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 game (1 million+ downloads) from the Google Play and 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.
The gameplay screenshots for Dragons: Rise of Berk have visual content that is entertaining with images of dragons, villages, battles, and fantasy that would appeal to a mixed audience. The subject matter would also appeal to children as well as adults. The app store description says, “rescue, hatch and train your dreamworks dragon and reveal new powers that will help to ensure the future of your island.”
The licensed app has quality sounds such as dragons shouting, music and sound effects which are similar to the movie, “How to train your dragon.” that the app is based on. This makes the experience of playing more cinematic.
The incentive of the game is to build a village, collect dragons, train them and then send them out to collect resources. Eventually getting them ready for battles.
This game is rated E for Everyone in the Google Play Store and 4+ in the Apple store. There is an age gate but no matter the age you are still able to use the app. It shows evidence that children use the app. "In January 2022, a reviewer said, “daughter enjoys it.” It was a parent but age was not specified.
Privacy:
The developer’s privacy policy was last updated in May 2019. The policy states, “ we do not intend to collect children’s personal information. We will not knowingly collect personal information directly from children and will remove such data.”
Screenshots of Dragons: Rise of Berk:
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.
