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 & 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.
Burger Shop Deluxe is a free, fun, and compelling restaurant gameplay that takes players on a food journey through 20 levels and 2 restaurants. Players have to create a variety of fast food. The game has four modes such as story, challenge, relax, and expert mode. Players prepare and serve a menu of burgers, fries, onion rings, soda, milkshakes, and many more classic burger food menu items using a robotic kitchen assistant. You have to ensure customer satisfaction as the queue increases and produce food on a conveyor belt. It is a fast-paced burger game that challenges the player to grow it as much as possible. The visual content is filled with simple vibrant designs and cool effects that are visually delightful with food combinations with realistic graphics. The app uses child-oriented animation which shows that it is child-directed with a mixed audience.
Players can earn trophies to enhance their progress and generate more revenue.
The app is rated E for Everyone in the Google Play store and 4+ in the iOS store. The app is ready to use after download and there is no age gate but there is an in-app upgrade purchase to access more levels. There is evidence that children use the app. A review with no age specification posted in the Google Play store in March of 2024 stated, “I have played this game before. My mom and I played 3 years back.” Another review posted in June of 2020 in the Google Play store says, “This game has been a part of my childhood since I was 5 years old.” In the iOS store, a review with no age specification posted in September of 2022 stated, “I’m super inspired by the fast pace of this game that I’ve known since childhood.”
Privacy:
The developer’s privacy policy does not have a COPPA policy and has consumers refer to the Google and apple store privacy policies. It does state, “We or our partners may use your advertising ID, IP address, and device information to help serve you more relevant ads and analyze gameplay.”
Find Pixalate's full catalogue of reviews in our CTV and Mobile App Review Page
Screenshots of Burger Shop Deluxe
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.
