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.
Stress-Free Jigsaw Puzzles is a virtual puzzle app where users can assemble a wide range of puzzles from easy to difficult. The easiest puzzles can contain less than 10 pieces, while the more difficult ones can be over 100. The options for several pieces vary depending on the picture that is selected, but there are usually more than three different options to provide differentiation for a variety of ages and skill levels.
There are a wide variety of images that make up the different jigsaw puzzle selections. Silly animals might appeal more to children, while picturesque landscapes might be more appealing for adults. Players can even use their own photos to generate a puzzle. The simple interface makes the images on the puzzles the real focus, and also is appealing to children and adults.
This app relies primarily on the intrinsic reward of completing a puzzle as the primary incentive system, rather than complex extrinsic systems that accumulate coins/jewels/etc. When placing a puzzle in the correct place on the board, a dinging can be heard and the puzzle sticks onto the board. This reinforces the correct placement of the puzzle piece and provides a mini incentive for placing the pieces. When the main puzzle is complete, the puzzle flashes and a chime is heard. Puzzles can also be saved to photos or shared with friends to show the accomplishment. This simple incentive helps ensure the app is easy to navigate for players of all ages.
A banner ad is present at the bottom of the screen whenever the app is open. These ads are general audience and for a variety of goods, services, and apps. While most of them do appear to be more national brands, there are some indications that very broad location data might be used for advertisements. While I did not see anything specific to my area, there were a few advertisements for things in the broader mid-Atlantic area.
The description reflects a mixed audience, stating that the app is, “fun for all ages and skill levels!” Stress Free Jigsaw Puzzles is rated 4+ in the Apple App Store. Reviews also reflect a mixed audience, with quite a few reviews from grandparents that are doing the puzzles alongside their grandchildren.
Privacy
According to the privacy policy, which was last updated on December 26, 2023, Boy Howdy “do[es] not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13 except as permitted by U.S. law. For example, we may collect certain types of information (e.g., IDFAs) from apps for activities that fit within the ‘support for internal operations’ exception from the notice and consent requirements in the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule.” There was not an age gate in place to check the age of the users that play.
Boy, Howdy does state that they collect location information, however, they also state in parenthesis, “We no longer use GPS-level location detection or location-based leaderboards, although we may use your IP address to determine at a very coarse level where you are located in terms of Country or State to enable or disable services, for example, to disable analytics for EU users.” They also collect device information, which includes IP addresses and device IDs. They share collected information with third parties, including service and advertising partners.
Find Pixalate's full catalogue of reviews in our CTV and Mobile App Review Page
Screenshots of Stress Free Jigsaw Puzzles
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.
