Is This App OK for My Kid?

Stop asking whether an app is safe. Check what it can do: its rating, what’s listed under the rating, and the Four Doors. It works on any app, including the one they ask for next month.

Checked against Apple, Google Play, and ESRB rating guides, September 2026

I used to tell parents BeReal was safe because it had no direct messages. No inbox meant no door for a stranger to knock on. That was true when I said it. Then BeReal added messaging, ads, and a creator program, and got bought by a games company, and nothing anywhere told either of us the reason had expired.

Safe is a verdict, and verdicts expire. Features are a list, and a list you can check. This page walks you through the list for any app, then gives you a current verdict with a date on it, so you know when to look again. Every app you check saves in this browser, so you can come back to it. Prefer to watch? I tell the whole BeReal story in my Four Doors video.

The App and Your Kid

Which app?

How old is the kid who wants it?

Which kid? (optional)

Where are you looking at it?

The Rating

The rating covers what the app’s maker built. It doesn’t cover what other people say or post inside it, which is how an app can be rated E for Everyone and still have things in it you’d never approve.

What’s it rated?

What’s Listed Under the Rating

This is the part most people skip, and it’s the most useful part of the whole store page. Check everything that shows up, in whatever words the store uses.

Features the store lists

Content the store lists Match what you see to these groups. The store’s exact words are under each one.

The Four Doors

The store page won’t answer these. The app’s own help pages will (search them for “privacy” or “parents”), and so will five minutes in the app’s settings. They’re written in plain English, they’re free, and hardly anybody reads them.

The Message door

Who can send my kid a private message, and what does this app mean by “friend”?

The Discovery door

Can somebody find my kid, or do they have to already know them?

The Audience door

Who does see what my kid posts? Not who can, who does, on the setting it’s on right now.

The Money door

Is there anything to buy in here? Check everything that fits.

On the App Store, look for In-App Purchases next to the Get button. On Google Play, it says In-app purchases under the Install button.

Other Features Worth a Look

A few more things the Four Doors don’t catch. Check any this app has.

Things to know about

Good signs

Your Results

Pick your kid’s age and start answering. Your results build right here as you go.

Straight from the source

The ratings and labels here come from the rating systems’ own pages.

Apple App Store

ESRB and Google Play

For the Four Doors

Common Sense Media: parent reviews of apps and games, including what’s in them
The app’s own help center and parent guide, which is where the real answers live