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.
Talking John Dog: Funny Dog interactive gameplay has players talk with John the dog and he replies in a humorous voice. The dog responds to players and whatever they express with each touch. The talking dog does essentially the same things as an ordinary dog but in a ridiculous way. The app has an assortment of embedded mini games for players to play in order to use for the dogs needs and entertainment . The subject matter in the about this app says, “talking dog…funny voice,” that kids find entertaining. The visual content and animation has colorful 3D animated light hearted pet simulation animation. This virtual pet simulator is able to charm and engage players with simplicity.
There are advertisements that play between the mini games. There are ads directed to children with a mixed audience, such as, “My Cat, Baby Babsy Amusement Park 3D, and Cat Leo Run-Talking Cat Run.” The free game runs ads at the top right of the screen constantly.
The app is rated E for Everyone in the Google Play store. There is no age gate but there is in-app purchasing. A review posted in September of 2020 on the Google Play store says, “I like and love the puppy’s...I am 8 years old.” Another review posted in April of 2022 says, “I really like this. I'm 8 when I was playing this, now I’m 11.” The reviews show evidence that children use the app.
Privacy:
The developer’s privacy policy says, “does not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13...we use information to understand and optimize how our Apps are used, improve marketing efforts.”
Find Pixalate's full catalogue of reviews in our CTV and Mobile App Review Page
Screenshots of Talking John Dog: Funny Dog
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.
