Ratings for mobile games are nothing new, but Google has decided to take it a step further by using a global age rating on all apps on the Google Play app store. So now not only will games like Clash of Clans or Angry Birds have their own ratings, but so will every app from Facebook to MyFitnessPal.

“We know that people in different countries have different ideas about what content is appropriate for kids, teens and adults, so today’s announcement will help developers better label their apps for the right audience,” Google Play Product Manager Eunice Kim wrote on the Android Developers Blog. “Consistent with industry best practices, this change will give developers an easy way to communicate familiar and locally relevant content ratings to their users and help improve app discovery and engagement by letting people choose content that is right for them.”

The changes will go into effect immediately and will support ratings from the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC), the same group that recently partnered with the Australian government to streamline its game rating processes.

As with the new Australian games rating process, the app rating system for Google Play will be conducted through online questionnaires that automatically provide an age rating for the application. Any apps that have not yet completed the questionnaire process for the rating will receive a designation of “Unrated,” which could leave those apps effectively banned in certain territories.

This brings to mind memories of the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), which fought in the mid-1980s for a rating system on music with explicit lyrics. While the label would not make the offending material illegal to buy or sell, musicians and record labels rightly feared that the label would result in a de facto ban by major retailers who refused to stock albums that bore the warning, as became the case with Wal-mart Stores, Inc.

With the new rating system, many apps may find themselves in the same boat in regions that could refuse to allow the sale of apps above a certain rating.

Google is giving app developers a six-week period to complete the ratings questionnaire process. Starting in May, all new apps and updates to existing apps must have a rating to be allowed on the Google Play store.

Image credit: Google Inc (c)