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. 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.
A Pretty Girl Next Door Story is an engaging game about a new girl who moves next door to a fetching boy in which a love story begins. The game is a rollercoaster ride of love stories that have cooking, car racing, movies, drawings, and dinner dates that players complete in ten stages. The romantic stories during each stage blossom with each love story completed. The subject matter, of this app, says, “story between a girl and a charming boy,” which shows that the language and other characteristics are directed to children with a mixed audience. The visual content and animation have a bright 3D style of graphics design similar to that of a sim game.
Some advertisements play when a player either completes or fails a level. There are ads directed to children, such as, “Pocket Blocks and Honkai Star Rail.”
The app is rated E for Everyone in the Google Play store. There is no age gate. A review posted in September 2020 on the Google Play store says, “I downloaded it for my daughter and she loves it.” The review does not specify age. Another review posted in March of 2020 says, “This game is amazing...I am 10 years old.”
Privacy:
The developer’s privacy policy states, “your child or children's information are in connection with the Software and/or the Associated Services...you consent to the collection, use, and other handling of personal information.”
Find Pixalate's full catalogue of reviews in our CTV and Mobile App Review Page
Screenshots of A Pretty Girl Next Door Story
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.
