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 on both the Apple App Store and 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).
Manually reviewed in this post
Reviewed by: Emma Burdis
The 10 COPPA Rule factors
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.
Manual Review: Baseball Boy
Likely audience after manual review
- Developer: App Mania LLC
- Bundle ID: com.itchmedia.ta3
- Privacy Policy
- Emma’s take: An animated game, featuring adult-directed advertisements and with only one task to achieve: to hit the ball as far as you can.
COPPA factors used to determine audience
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Baseball Boy uses cartoonish, colorful animation. The aim of the game is to hit the baseball as far as possible. As you play, you can upgrade your skills and equipment with coins collected from your previous runs. At First glance, this game could easily be directed at children based on its appearance. However, exploring for a little longer shows the workings of the game aren’t particularly appealing for younger players.
Baseball is a game enjoyed by those of all ages, so this could easily have a broad appeal. The character in the game could easily be a Little League player, perhaps appealing to both current LL players and those who used to play.
The game features regular in-game ads. The ads most often seen were for Google, followed by a variety of other casual mobile games, such as Brain Test and Dino Rodeo. A chat roulette app aimed at adults also appears on one advert. The adverts appear too often to allow the user to get into a flow of play and it seems unlikely that children would persevere with the frequent interruptions. Many of the adverts run for thirty seconds and can’t be skipped past. Banner ads also appear at the bottom of the screen. One was advertising LP records and CDs, which are unlikely to appeal to children. Indeed, they are unlikely to know what LPs and CDs are!
The incentives in the game are all based around coins. The further the ball goes, the more coins you get. You can multiply your reward by watching video advertisements. The coins can be used to upgrade your skills and equipment, with the aim of increasing your range. As incentives go, this one is quite repetitive and unlikely to appeal to younger gamers. The upgrades don’t make any difference to your character visually, which can often be a source of motivation for children when playing games. As the game progresses and you reach the next level of play, you are rewarded with a different baseball bat. In an unexpected turn of events, it appears that using a banana, a fish or a frying pan are more effective than a standard baseball bat.
Privacy
The developer does not have a specific Privacy Policy for the game. The general Policy on their website simply states, “Voodoo never knowingly or willingly collect any personal data concerning children under 16 years of age.” Upon installing the app, users are asked to confirm that they are over 16 and that they have read the Privacy Policy.
Screenshots of Baseball Boy:
About Pixalate’s Trust & Safety Advisory Board
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.
