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 My brother ate my pudding is about a little boy who stole his sister’s pudding and now he has to find his way around the house to hide from her retribution. It is a game that has a sense of humor intertwined with the silliness of the puzzling hiding spots which gets more challenging along the way. The background music is the same comical synthesized electronic music on a loop. The age of the animations is that of an older sister and younger brother. Each level has a different room with easy hiding places by utilizing the elements in the environment. Players also earn hints by watching an in-game ad video. The game exudes immediate delightful graphics that are simple hand-drawn comics. It’s an adventure game that gives you a reason to laugh and helps you think outside the box.
There is advertising shown at the top of the screen while playing and also in between levels such as TikTok. In between levels or when claiming a hint, ads such as jigsaw puzzles are shown. These ads are geared toward a general audience.
The game is rated E for Everyone in the Google Play Store and 9+ in the Apple Store. There is no age gate available. Once downloaded the game is readily available to play immediately. A review posted in October of 2021 says, “aw I really love this game since I was a kid.” There was no age specified.
Privacy:
The developer’s privacy policy does not have a COPPA policy.
Screenshots of My Brother ate my pudding
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.
