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 game which is available from The Roku Channel Store, the Samsung CTV App Store, and the Amazon Fire TV 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.
Kiddo is a compilation of 10 different television shows for children to watch. Although the videos center around different subjects, the language in each is directed toward young children. Many are educational, with descriptions mentioning specific curriculum ties or developmental milestones.
Shows that can be found on Kiddo:
As the videos are from a variety of different shows they have incredibly different visual aesthetics, but each is appealing to children in its own way. The shows are a mix of animation, puppets, and live-action. Whichever medium the show features, they all primarily center around child characters- whether human or animal.
Most of the videos have childlike and fun music playing in the background, while a few also feature educational songs.
There is no advertising in the Kiddo app.
The app itself is called ‘Kiddo,’ reflecting that the developers expect kids to be using the app. The description in the app store indicates that Kiddo is “the very happy place for kids to learn cool things.” Additionally, the descriptions of the individuals shown within the app all indicate that children are the primary audience being targeted. The Theo the Mouse Show advertises that it is for “Key Stage 1 children aged between 5-7 with all episodes being linked to the current UK national curriculum.” Sooty states it is the “longest-running children’s TV show in the world.” Hooray Hippo was “developed for boys and girls in the pre-school and early year age group.” Little Smart Planet was “created especially for children aged 1 to 5.” Super Geek Heroes “relates to the key development areas within the Early Years Foundation Stage” and “educates and entertains children while enhancing their development through preschool and early years education.”
This targeted audience can also be seen in Kiddo’s rating of All Ages on the Amazon App Store, included as part of the Kids & Family category in the Roku App Store, and the Education category on the Samsung TV App Store. Roku and Samsung do not collect written reviews on their apps but reviews on Amazon are primarily from parents that have downloaded Kiddo for their young children.
Privacy:
According to the privacy policy, which was last updated on July 10, 2020, Kiddo does not collect any personally identifiable information. They state they are in compliance with COPPA and that they do not request or encourage any type of personal information to be submitted in any way.
Screenshots of Kiddo
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.
