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 Roku Channel 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.
PBC is entertainment for all in which families can either watch their preferred most recent PBC shows or access movies and live content. Under Learning and Fun Time in the app, the visual content is interactive and engaging for kids under 13. It has vibrant colorful cartoon graphics and characters. PBC has animation-based learning videos that make education fun and boost kids' understanding. The app has a wide range of content, including live content, movies, and shows. For example, there are categories such as War, Financial News, Family, and much more. In the About Us section, it states, “entertainment for the entire family,” which shows that it is child-directed in a mixed audience.
There is no age gate. Once searched on Roku, the app is available to download and use without a subscription. It is located in the Movies & TV category in the Roku store.
Privacy
The developer’s privacy policy states, “PBC and our providers may collect the following information from and about children...persistent identifiers…to deliver contextual advertisement…make a child’s information available to certain third-party service providers…who help us manage and provide the PBC services. ”
Find Pixalate's full catalogue of reviews in our CTV and Mobile App Review Page
Screenshots of PBC
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.
