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.
Fruit Ninja game requires players to swipe across the screen to slice fruit as it is being launched in the air. It can be played in three modes such as classic, zen, and arcade. In the gameplay, players have to cut as much fruit as possible without allowing any parts of them to fall to the ground. Players have to avoid hitting the bombs that fly across the screen, and as you advance, players will get a combination of various fruits to slice in a single cut. The game is advantageous for hand and eye coordination. The visual content and animation have simple 3D cartoonish graphics that are characteristics of child-oriented visuals.
The advertisements are shown if the player needs to add more time or between levels, such as, “Space Shooter Galaxy Attack and Going Balls.” These ads are child-directed with a mixed audience.
Players can earn points with different combinations and unlock new blades and backgrounds.
There is an age gate that does not affect gameplay. The app does have in-app purchasing and in-game currency. It is rated E for Everyone in the Google Play store and 4+ in the iOS store. A review posted in December of 2022 in the Google Play store says, “I played Fruit Ninja since I was a toddler.” Another review in the Google Play store in December of 2021 says, “The satisfaction factor has been unmatched since release when I was a young kid.” Another review in the iOS store posted in January 2023 says, “ I played this game when I was a little kid, and so did my little sister.” All three reviews have no age specification.
Privacy:
The developer’s privacy policy states, “We do not knowingly contact or collect information from children under 13 without the permissions of their parents/guardians...we share your advertising ID with our advertising partners…we use your data to provide product, support, advertisement, support, development, improvement, and perform our analytics.”
Find Pixalate's full catalogue of reviews in our CTV and Mobile App Review Page
Screenshots of Fruit Ninja
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.
