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 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.
Subway Surfers has an appealing, colorful appearance and fun animations that would appeal to younger gamers. The player controls a character who rides a hoverboard and is occasionally chased by a police officer. The game aims to collect as many coins as possible, as well as participate in other events and missions to gain rewards.
Subway Surfers has several incentives within the game to hook players and sustain their motivation to play. The incentives include collecting letters during levels to form a word, collecting points to redeem rewards, and progressing through tiers. There is also the option to watch adverts to unlock bonuses which can protect from crashing, increase running speed, or multiply coins. The game also links to Apple Music to enable users to listen to the game soundtrack.
Reviews found on the Apple Store and Google Store indicate that children under 13 play Subway Surfers, as well as older players.
Privacy:
Upon launching the game, users are asked to provide their age. The Developer has a separate Privacy Policy for younger players, presented in a graphic novel style. It provides details about what information they collect, how long the information is kept, whether the information is shared, and what control they have over their data.
Find Pixalate's full catalogue of reviews in our CTV and Mobile App Review Page
Screenshots of Subway Surfers
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.
