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.
Mirror Cakes is a fun simple interactive cake baking game with mirror glaze that players decorate. Players blend the cake ingredients as directed by the recipe and sprinkle the glaze over the cake. The glaze impersonates the sky with a mirror appearance. With each task completed, players create more lavish beautiful cakes with different recipes that are satisfying to the eye. Players decorate and snap photos of their work in the app. The animation and visual content have vibrant and colorful graphics with a simple-to-use interface that is child-directed with a mixed audience appeal.
Advertisements are shown throughout in a bottom banner that are geared towards a general audience with ads such as, “Audible and Kroger.” Some advertisements are child-directed with a mixed audience such as, “Goods Sort-Sorting Games.” These ads are shown in between gameplay during the game and after you complete each food design.
The app is rated 4+ in the iOS store and E for Everyone on the Google Play store. The app is ready to use after download with no age gate.
Privacy:
The developer’s privacy policy does not have a COPPA policy. It does state, “We will transfer, store, and use information…to understand you and your preferences…deliver advertising and promotional information…link or combine it with other information we get from third parties.”
Find Pixalate's full catalogue of reviews in our CTV and Mobile App Review Page
Screenshots of Mirror Cakes
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.
