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 and Apple App 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.
Bridge Legends begins with the hero who is infatuated with the princess while en route to her. A troll seizes the princess and the hero has to undertake a journey to save her, yet there are broken bridges along the way. Players have to modify the bridge to get to her and gather achievements along the way. To construct the bridge, players will be given a limited amount of parts. Players collect keys and gold moving between stages. The visual content and the animation a cartoons with bright colored graphics. The animated characters and child-oriented incentives show that it is child-directed. Parents or guardians may not feel comfortable with the risk of violent content. Audio effects are funny because the characters don’t talk, they just scream or mumble. The music in the game has a cadenced and entertaining theme. It promotes problem-solving for kids.
To collect enough keys to open a golden chest after each stage to unlock new treasures to build a kingdom and save the princess.
Advertisements are shown after completing a level, skipping a level, or being unable to complete a level. Ads such as, “Burger Please, My Perfect Hotel, and Scavenger Hunt,” are child-directed with a mixed audience.. There is a bottom banner of advertisements directed to a general audience which include, “Mist Play, Ibotta, and Audible.”
The app is rated E for Everyone in the Google Play store and rated 17+ in the iOS store. The app has no age gate. Even though the app is free to play there is in-app purchasing within the game.
Privacy:
The developer’s privacy policy states, ” We generally do not process children's data based on consent, but if we do… we will either delete their data or immediately seek the parent's consent for that collection.
Find Pixalate's full catalogue of reviews in our CTV and Mobile App Review Page
Screenshots of Bridge Legends
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.
