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 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.
Doorman Story is a hotel simulation game in which the player must help check in guests, clean rooms, and bring items to the guests during their stay. Players must balance the constant flow of guests checking in and out and their various needs during the stay. As guests come and go, the hotel earns money that can be used to upgrade hotel features to increase the efficiency and revenue of the hotel.
The game content is engaging for both children and adults. The game can be fast-paced, keeping adults interested in playing. However, it is not too fast that would frustrate children, rather finding a balance to appeal to both audiences.
Visually, this app also appeals to a mixed audience. The refined animations are not overly child-like but still appeal to children. The characters move about the hotel using speech bubbles with emojis to convey what they want. The animations also show the frustration of customers waiting too long or the happiness of the employees for serving all the customers successfully.
Instructions are conveyed via written dialogue from the hotel employees. The language is simple and often contains accompanying animations to illustrate how the user needs to interact with the app. Emojis and animations are relied on heavily to show how the characters are feeling and what their needs are, making it easy for even the youngest players to understand what they need to do to complete a level.
Background music plays throughout the game, the music is very repetitive and would be more appealing to children than adults. While there are other sound effects within the game, they are not quite as numerous as the sound effects you may find in a primarily child-directed app. This again points to a mixed audience, providing enough sounds to keep children interested without alienating the adults who are also playing the game.
Coins and diamonds are the incentives and the currency used within the game. These can be used for hotel upgrades that can help the hotel run more efficiently or increase the time a customer is willing to wait for things at the hotel. The coins are the revenue the hotel earns while playing, such as customers buying rooms or purchasing extra items during their stay. Diamonds are awarded when reaching certain milestones within the game or during bonus activities, like spinning a prize wheel.
There is no advertising during normal gameplay, however, video ads can be viewed to earn extra rewards. These advertisements are a mixture of general audience and mixed audience apps and games. A few of the advertised apps contain mature content and are not suitable for children.
Doorman Story has a wide range of ratings depending on the listed app store and country. It is rated 4+ in the Apple app store, PEGI 12 in the European Google Play store for moderate violence, and T in the American Google Play store for violence and blood. Despite mentions in the Google Play stores of violence, I did not encounter any violence as I was testing the app.
Privacy
When first opening the app, users are asked to agree to the terms and privacy, and that they are 16+ or are consenting parents. However, there is no age gate present to check the age of the user or receive verifiable parental consent. It is easy to click accept without realizing the age restriction buried within the other points on the pop-up. This agreement is mentioned in the privacy policy, which was last updated on January 17, 2023. Other than this brief mention of the agreement, there are no mentions of children in this privacy policy.
AppQuantam states in their privacy policy that they do collect personal information, especially from linked gaming or social media accounts. They do use advertising identifiers and utilize targeted advertising. They mention that their data is stored both within and outside of the EU, and that agreement to the privacy policy does include agreements to transfer personal data to servers in EU and non-EU countries (specifically they mention servers in the United Arab Emirates). The privacy policy indicates that they do not sell data to third parties, however, they do have several “processors” that they share data with, including advertising services and analytics.
The policy also indicates that it will be updated once every 12 months, however, the date indicates that it has been over a year since it was last updated.
Find Pixalate's full catalogue of reviews in our CTV and Mobile App Review Page
Screenshots of Doorman Story: Hotel Simulator
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.
