The report warns that inappropriate apps labeled as safe for young children are rampant in the App Store

new Published by child safety groups Heat Initiative and ParentsTogether Action details the worrying presence of inappropriate apps labeled as suitable for children as young as four on Apple’s App Store. The groups worked with a researcher to review as many apps as they could within 24 hours, and say they ultimately identified more than 200 apps that had “relevant content or features” given the ages they were assessed for — including stranger chat and AI-friendly. Apps, game apps with sexual or violent prompts and images, and AI-powered appearance assessment apps. Engadget has reached out to Apple for comment and will update this story when it hears back.

The research focused on apps with specific age ratings of 4+, 9+, and 12+ in categories considered “risky”: chat (including AI apps and chatting with strangers), beauty, diet and weight loss, and unfiltered internet access (access apps Websites blocked in schools) and games. Among the findings, the report says at least 24 sex toys and nine kinky chat apps were rated as suitable for children in these age groups. The research also identified 40 apps for unfiltered internet access and 75 apps related to beauty, body image and weight loss with these age ratings, along with 28 shooting and crime games. In total, the nearly 200 violating apps discovered during the 24-hour investigation have been downloaded more than 550 million times, according to the Heat Initiative.

About 800 apps were reviewed in total, and the research found that some groups were more likely than others to carry apps with inappropriately low age ratings. As for apps and games for chatting with strangers, “fewer are rated as appropriate for children,” the report says. In most cases, they were 17+. But in the categories of weight loss and unfiltered internet access, “almost all of the apps reviewed were approved for children 4+.” The report calls on Apple to do its best when it comes to child safety measures on the App Store, and urges the company to use external reviewers to verify the age ratings of apps before they become available for download, and to make the age rating process transparent. For consumers. You can read the full report Corrupt reviews: 24 hours in the Apple App Store here.