Mobile App Manual Review under COPPA Rule: ‘Hogwarts Mystery'

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Hogwarts Mystery is a game set in the Wizarding World that appeals to Harry Potter fans of all ages. New players are sorted into their Hogwarts Houses and can then attend classes, make friends, play quidditch, take care of magical creatures, and more. The game story is set before Harry heads to Hogwarts, meaning Harry, Ron, and Hermione do not appear in this game. However, other well-known characters such as Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, Snape, Bill Weasley, and Tonks make appearances. While not celebrities per se, these popular characters are recognized and admired the same way a musician or athlete might be by both children and adults.

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This app depicts an animated Hogwarts, including moving paintings, bubbling potions, and trees swaying in a breeze. The animation is a more realistic style that appeals to both adults and children. Users are able to customize their own avatar from a wide selection of skin tones, facial features, hair styles/colors, and clothing. While much of the game is focused on the user’s avatar, the background contains numerous animations and characters. The avatar and other student characters start out in Year 1 and progress school years through gameplay. This means that the user created main character in the app is only 11 years old upon the start of the game. The younger age of the characters would primarily appeal to children, while the animation and visual content of the app would appeal to adults and children alike.

Incentives are given as players progress through the game. Stars can be earned in classes, house points can be awarded by teachers, and courage/empathy/knowledge points are earned as tasks are completed in the game. This blended approach of incentives helps this game appeal to children and adults alike. Children are likely more motivated by physically receiving stars and house points, while adults might enjoy their character developing with the personality points. The enthusiastic animations when the character accomplishes a task are appealing to all ages and encourages the player to continue on with the next task.

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Hogwarts Mystery is rated 12+ on the Apple App Store and Teen in the US Google Play store. However, the app is rated PEGI 7 in the European Google Play Stores. The reviews indicate that there are both adults and children playing this game. While the app description indicates that users must be over 13 to play, there is no age gate enforcing this upon downloading the game. In my experience working as an elementary school librarian, Harry Potter books and games were incredibly popular with the 3rd-5th grade students and a Harry Potter game, such as this, would be of high interest to them.

There are no ads within the normal gameplay of this app and one could potentially play this game without ever watching an advertisement. However, the option of watching ads is often given to earn more of the coins, diamonds, or energy needed to play the game. The advertisements shown are generally for other mixed-audience games that would appeal to both adults and children.

Privacy

According to the Jam City privacy policy, which was last updated in 2020, the developer indicates that children are not the expected audience of their apps. They indicate that if children select that they are under 13 they will not collect any data from them without parental consent. With that being said, I was not asked to provide any age information or agree to being over 13 upon download of this game.

The privacy policy and rating of this app in the different app stores reflect the developers intention of a more general audience app. However, the content and reviews indicate it is more of a child-directed, mixed audience.