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 and 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.
The gameplay screenshots show cartoon animal characters that are visually zany with amusing graphics of a charming alligator named Swampy. The lively animation displays a short 5-second silly cartoon of the characters in between levels. Each level centers on Swampy in the shower at the bottom of the screen waiting for the trapped water in order to bathe. Players trace their fingers on the screen to create a path for the water to travel by removing dirt, blocks, levers, and switches. The visual and animation content is full of eye-catching humorously exaggerated graphics with child-directed characteristics. The music and sound effects are cartoon laughs, slips, and happiness of the characters with voice sounds such as whoosh, boing, and pop.
The advertisements such as Candy Crush Saga start right after entering age verification. When players start the game another ad begins such as Royal Match before the game is played. The ads are child-directed with a mixed audience.
The objective is to clear obstructions from the sewer framework to distribute steam or water to Swampy the alligator and his family. Players progress by unlocking levels and collecting a certain amount of duckies in every level to gain access to special challenges.
The game is rated E for Everyone in the Google play store and 4+ in the Apple Store. There is an age gate with 13 and under access permitted. The app shows evidence that children do use the app. A review posted on Google Play in December 2020 says, “It helped me develop good hand skills and strategy at the young age of 5 or so…I still play today. ” Another review on Google Play posted in August of 2022 says, ”This series of games has brought me joy and entertainment since I was a little kid.” No specific age was given by the reviewer.
Privacy:
The developer’s privacy policy states, ”We do not rent or sell personal information collected by or from any service or portion of service that is directed to children or where we know that the user is a child.
Screenshots of Where’s My Water? 2
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.
