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. 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.
Our Sandman is a fun free engaging inventive world where players get to play with adorable animals, fly and ride in rockets and trains, role-play with comical glasses, and hats, and mix magic elixirs. Players have a menu of different cool mini-games such as puzzles, bedtime stories, memory games, and playground running games with jumping abilities. There is also a media library with audio and video content where players can create, record, save, and remix. The subject matter, of this app, says, “Children learn…understanding the world,” which shows that the language and other characteristics are directed at children. The visual content has colorful cartoon graphics similar to stop motion animation which has characteristics of child-oriented activities. The app is appealing and offers charming ways for kids to interact with thoughtful play experiences.
No in-app ads were noticed during play.
The app is rated E for Everyone on Google Play and rated 4+ in the iOS store. There is no age gate. The app is in German and English. A review posted in January 2014 on the Google Play store says, “My son loves it.” In December of 2020 in the Google Play store, a review stated, “Mein Sohn Liebt es!... (translates) My son loves it.” Another review posted in March of 2023 in the iOS store says, “Zone“ war einfach beliebter bei uns Kindern - und nun können meine Kinder das Sandmännchen in Texas genießen…(translates) Zone“ war einfach belieZone” was simply more popular with us children - and now my children can enjoy the Sandman in Texas.” The reviews do not specify age.
Privacy:
The developer’s privacy policy does not have a COPPA policy. It does state, “rbb generally only collects and uses personal data from its user to an extent that this is necessary to provide functional app as well as the content and services.”
Find Pixalate's full catalogue of reviews in our CTV and Mobile App Review Page
Screenshots of Our Sandman
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.
