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.
Traffic Puzzle: Car Jam Escape is an engaging gameplay where players must solve different traffic puzzles using a clear-cut strategy to ensure trains, cars, ambulances, and helicopters can reach their destinations. It is a fun matching game where players swipe and match three or more cars to complete the level. The visual content and animation have colorful 3D cartoon graphics that are characteristics of child-oriented visuals. The characters' age game models appeal to children. The language in the about this game section states, “fun car puzzle games for kids but also adults.”
The advertisements are shown if the player runs out of moves, such as “Whiteout Survival,” to collect more moves. These ads are child-directed and have a mixed audience.
Players can get power boosters when clearing challenging levels that can be used when they have limited moves. Another incentive is a Joker that changes its color to one of the colors on the puzzle board to help eliminate the cars.
There is no age gate. The app does have in-app purchasing and in-game currency. It is rated E for Everyone in the Google Play store.
Privacy:
The developer’s privacy policy states, “Children are not permitted to use our games and services...we do our best to ensure that we do not collect information from or about children…we are not responsible for the ways in which third parties use your personal data.”
Find Pixalate's full catalogue of reviews in our CTV and Mobile App Review Page
Screenshots of Traffic Puzzle: Car Jam Escape
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.
