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.
Bottle shooting Game is an enjoyable simple shooting game in which players point their slingshot and shoot bottles down and break them to finish the level in order to get a high score. Every level has an increased complexity and players have to use precision to master it up to 60 levels. The visual content and animation have simple colorful graphics that use animated child-oriented activities and incentives. The language in the about me section says, “suitable for all ages.” Overall the game is a lighthearted experience that provides hours of leisure.
The advertisements are shown throughout the game in abundance. Once the game is downloaded there is an ad shown first such as, “TikTok.” There is a widget shown on the home and game screen showing advertisements. One of the ads is about turning off ads and once clicked it goes to an external website that is not about turning off ads but what you can do on your Android phone. Advertisements show up after you clear a level which include, “Wal-mart, Marble Match Classic, and Temu.” In order to continue playing, players have to watch a video advertisement, such as, “Toon Blast.” The majority of the ads are geared toward a general audience and a few towards a mixed audience.
The app is rated E for Everyone in the Google Play store. There is no age gate but you can play for free even offline.
Privacy:
The developer’s privacy policy is directly on the website. It does not have a COPPA policy. The policy does state, “We will use your information to provide you with our personalized services..you are expressing your agreement to this Policy and the processing of your data.”
Find Pixalate's full catalogue of reviews in our CTV and Mobile App Review Page
Screenshots of Bottle Shooting Game
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.
