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.
In Bird Land, the player must look after their growing flock of budgies by feeding them, caring for them and breeding them to create new colour combinations. This is all done with a very light touch and no in-depth instructions are needed. The birds are cared for by tapping on them, and refilling the food and water by tapping the bowls. The birds are bred by using the Breeding menu and selecting two birds to create a love match, after which an egg appears and then hatches into a baby bird shortly after.
Bird Land keeps the gameplay going through the Goals menu. This gives a range of activities such as collecting items, breeding new colour combinations and even tickling them to keep their happiness levels up. There are many Goals to achieve and the list keeps changing as they are ticked off.
The Shop feature allows users to add items to a wish list for Santa to deliver to them, a feature which is firmly aimed at children.
The animation used in Bird Land is simple and friendly. The player can tap on the birds to stroke them and increase their happiness level, which can be viewed as a progress bar at the top of the screen. The birds are brightly colored and hatch from eggs into cute baby birds, growing quickly to their full size.
Privacy:
The Developer website has a fairly brief Privacy Policy which contains a short paragraph discussing their approach to children’s privacy. They state that their service is not geared towards children and they do not intentionally collect information from children under 13. The app has no age gate.
Screenshots of Bird Land:
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.
