A new report by MacRumors suggests that Apple’s recent enforcement actions against gambling apps on the App Store may be catching unrelated apps as a result of an overly broad consideration of “unrestricted web access” as providing the potential for accessing gambling-related sites, since it would allow a user to access any URL from an in-app browser window.
While the “Unrestricted web access” designation has long required apps to carry a “17+” age rating, since the browser window can circumvent parental controls, it seems that Apple considers it an open window into activities that would otherwise be banned on the App Store.
Apps that have been caught up in the ban include a magazine app and even an Apple Watch app, WatchPlay, that’s designed to simply allow users to start YouTube videos from their wrist.
