Every app on Google Play carries an age rating, generated from a questionnaire you complete in the console. It takes ten minutes, it is free, and it produces ratings for every region at once. It is also where publishers of news, forums or anything with comments occasionally misjudge, so here is how it works.
How the rating is produced
Google Play uses the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) questionnaire. You answer questions about the app's content and features; IARC's rules translate the answers into each authority's rating simultaneously — ESRB (North America), PEGI (Europe), USK (Germany), ClassInd (Brazil), GRAC (Korea), ACB (Australia), and a generic IARC rating elsewhere. The result appears on the listing within minutes and a certificate is emailed to you. No human review, unless a rating is later disputed.
The questions, and how a website app answers them
| Topic | Answer for… |
|---|---|
| App category | Choose "Utility, Productivity, Communication, or Other" for most business sites; "Reference, News or Educational" for publications; "Game" for games (a longer questionnaire). Social/dating/UGC have their own path. |
| Violence, sexual content, language, controlled substances, gambling | Answer for content your site publishes. A cooking blog: none. A true-crime site: realistic violence references. A bar's site: alcohol references (rating goes up modestly). |
| Does the app allow users to interact or exchange content? | Yes if you have comments, a forum, reviews, chat or any way for users to see each other's content. This raises the rating and triggers the "Users interact" descriptor. |
| Does the app share the user's location with other users? | Almost always no. Showing a map of your shop is not sharing the user's location. |
| Does the app allow purchases of digital goods? | Yes only if the app sells digital goods via Play Billing. Physical-goods checkout is not "digital goods" here. |
| Does the app contain ads? | Yes if AdSense/AdMob or any ad network appears. (Also declared separately in the Ads section.) |
| Unrestricted internet access | Yes if the app can open arbitrary links (external links in-app). This is normal for website apps and mainly affects the Families question. |
User-generated content changes more than the rating
Answering yes to user interaction is honest for any site with comments, but it also means Play's UGC policy applies: you need a way for users to report content and block other users, and you must moderate. Blog platforms' comment moderation and report links generally satisfy it; an unmoderated forum inside a Play app does not. If you don't want the obligation, disable comments for app visitors.
Why accuracy matters
A rating that understates the content is a metadata violation and the app can be removed pending correction. A rating that overstates it hides the app from younger audiences and some search surfaces for no reason. Answer what is on the site today, including the comments section if visible.
Re-rating
You can retake the questionnaire any time under App content → Content rating. Do it when the site adds user content, a shop with alcohol, a forum, or anything the questions cover. Ratings changes publish without a new bundle.
Relationship to Target audience
The content rating and the Target audience and content declaration are separate. The rating says what age the content is suitable for; the target audience says who you are aiming at. Selecting any age group under 13 as a target triggers the Families policy — stricter ads rules, certified ad networks only, teacher-approved review. For a business website, choose 18+ or "13 and over" targets and let the rating say "Everyone".