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. 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.
Big Car Wash is a simple engaging gameplay in which players wash and clean a variety of vehicles using washing gadgets to remove dirt from police cars, trucks, and more. The visual content is vibrant with 2D cartoon animation design with characteristics directed to children. The game is a great way for kids to use coherent reasoning and promote self-help skills.
There are numerous advertisements throughout the game. Ads are shown before the game starts and after completing each car wash gameplay, such as, “Target and Garden Joy Design & Makeover,” which is directed to a general audience. After playing the game for a while, a bottom ad banner will appear and stay up during the game, for example, “Garden Walk Bed & Breakfast,” which is also geared towards a general audience.
There is no age gate but it does offer in-app purchasing to remove ads. The app is rated E for Everyone in the Google Play store. A review posted in December 2018 on the Google Play store says, “My 2-year-old son LOVES this very cute game.” In November 2020, a review posted said, “My 2yr and myself love this game.”
Privacy:
The developer’s privacy policy states, “We comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act…We do not knowingly collect personal information on children under the age of 13…we do not collect, store, or use, and will delete securely.”
Find Pixalate's full catalogue of reviews in our CTV and Mobile App Review Page
Screenshots of Big Car Wash
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.
