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 & Apple App Stores. 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.
Suspects: Mystery Mansion is a murder mystery game where players have to guess who the killer is among a group of six players. Players are designated as guests or the killer and set specific tasks to achieve each round. After the round concludes they are given time to discuss who they believe the murderer is. After each discussion players are given the opportunity to vote on who they suspect the murder is and that player is then kicked out of the mansion. If the guests vote out the killer then the remaining players win. If they vote out an innocent player then they go for another round and the killer has another opportunity to strike. Players who are killed or kicked out during gameplay can return to the round as a ghost but are unable to vote for the killer.
While this seems a bit complicated at first, once you play a few rounds and get a feel for the game it is quite simple. The murder mystery premise and being able to vote off other players is appealing to upper elementary-aged children and adults.
Players are able to choose their own animal avatar to use within the game. These animals are child-friendly animations. They have huge heads, tiny bodies, and bright colors. The mansion itself is visually appealing to children and arrows point the way to the required tasks.
There is suspenseful music that plays in the background while playing which adds to the mysterious vibe of the game.
Parents should be cautious of this game because a large part of it involves children speaking with strangers. While most of the other players do seem to be children (or possibly the app groups players by age), this does not prevent them from having inappropriate discussions or using inappropriate language. Players are able to talk with each other throughout the game, but mostly during the break between rounds when they vote on who they think the killer is.
Points are given upon completion of the game based on how well you did in the game. Players can use these points to unlock additional avatars and rewards. IQ points are also awarded which allow you to play more complicated games. This groups beginning players together and more advanced players together to maintain a well-balanced game.
After a few ad-free games each day, video ads are shown before gameplay for any subsequent games. Optional ads can also be viewed to earn extra rewards. The ads are primarily for other mixed-audience game-based apps.
Suspects: Mystery Mansion is rated 12+ on the Apple App Store, Everyone 10+ on the American Google Play Store, and PEGI 7 on the European Google Play Stores. The developers include a separate children’s privacy policy with child-friendly language and an infographic reflecting their intention that children will be playing this game.
The audience composition reflects the developer’s intentions with many reviews from children. Children between the ages of 7 and 13 seem to be playing this game often, but some reviews mention the possibility of even younger players.
Privacy:
Suspects have both a standard privacy policy, which was last updated on March 3, 2023, and a separate children’s privacy policy which was last updated on March 30, 2022. The children’s privacy policy breaks down the information that is collected in a simple and easy-to-understand way.
There is an age gate upon first downloading the app that requires the user to enter their age. The children’s privacy policy mentions that they may gather parental consent to allow children to participate in the voice chat. However, when I entered the age of 9 in the app, I did not receive a prompt for parental permissions on either the Android or Apple versions.
The children’s privacy policy provides a nice infographic detailing the types of information they collect and what they do with it.
Screenshots of Suspects: Mystery Mansion:
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.
