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 game which is available from the Google Play Store & 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.
Monkey Junior provides lessons, videos, and interactive phonics-based activities to help children learn to read and write in English. This app was previously subtitled, “Learn to Read” but is now called “English for Kids.” Whether it is advertising teaching reading or ESL, this app focuses on teaching beginning phonics which is a foundational skill for both learning the language and reading.
As a teacher who has worked quite a bit with English language learners, I do feel compelled to comment on the way phonics is being taught within this app. This app does not present pure phonemic sounds but adds the schwa/uh sounds to the end of the sounds (m-uh-a-p instead of m-a-p). While this extra schwa sound can be confusing for all children learning to read, it is especially confusing for children who are learning English as they do not have the background knowledge to draw on for these words.
The animation and visual style of this app is very appealing to toddlers and young children. Max the Monkey and other animated characters seem to be baby animals and the simple animations engage the children, while also demonstrating how to interact with the app. For example, the characters might cup a hand to their ear to indicate that they want the user to answer a question or repeat after them. The neutral backgrounds help to set off the brightly colored items in the foreground, drawing attention to the games and videos.
In addition to the animations, some of the videos also feature actors to present easy-to-follow lessons. These lessons are filmed with a green screen, so the background and other visuals are animated around the actor. Although these are recorded videos, not live lessons, the actors speak directly to the audience and give the children time to respond so they feel as if they are interacting with the characters on the screen.
The language within the app is on level for a toddler or other younger child. The instructions are all verbal with only the letters/blends from the lesson objectives displayed on the screen. Verbal praise is abundant for encouragement such as, “Great job, you’re so amazing!” Even when the user gives an incorrect answer, a “good try” or other positive response is given and the user is encouraged to try again.
Different background music is played on the home screen and within the different activities and videos. All of the music is very child-friendly and simple. There are plenty of sound effects that accompany the actions and animations within the app, such as smashing a block with the correct word into the open space in a sentence.
As children complete lessons they earn coins that can be used to buy clothing and accessories for Max the Monkey. Users can also unlock different stickers that can be used to decorate different scenes.
There is no external advertising within the app. This is a subscription-based app, so there are prompts when trialing the free levels to sign up for a subscription to the app.
Monkey Junior is rated 4+ in the Apple App Store, E for Everyone in the US Google Play Store, and PEGI 3 in the European Google Play Stores. The app description makes it clear that children are the targeted audience with numerous mentions of children in the description. The Apple App Store description states the app is “suitable for children of 2 - 10 years of age” and that the app “aims at helping children be fluent in English before the age of 10.” On the other hand, the Google Play Store description has a slightly larger age range, specifying the app is for “children ages 0-11.” Either way, the developers expect the users to be under 13.
The app reviews also reflect a child-directed audience, with most reviews having been written by parents of children who are using the app.
Privacy
According to the privacy policy, which does not have a publication date, the developers only indicate that they collect personal data that is given via logging in and registering for accounts or making purchases. Much of the information they indicate they collect is related to account management, such as contact information of users and synchronizing accounts across devices. They indicate that they do not share personal information with third parties.
Much of the app is subscription-based and requires an account, with the privacy policy reflecting this. The policy does indicate that the developers may collect personal data when logging in for a free trial lesson. However, I did not have to register for an account or log into anything when trialing the app for this review. The policy does not specifically mention the collection of any information from these types of users who are not registering or logged in to accounts.
Find Pixalate's full catalogue of reviews in our CTV and Mobile App Review Page
Screenshots of Monkey Junior - English for kids
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.
