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.
Alto’s Adventure gameplay players ride a snowboard, go through towns, do stunts, tap to jump rocks, collect coins, and herd llamas. The different levels have players complete challenges to move on to the next. The more tricks players complete the more points they earn. The visual content and animation have dazzling and vivid visuals that are detailed from the villages, forests, weather effects, and other background scenes. These graphic characteristics have child-oriented activities that are suitable for all ages.
Players collect coins to get cash to use in a shop between levels. Coins can be used to upgrade skills, and change characters The goal is to purchase a wingsuit to assist during challenges in the game.
There is no age gate and users can access and play the game immediately. There are in-app purchases available in the game. The app is rated E for Everyone in the Google Play store. A review posted in June of 2019 on the Google Play store says, “It’s been my favorite game for 3 years. I installed it when I was 12 and couldn’t stop playing….”
Privacy:
The developer’s privacy policy states, “We do not knowingly collect, use, or disclose personal information from anyone under 13. Services that are determined to be targeted at children will still receive advertisements from our third-party operators, and promotions from Noodlecake using its internal system.”
Find Pixalate's full catalogue of reviews in our CTV and Mobile App Review Page
Screenshots of Alto's Adventure
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.
