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 from the Google Play & 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.
Beach Buggy Racing is a 3D racing game with a light cartoonish type of game where players collect rewards, upgrade, and win. The gameplay is enjoyable and the tracks are eye-catching. The visual content is integrated with lively appropriate music which makes the game entertaining. Every one of the characters is colorful and each one has their own special ability which players can use once per race. Also, there are daily challenges for players who want to challenge themselves. It is fairly simple and fun to navigate but it can be difficult depending on the race series.
The objective is to get a certain number of stars and complete a series of races to beat the boss of each race.
The reviews show that children use the app. A review posted in the FireTV app in May of 2016 says, “Our six-year-old actually picked it out when we first got Amazon FireTV.” Another review without age specification by a parent posted in July of 2023 says, “My son enjoys playing it all day long.”
On the FireTV app landing page, the language in the description says,” kart-racing island adventure for all ages.”
Privacy:
The developer’s privacy policy states, “vector unit does not knowingly collect any personal information from children...if a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided us with information without consent…we will delete such information.”
Screenshots of Beach Buggy Racing
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.
