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 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.
Axolochi is an addictive simple gameplay where players care for and feed their Axolochi in order to move further in the game. Players have to feed, clean them if they become dirty, and pet them to grow and evolve into numerous magnificent forms. There are various Axolochis to obtain by gathering different types of eggs in the game as you advance. Players can add decor to their environment and tweak it to their preference. The visual content is bright and colorful with an appealing design of lively animations. The subject matter in the About Game section has information that is directed to children such as babies, amazing shapes, and colors. Overall it is a madly adorable and highly compelling simulation game that is free to download but does have in-app purchases that you can obtain through bonus content.
The objective is to complete the collection of aquatic virtual pets.
There is advertising within the game after levels are completed such as, “Aquarium Land,” which is a game directed to a mixed audience.
The app is rated E for Everyone in the Google Play store and rated 4+ in the iOS store. There is no age gate.
Privacy:
The developer’s privacy policy states, ”collects data on children (players under 13 years) and minors (players under the age of 16) only when necessary… we only work with selected ad networks that respect the tag for child-directed parameter aka the COPPA flag on a per app or per request basis.”
Screenshots of Axolochi
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.
