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 from the Google Play and Apple App Stores. 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.
Art of War: Legions is a game that allows players to build an army and battle rivals. The player is the commander of a variety of different types of legions (infantry, archers, etc) and must contemplate the best way to utilize and place each legion in order to best defeat the opposing army. After considering the types of troops and their placement on the battlefield, players can watch the battle play out, hopefully in their favor.
Loot can be earned by winning battles and completing quests. Coins are the most common type of earned loot and can be used to purchase additional troops and heroes to be used in battle. Winning a set number of battles also earns treasure chests which can contain coins, troops, or heroes.
The graphics in the game feel like a Minecraft/Lego hybrid. The characters are blocky with floating hands and feet that are not attached to the bodies. Most of the characters have completely blank faces. The background also follows the Minecraft aesthetic with blocky terrains including mountains, rivers, and castles.
The animated battles are simple, with the characters swinging swords or shooting tiny arrows. The opposing soldiers disappear one by one as they are defeated until only the player’s soldiers remain and victory is declared.
Even when not actively engaged in battle, the user can watch an animation of their troops engaging in idle battle. Players can earn an “idle reward” of coins as their troops constantly fight off enemies.
Medieval-style music is softly playing in the background during all aspects of the game. During battle, you can hear clashing swords and arrows whooshing through the air. Cheering and celebratory sounds can be heard upon winning a battle. Anytime coins are earned they make a loud clinking noise, ensuring that players know they are earning rewards.
This app is rated PEGI 3 in the European Google Play Stores, Everyone 10+ in the US Google Play Store for “fantasy violence,” and 9+ on the Apple App Store for “Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence.”
Reviews indicate a mixed audience of adults and children. While most reviews do not indicate a specific age group, many appear to be written by children based on grammar, vocabulary choice, and the use of emojis.
No age information is collected by the app and players of all ages can play without creating an account. However, there is an option of logging in with Apple ID, Google Play ID, or Facebook.
Advertisements are not part of the normal gameplay in this app. However, optional video ads can be played to increase the amount of earned coins and rewards. These ads are for aesthetically similar mobile games that seem to be a mix of child-directed and mixed audiences.
Privacy
According to the privacy policy, which was last updated on August 21, 2021, Fastone Games does not intend for children to be the primary audience of their apps. However, they acknowledge that some of their games may appeal to children and state they have put an age gate in place to determine which users are adults and which are children. If a user indicates they are under 13 they limit access to certain game features and limit the personal data that they collect. However, there was no age gate presented in Art of War: Legions to indicate to the developer that a user is a minor. As they are unable to distinguish which players are under 13, they are likely treating all collected data as if the players were adults.
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.
