Welcome to Pixalate’s CTV & Mobile App Manual Reviews According to COPPA, a series containing the detailed factors the Trust & Safety Advisory Board educators used to assess an app’s child-directedness.
The educators manually review thousands of mobile apps available in the Google Play & Apple App Stores as well as connected TV (CTV) apps from the Roku Channel Store and Amazon Fire TV App Store using the COPPA Rule factors shown below & make those results available to the public at ratings.pixalate.com.
This post takes a look at a popular mobile app (1 million+ downloads) from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Our reviewer discusses how the subjective factors set forth in the COPPA Rule apply to the app and factor into the reviewer's determination as to whether the app is child-directed or general audience (i.e., it is not targeting children).
The teacher will indicate the factors they relied upon in their assessment using the 10 factors shown below that reflect the 10 child-directed factors in the COPPA Rule.
100 Mystery Buttons - Escape is a vibrant 3D game with visual excitement and expressive characters and background. The Player's character is showered with different objects from chocolate, burgers, water, and fire depending on which colored button is pressed within a box. One of the shower objects comes off as inappropriate. There are 2 characters outside of the box that respond to every decision your character makes. The subject matter is child-directed within a mixed audience based on the graphic animation which will make your instinct more keen and provide you with lots of amusement.
The goal is to tap every button you can until you discover the one that lets you out of the box.
Advertising is continuous throughout the game and also shows in the bottom banner. Some of those ads are, “Facebook, Instagram, Verizon, Amazon Prime Live, and Thursday Night Football which is directed to a general audience.” There are some ads that are directed to a mixed audience such as, “Royal Match and Cat Sort Puzzle.” The game does offer in-app purchases that would remove the advertisement.
The app is rated 12+ in the iOS store and rated E for Everyone in the Google Play store. There is no age gate. A review located in the iOS store posted in November of 2021 says, “It’s really fun and good I’m only 7 years old but it’s amazing.” The review shows evidence that kids under 9 years of age use the app.
Privacy:
The developer’s privacy policy states, ” We do not knowingly collect or solicit personal data about or direct or target interest-based advertising to anyone under the age of 13.”
Screenshots of 100 Mystery Buttons-Escape
Pixalate’s Trust and Safety Advisory Board was created to bring in individuals with experience using child-directed apps in the classroom to review and assess which apps are child-directed. This manual review process serves to quality check Pixalate’s automated review process. See our full methodology for more information.
Disclaimer
This blog post published by Pixalate is available for informational purposes only and is not considered legal advice. By viewing this blog post, the reader understands and agrees that there is no attorney-client relationship between the reader and the blog publisher. The blog should not be used as a substitute for legal advice from a licensed professional attorney in the applicable jurisdiction(s), and readers are urged to consult their own legal counsel on any specific legal questions concerning any specific situation. The content of this blog post reflects Pixalate's opinions with respect to factors that Pixalate believes may be useful to the digital media industry. Pixalate's opinions are just that, opinions, which means that they are neither facts nor guarantees; and this blog post is not intended to impugn the standing or reputation of any entity, person or app, but instead, to report findings pertaining to mobile and Connected TV (CTV) apps.
