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.
Block Puzzle is a free and fun obsessive block game. The gameplay includes essentially dragging the colorful blocks to move them and making full lines on the grid in an upward direction or a level plane. In the About this app section, it says, “easy to play, and classic brick game for all ages.” This shows that the language and other characteristics are directed at children with a mixed audience. It is filled with straightforward visual content and bright-colored graphics.
There are advertisements shown at the bottom of the app in a banner. Those advertisements are directed to a general audience, such as “TEMU.” During the game, in order to proceed to the next level or loss of game, “Match Factory,” is an advertisement shown and directed to a mixed audience.
The app is rated E for Everyone in the Google Play store. The app is ready to use after download and there is no age gate.
Privacy:
The developer’s privacy policy states, ” We do not knowingly collect or solicit personal data about or direct or target interest-based advertising to anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to use our services.”
Find Pixalate's full catalogue of reviews in our CTV and Mobile App Review Page
Screenshots of Block Puzzle
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.
