The update to FastFinder is still caught up in Apple’s approval process. It’s now facing the App Rating Squad who have rejected the update stating:

“we cannot post this version of your iPhone application to the App Store at this time because it is not appropriately rated.“

iPhone OS3.0 introduced parental controls and Apple requested developers to self-rate their applications. Apple did not seem to review those ratings, creating potential for inconsistencies and loopholes. It looks like Apple is now catching up by validating those ratings whenever reviewing the next update. So unless the reviewer agrees with your rating you won’t be able to release your update.
Unfortunately the reviewer did not seem to agree with our current 4+ rating:

“Our review indicates that the application content is not consistent with the current rating. FastFinder allows unfiltered access to the internet, where content with mature or suggestive themes can be accessed. Applications must be rated accordingly for the highest level of content that the user is able to access.“

This immediately made me think of a high-profile case a few months ago, where a newspaper aggregator application got rejected because it included ‘The Sun’ newspaper. And because that newspaper also has a page3 with some scantily clothed ladies the whole application got rejected. Rather than fight it, the developers decided to simply remove that newspaper.

I’m finding the whole thing a bit silly and inconsistent. Yes, because FastFinder has unrestricted access to all search engines, you could search for mature content as well. But that doesn’t make it a “mature” application, does it? And the silly thing is, as long as you have Safari on your iPhone, you can get to those search engines (and thus to “suggestive themes”) anyway. And I checked, even if you turn parental controls on, you can still access whatever you want through Safari. So the rating system would become pretty much useless unless every parent switches off access to Safari (which you can do in parental controls), but that completely neuters your iPhone or iPod. No kid will be happy with that.

The inconsistency comes from the fact that there are many similar apps in the Appstore that all have a 4+ rating. So Apple would have to fight every one of those applications on their next updates and pretty much force any app that has any internet access to a higher rating.
The only consolation at this point is that we’re not alone. The popular News Addict application has found itself facing the same problem. Its developer rightly states:

“Apple needs to rate apps based on what they actually contain not what they might be used for. This is the equivalent of putting 17+ ratings on TV sets because they have the potential to play R rated movies.”

We have now resubmitted the FastFinder update with a 12+ rating, let’s see if that satisfies the censors.