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 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.
At its heart, Water Splash - Cool Match 3 is a match three game. Similar to Candy Crush or Royal Match, users must match three of the same blocks to clear them from the board. Each time you make a match, water flows through the cleared tiles. The goal is to fill the entire board with water which helps direct the water away from the mean crocodile and back to the village the crocodile stole the water from. The levels are simple at the start, easy enough for children to complete on their own. The game slowly get more difficult as the player progresses through the levels.
All of the characters are animals, no humans are found in this game. The animal characters and the other graphics are very cartoonlike with cutesy colors (a pink elephant) and exaggerated expressions (devastated to have no water and overjoyed when water is restored). This visual style is more appealing to children than adults. While some adults might also find this posthumanist world charming, others may find it too childish.
Despite this, the graphics during the actual gameplay are a bit more neutral with the same colors and shapes that you would expect in a match-three game. As most users would likely focus on this more than the story, I would classify this app more as a mixed audience rather than purely child-directed.
The instructions are simple and easy to follow. In addition to reading the text, the game also has little videos that illustrate what the player needs to do. This ensures that even the younger players who might not be able to read can understand how to play.
Motivational phrases centered around the water theme, like “water pool” instead of wonderful, are a bit corny but also the type of thing that would invoke some giggles from a kid.
There are plenty of sound effects, with nearly every action in the game and on the home screen making some sort of sound. Water flowing, blocks popping, and fireworks all match the accompanying actions and animations within the game. Outside of the main gameplay, even clicking buttons and the pop-ups that appear on the screen have accompanying sounds.
Certain combinations when clearing the screen are named (Splash, Waterfall, etc). When hitting these combos the word pops up on the screen and is also spoken aloud by what sounds like a child. Other sounds spoken by a child (oohs and ahhs) are also played during a level.
Upon completing a level, stars and coins are earned based on how well a player did during the game.
The stars are more of an intrinsic incentive, players can go back and repeat a level to earn all three stars. There are even reviews in the app stores where the user mentions doing exactly this.
The coins are the extrinsic incentive. They can be used before starting a level to purchase boosters to assist in gameplay, such as extra moves or items that eliminate blocks.
Video ads play before starting a level and additional ads can be watched to earn extra coins or boosters. There is also a banner ad that is displayed across the bottom of the home screen. There are a variety of different advertisements shown, but they predominantly seem to be for other mixed audiences and child-directed apps and games.
The app description doesn’t specify a specific target audience. However, the description in the Google Play Store mentions “This cool water games is perfect for players of all ages” and uses numerous emojis in the description, implying a younger audience is expected. The Apple App Store does not have any emojis or sentences about being for all ages. Water Splash - Cool Match 3 is rated 4+ in the Apple App Store, PEGI 3 in the European App Store, and E for Everyone in the US Google Play Store.
Reviews indicate a mixed audience, with most reviews from adults but many adults indicating that they play with their children and grandchildren.
Privacy
According to the privacy policy, which was last updated on January 1, 2020, NSTAGE’s “services are not directed at children under the age of 13 (or under the age of 16 in European Countries, collectively ‘Children’). Children are not permitted to use our Services, and we do not knowingly collect any personal information from them.” They go on to recognize that some of their games might appeal to children and mention the implementation of age gates to “limit access to these Services based on the player or user’s age.” However, there is no age gate present in Water Splash to restrict children from playing or any attempt at obtaining parental consent.
The privacy policy primarily discusses information shared via messaging support, Facebook connection, and other optional ways of passing on information. It does mention that the developers do use target advertising and that they may share anonymous data with third parties or allow third parties to directly collect information such as performance data, technical information, and other analytics.
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Screenshots of Water Splash - Cool Match 3
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.
