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 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 Fidget Toy Maker show that the visual content is directed at children. The player creates pop toys by dragging the colorful material and placing it in the toy-shaped mold. Once they are placed in the mold the player presses them into the shape and afterwards pops the bubbles. The subject matter has characteristics directed to children with words such as toy and phrases like, ”pop the bubbles.” The sounds in the game are bells and whistle to create an immersive game experience.
Some advertisements show between each gameplay and at the bottom of the screen while playing. These ads are Wordscapes, Feelsy, Audible, Kindle, and CNN. Most of the ads are directed to a mixed audience and others are directed to adults.
The game is rated E for Everyone in the Google play store and 9+ in the Apple Store. There is no age gate. The app shows evidence that children do use the app. A review posted on google play in November of 2021 says, “I’m 8 years old and I’m using my mom’s red phone and this game is awesome.” Another google play review in October of 2021 says, “ ..I’m 10 years old…I should be talking about how good the game is…”
Privacy:
The developer’s privacy policy states, “we do not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under 16."
Screenshots of Fidget Toy Maker
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.
