Singapore has published its first assessment of safety systems at the app stores designated under its online-safety rules, identifying harmful apps, incorrect age ratings and gaps in some protections for younger users.
The assessment covers more than 7,000 apps across the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Huawei AppGallery, Microsoft Store and Samsung Galaxy Store. It examines how those services address harmful content, apply age ratings, restrict access to adult-rated apps and deal with reports from users. The exercise is a regulatory review of safeguards rather than a finding that every app or every store is unsafe.
Sixty-five apps were identified as containing harmful content that breached the relevant stores’ own policies. The material fell into three broad groups: sexual content, violent content, and content facilitating vice and organised crime. A further 24 apps had been given ratings below the level their content required. They should have carried an 18+ rating under the applicable store policies.
The identified apps were removed or re-rated after the stores were alerted. That follow-up is important, but the review also points to weaknesses in the review and moderation processes that allowed the apps to be available in the first place. The number found was small compared with the overall number checked, yet the assessment concludes that harmful and age-inappropriate apps can still pass through existing safeguards.
Focus on children’s access
Children’s access to age-inappropriate apps is a central part of the assessment. Singapore’s code for designated app-distribution services requires providers to use age-assurance measures so that users under 18 are restricted from downloading apps that are unsuitable for them. Age assurance can include verifying age through authoritative information, estimating it from features such as a facial scan, or inferring it from contextual, behavioural or transactional signals.
The review found that age-assurance measures were in place and generally were not easy to bypass during testing. It also found that children were largely prevented by default from downloading 18+ apps. However, there were instances on some services where these restrictions were absent or could be switched off through loopholes. Most of those issues have since been rectified, but their identification underlines the difference between a safeguard existing in principle and it working consistently in a user’s actual journey.
No form of age assurance can be entirely foolproof. A child may, for example, use an adult’s account. The assessment therefore places technical checks alongside parental supervision and public education, rather than presenting a single verification tool as a complete solution. It also makes clear that stores remain responsible for personal data they collect or use for age assurance, including limiting collection to what is necessary and protecting that information.
Reporting and accountability
The report also considered what happens after a user reports an app or harmful content. It found inconsistencies in the way outcomes were communicated. In particular, two stores did not notify users who had downloaded an app within the previous six months when that app was later removed. Both have agreed to improve their notification processes.
The assessment is the first public review of the designated services under the code, which took effect on 31 March 2025. Its reporting period ran from 1 April to 31 December 2025, while the findings were published on 24 October 2026. The gap between the period examined and publication reflects that this is an assessment of systems, testing and follow-up rather than a live tally of every app currently available.
Singapore’s next task is to establish whether the improvements promised by the stores are sustained. The regulator plans to track progress and can consider further action under the Broadcasting Act if a designated service does not address identified weaknesses. For users and parents, the report offers a clearer view of both the protections now in place and the limits that still need attention.
