Apple will no longer display iAd adverts in children apps

It looks like children won’t have to face annoying ads in their free apps anymore – at least as long as the app developer uses iAds. It’s been reported that Apple has decided to stop providing iAds for children-targeted apps. The reason for this? Advertisers preferred their ads not to appear in those children apps because the ads aren’t targeted at that demographic in the first place.

This has caused some developers of children apps to stop making money because iAds stopped running ads on their apps. Because of this, they’ve been forced to switch to the alternative service – AdMob, which is run by Google, a service that is said to carry advertisements with less value than iAds. One such developer who had to make the switch is Mike Zornek, the man behind “Dex”, a Pokemon-game-themed app designed for kids. “Apple should target their ads better. I would have loved to have seen some ads that were better suited to kids in Dex. It’s a shame they don’t have the inventory to do so. However the manner in which they’ve made this policy change just stinks.”

How many of you app developers have been affected by the lack of iAds in your children apps? What do you think of the new switch in policies?

George Wong
Categories: Apple
Tags: Apple Inc, Apps, children, iOS