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 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.
Amanda’s Review:
The app we’re going to look at today is from the Google Play Store; a video playback app with over 50 million downloads. I’ll discuss how the subjective factors set forth in the COPPA Rule apply to the app and factor into my determination as to whether the app is child-directed or general audience (i.e., it is not targeting children).
and
Video Player All Format is an app that allows users to have more control over video playback. As a utility tool that requires some reading and tutorial guidance to understand how to use functions within the app, the subject matter of Video Player All Format is geared towards adults. Additionally, looking at the design of the tools built within the app, visually the app is built with dark colors and does not directly appeal to children.
Ads appear on the top bar where you can search for files. As I was testing this app, I saw an ad for the Firefox browser and an app called “HD Video Player All Formats.” I did not see any advertisements directed to children while testing this app.
As with the previous app, I conducted a keyword search through the reviews looking for anyone under the age of 13 indicating they were using the app. I did not find any evidence in the reviews of anyone under the age of 13 using the app.
Privacy
This app updated their privacy policy on November 24, 2022 and now includes a section about users under the age of 13: “XPlayer mainly provides its products and services to people over 13 years old.” They go on to say that it is the responsibility of guardians of those wanting to use the app who are under the age of 13 to understand the terms of use.
Screenshots of Video Play All Format:
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.
