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.
Lep’s World is a runner-style platformer game. Players move the Leprechaun through a range of habitats encountering distinctive challenges. The gameplay screenshots for Lep’s World show that it is charming and easy to play with amazing graphic animations. Players simply use the navigation buttons to move the Leprechaun. The lovely rainbow gives a sense of happiness, accompanied by a fantastic fun arcade-like soundtrack. Players must complete each level within a constrained amount of time if not you fail. Every time you fail, you can attempt to resurrect yourself by eating blue gems or starting over from the beginning. The game does have the ability to play as a multiplayer through Facebook synchronization. It is helps build fine motor skills and coordination through entertainment.
The incentive is to help Lep find his gold that is hidden at different levels of the game through different world themes and tough enemies.
The game is rated E for Everyone in the Google Play Store and 12+ in the Apple Store. There is an age gate available. Once downloaded the game is readily available to play immediately after choosing under or over 16 years of age. A review posted in November of 2021 says, “I can tell by the view of small kids ‘cause I am myself 11 years.” In November 2019 a parent posted, “my 5 year old son asks to play it while we are waiting at the doctor's office.” Another review posted in August of 2021 by a parent said, “ totally enjoyable for an awarded player like my daughter..she is 7 years old.”
Privacy:
The developer’s privacy policy says, “we do not knowingly market to or collect, use or disclose information from children under the age of 13.”
Screenshots of Leps World
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.
