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 & Apple App 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.
In the gameplay for Color Island: Pixel Art, players pick a picture to begin coloring and follow the numbers to see the colors fill the image. Players color and create beautiful pixel art islands. The island that the player is on will grow once your artwork is finished. Images are added to the land after it has been painted, and players receive happiness points and stars. The visual content and animation artwork are bright and colorful with an array of pixel graphics. The app can help with creativity, stress relief, and concentration. It is a calming activity that can divert your attention from other things, making it ideal for both adults and kids.
The advertisements are shown to collect rewards such as “Blue Escape: Traffic Jam.” These ads are directed to a mixed audience.
To unlock new islands to explore and color, players will need to earn stars and happiness points. Players can also locate and utilize power-ups to finish any image quickly.
There is no age gate, but the app does have in-app purchasing. It is rated E for Everyone in the Google Play store and 12+ in the iOS store.
Privacy:
The developer’s privacy policy states, “the services are not intended for use by children…we do not knowingly collect personal information from children through the services…when you interact with our services, we are collecting personal information about you.”
Find Pixalate's full catalogue of reviews in our CTV and Mobile App Review Page
Screenshots of Manor Cafe - Match 3 Puzzle
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.
