when those are published.

Once you have done these 4 steps you will have a great idea on whether or not you want to allow your kids to use the app. If you decide that the app is not suitable for your child, make sure one of you uninstalls it from their device.