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 game (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 screenshots for Youtube Kids uses language that is child directed, and bright visual animation that includes known children’s shows such as Peppa Pig, Sing Along Nursery, Blippi, Wolfoo, and more. The app allows parents or guardians to choose the age of the child such as preschool, younger and older in order to gear content towards the required age group. The description in the “about this app" section of the Play Store states “a safer online experience for kids. It features “family friendly videos on different topics, igniting your kids creativity and playfulness”. The subject matter also suggests that this app appeals to children.
The target audience are children. In the “about this app,” it says it is designed for kids under 4, and allows kids 5-8 to play as well as 9 and over. There is an age gate and requests virtual parental consent. However, an older child could easily use the app by clicking, “I am a parent.” From there they could skip the input of an email address and then open the app to watch shows by choosing the age range.
YouTube Kids has an Everyone E rating in the Google Play store. There are user reviews in the Google Play Store. One review from January of 2021 mentioned “...my little one loves YouTube Kids, she’s nearly 2 and can navigate the app pretty easily." A review from December of 2022 mentioned “...intuitive to use for little kids, works for my 2 yr old on long car trips.” These reviews were from parents.
Privacy:
The developer’s privacy policy was last updated on December 15, 2022. The policy states, “it does collect information about your child’s activity for services. " The rating in the iOS app is 4+ made for 0-5 and E for Everyone in the Google Play store.
Screenshots of YouTube Kids:
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.
