Today even 3-year-olds are using mobile software. Soon a system will help parents to control which apps are suitable – or not - for their children.
“There's an app for that”- technology enthusiasts and non-geeks alike have heard this phrase. It is an Apple’s slogan, used for iPhone 3G, released in 2008. Today the slogan still holds true - and not only for Steve Job’s creations. There are apps for other kinds of mobiles. Android users, for example, have thousands of them at their disposal.

Mobile apps are software applications developed to run on mobile devices. Usually apps are available in the mobile company’s platform, for instance the Android Market, the BlackBerry App World and, yes, the most famous of all, the Apple Store. And why does someone use apps? As Apple’s slogan implies, they are used for just about everything, including e-mail, GPS and games.  If you look carefully you will find an app for those – and any other – tasks or activities. It wasn’t without reason that American Dialectic Society, a centenary organization which studies the English language, chose “app” as the 2010 “Word of the Year”.

The mobile apps for games are popular, especially with the young. And this fact has been concerning parents. Of course nobody wants kids using violent or sexually-oriented apps, but how can parents control this? US mobile companies will soon release a system able to solve this problem, reports The Washington Post. The system will warn when apps are violent or have some kind of adult content.  AT&T, Microsoft, Sprint, T-Mobile USA, U.S. Cellular and Verizon Wireless will be the first to embrace the system, according to The Washington Post.

Developed by the self-regulatory organization, Entertainment Software Rating Board (or ESRB), the system will create categories of apps. Parents will be able to choose suitable mobile software for early childhood – (appropriate for age 3 and up ), everyone (age 6 and older), teens (13 and older), mature (17 and older), and adults only. There aren’t laws about mobile app content in the US - and in most countries of the world - yet. Actions like that can improve the safety of the young and give tranquility to parents.