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 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.
‘My Little Green Guard,’ also known as ‘Little Panda Green Guard,’* encourages kids to clean up the environment through a variety of minigames. Guided by an animated panda they can help by cleaning up the park, removing litter, blasting bacteria from the water supply, trimming shrubs, and planting trees. There are seven simple mini-games that can be played as many times as the player wishes.
*The title of this app within the Google Play Store is ‘Little Panda Green Guard.’ However, once downloaded the app shows as ‘My Little Green Guard’ on the phone and at all points within the app. Apple has My Little Green Guard as the app title in all places.
The animations are very child-like, featuring a cute panda that wears a robot suit. Other animal characters make appearances, all matching the child-friendly animation styles. Even the items being cleaned up are happy and childlike- such as the smiling clouds of dust when cleaning the windows or the cheering piles of dirt as a tree is being planted.
All of the language within the app is verbal, giving simple and easy-to-follow narration and instructions for children. Lines such as, “Bad rat, stop littering” or “I am going to trim the trees into a pretty shape,” help to give children context for the mini-games they are playing. Pulsing circles and hands guide even the youngest players on where to click and what actions to take to interact with the app.
There is playful music in the background with plenty of sound effects to match the actions being completed. The Panda narrates in a child-like voice, further emphasizing the child-directed nature of the sounds within the app.
Each time a mini-game is completed, Panda celebrates with a little dance while stars shoot off like fireworks behind him. There are no other complex incentives to keep track of, making a simple incentive system for young children to understand.
Other Babybus games are advertised as banner ads on the home screen and occasionally as full-page advertisements when transitioning within the game. This is the extent of the advertising that I saw on the Android app. However, the Apple version also contains outside video advertisements that play between minigames and banner ads across the top of the game. These advertisements tend to be for mixed audience games and apps.
My Little Green Guard is rated 4+ on the Apple App Store, E in the US Google Play Store, and PEGI 3 in the European Google Play Stores. The app description mentions that the developers have “fans from ages 0-8 around the world” and makes it clear that they create child-directed apps. This is reflected in the reviews for the app, with most reviews appearing to be written by children alongside reviews from parents about their children using the app.
Privacy
According to the privacy policy, which was last updated in August 2022, BabyBus indicates that children must obtain parental consent before playing their apps. However, there is nothing in place within the app to enforce this parental consent. That being said, BabyBus indicates that they only collect non-personal identifiable information such as IP addresses, device information, usage data, and country or city-specific location information. They state that they do work with advertisers that may implement tracking to display targeted ads and give instructions on how to disable this tracking if desired.
Find Pixalate's full catalogue of reviews in our CTV and Mobile App Review Page
Screenshots of My Little Green Guard-BabyBus
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.
