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 for Dinosaur Rampage show the animated graphics of the animal characters geared toward children based on the use of colorful and easy-to-use appeal. The game is about dinosaurs moving through a city and finishing off everyone in their sight.
The advertisements directed to children are shown in between levels such as, “Aquarium Land and Grow Animals.”
Players collect gold coins to make their dinosaurs stronger while moving through the city destroying buildings. The incentive of the game is to obliterate the city and devour more humans than your rivals to win.
The game is rated E for Everyone in the Google play store and 9+ in the Apple Store. There is no age gate. The app shows evidence that children do view the app. A review posted on Google Play in June 2020 says, “I downloaded this for my son to play but ended up getting addicted myself.” The parent did not specify the age of the son. Another review on Google Play posted in September of 2019 says,” my 4 year old loves it.”
Privacy:
The developer’s privacy policy states, “we do not knowingly collect or solicit any personal information from anyone under the age of 16.
Screenshots of Dinosaur Rampage
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.
