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.
Users play as the character of Barry Steakfries, a character who also appears in Age of Zombies and Monster Dash. He comes equipped with a jet pack which is controlled by simply touching the screen. A press propels the character upwards, release and he falls back down. As in most endless runner games, the aim is to collect coins and avoid obstacles.
The number of coins collected and the distance traveled are shown in the top left of the playing screen. The player achieves a star rating for how well they progress. There are also missions available, which keep refreshing once the last ones are achieved. There are also many different jet packs and vehicles to collect as the game progresses. The game features some crossovers with other cultural icons, such as the DeLorean from Back to the Future, and Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters. We know from popular games such as Fortnite that these sideways references are often extremely popular with players of all ages.
Reviews found on the Apple App Store indicate that the app is used by players both under and over the age of 13.
Privacy:
When launching the app, users are asked to provide their age. It states that this information will not affect the gameplay. It does not immediately provide any other information about why this information is needed or how it is used. Being under 13 is not a barrier to playing and users of any age can proceed.
Find Pixalate's full catalogue of reviews in our CTV and Mobile App Review Page
Screenshots of Jetpack Joyride
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.
