The mission of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is to provide concise and objective information about the content of video games and applications for consumers, especially parents, to make informed decisions. Mobile devices, especially in relation to mobile games, have become extremely prevalent and this means that children more-than-ever are exposed to not just mobile gaming (and thus social media attached to them) but even payment services and systems.

Seeing this could become a controversial issue in mobile gaming, the ESRB has responded to the rapid release cycles of download games on Apple’s App store, Android Marketplace, Xbox Live Marketplace, PlayStation Store and Nintendo’s Wii and established a new, very simple and above all fast-to-use rating system.

As part of this initiative, ESRB unveiled a new mobile app certification program, ESRB Privacy Certified, to address online child privacy concerns. The program is in response to the US Federal Trade Commission’s amendments to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), set to come into effect from July 1st.

The ESRB’s newest services are aimed at developers about the content of the submitted game. ESRB will provide developers all sorts of help including number of tools, privacy risk assessment of their apps, ongoing compliance monitoring and reporting, Solutions for obtaining verifiable parental consent for users under age 13 and assistance for meeting the COPPA’s parental consent requirements.

“Privacy protection is an imperative for companies of all sizes, especially when kids are involved. But achieving compliance with requirements like COPPA can be complicated, particularly for rapidly evolving platforms like mobile,” said Dona Fraser, vice president of ESRB Privacy Certified. “By extending our services beyond website operators to include mobile app developers as well, we are helping ensure that their products provide a trustworthy environment for user interaction and information sharing.”

Privacy is a big issue when it comes to kids apps on mobile devices. The FTC study conducted last year found that nearly 60% of the apps aimed at kids used to send device identification data to app developers or third parties such as ad networks and analytics. Another challenge is to deal with the expanded definition of personal information to include photos and videos.

ESRB Privacy Certified program will conduct two reviews per year spot checks on members’ mobile apps and certified website to ensure their privacy policies are up to date. By extending the services beyond website operators to include mobile app developers as well, ESRM ensures that their products provide a trustworthy environment for user interaction and information sharing.

“We were doing lot of the things that were already in the amended [COPPA] rule, however translating that to mobile is a challenge and the biggest challenge is probably parental consent,” said Fraser.

The classification system of the ESRB is an impartial, standardized system to determine if a game/app is suitable for your children. The ESRB applies ratings also drives meet advertising guidelines, and online privacy principles adopted by the industry. The ESRB ratings have an important role in the past in the legal skirmishes played by the tightening of child protection legislation in California and other states in the United States.

It remains to be seen how the major content distributors react to this announcement. Two major gaming markets worldwide, Google and Apple, had sold about no games in Android Market and the App Store in response to the introduction of a legal age rating system for a long time.