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.
Animal Restaurant is a basic gameplay that starts off with the players being the cat who is employed by a grouchy cat chef. It begins with a vacant restaurant and a small amount of cash, in which the player has to grow the restaurant by purchasing and overhauling all that it needs, all while taking customers' orders and gathering tips. As players open more facilities are needed, the more customers come in. Players collect more cash which allows you to purchase significantly more things needed for the restaurant. The visual content and the animation is a cartoony art with kooky characters that are child-oriented. The animal characters have offbeat individualities with an awkward art style and endearing exchanges that give the game a tailored touch. There are no levels or losses, and it doesn't need a lot of attention.
The objective of the game is to increase your star rating to get new areas for the restaurant, serve customers, cook and purchase the food, and facilitate the restaurant to grow into a successful business.
In the game, there are no obligatory advertisements unless you choose to watch them.
The app is rated E for Everyone in the Google Play store and rated 12+ in the iOS store. The app requires a login to play using either Gmail or a social media account and it has no age gate. Even though the app is free to play there is in-app purchasing within the game which can quickly add up. In a Google Play review posted in March of 2022, there is evidence that children under 13 use the app. The review says, “10-year-old who loves this game.”
Privacy:
The developer’s privacy policy states, ” We do not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from or direct or target interest-based advertising to anyone under the age of 16.”
Find Pixalate's full catalogue of reviews in our CTV and Mobile App Review Page
Screenshots of Animal Restaurant
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.
