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 game which is available 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.
The ABCya Games! app brings the popular educational website to mobile devices. Just like the website, there are numerous educational games for children on a variety of different levels. Each game is unique, with the main uniting factor being that they are designed to help children learn.
While the ABCya website has free games when accessed via computer, the app is primarily subscription-based. Some free games are available without creating an account, but most require an account and subscription to play. The apps are available for free and rotate every week.
Each game within the app is visually different from the others. However, they have been carefully designed to appeal to the level of the child that will be playing them. While the grade levels are Pre-K through 6+, the visuals and animations are more refined in some of the 6+ games than the PreK ones. Animated characters in the game vary from very simple to more complex, but all reflect animation styles enjoyed by children. The home screen of the app is simple, with a black background and game tiles framed in yellow or blue. Each grade level has an associated color and circles of that color with the number of the grade level are on the corner of each game. This is a visually appealing way for children to identify games on their level.
The game categories on the home screen are witty and intriguing to young audiences. There are categories such as “Games From the Future'' and “Squares and Circles and Triangles, Oh My!" Categories within each grade level’s page are simpler (letters, numbers, holidays, etc), ensuring easy navigation for all users.
The sounds in each game are different, matching the style and targeted grade level of the child. Most games have some sort of upbeat music in the background and a variety of sound effects to engage the users. Some games do not have music, as they center around verbal instructions that must be heard. Sight Word Bingo is an example of this, as the player hears the word spoken and chooses the corresponding word on the screen.
Most games are simple, with an intrinsic incentive of being able to complete different levels and tasks within the game. There are no complex rewards systems and each game retains its rewards, rather than crossing over the entire app.
There is no advertising within the app, with developers making money through paid subscriptions rather than advertising. Subscriptions are not done through the app, but rather through the ABCya website. After subscribing to the website, users can use their login credentials to unlock the paid content within the app.
The targeted audience of this app is children based on the app description. The description indicates, “one of the most popular K-5 educational gaming websites in the world!” and that it is used by “millions of kids, parents, and teachers.” There are numerous references to children within the description that leave no question on the child-directed nature of this app.
This app has a “Teacher Approved” sticker on the Google Play Store, reflecting that it is a high-quality app for children. Most teachers have likely used the web version of ABCya in their classrooms at some point in time.
Reviews also reflect a primary audience of children. Even the reviews from adults are from parents and teachers indicating that they use this app with their kids.
Privacy
According to the privacy policy, which was last updated on August 21, 2018, ABCya indicates that they collect device identifiers and usage information. They use this data for internal information and to share it with third parties. They indicate that they may also collect information from parents and/or teachers, such as subscription information. It is important to note that this privacy policy applies only to the ABCya Games! app; a different privacy policy is in place for users accessing the web version of ABCya.
Find Pixalate's full catalogue of reviews in our CTV and Mobile App Review Page
Screenshots of ABCya! Games
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.
