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ComplianceCOPPA

COPPA compliance tools

Assess the likely audience and COPPA risk of mobile and CTV apps, then act on it in the MRT, Analytics, data feeds and APIs.

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is a U.S. federal law that protects the online privacy of children under 13. Pixalate’s COPPA compliance tools give you two assessments for each mobile and connected TV (CTV) app, so you can find inventory that may carry COPPA risk:

  • COPPA Audience: whether the app is likely child-directed (including mixed audience) or likely general audience.
  • COPPA Violation Risk: a low, medium, high or critical rating that combines the audience assessment with the app’s privacy policy and data signals.

Both assessments are Pixalate’s opinions, based on automated processing and manual review. They are not legal conclusions or legal advice. See the disclaimer.

Video (2.5 min): how Pixalate assesses COPPA audience and violation risk.

What you can do

TaskWhere
Look up one app’s COPPA Audience, risk rating and the reasons behind themMedia Ratings Terminal (MRT) Insights
Find or exclude apps by COPPA signals, alongside IVT, viewability, brand safety and other dataMRT Discovery and exclusion lists
Monitor the COPPA risk in your own campaign or network trafficAnalytics compliance reports
Block or flag child-directed and high-risk apps before the bidCOPPA pre-bid data feeds
Add COPPA fields to your own systemsEnrichment API, coppa object for mobile apps and CTV apps
Understand what each field and reason code meansData dictionary and reason codes

What you can see in each tool depends on your Pixalate subscription. For access, contact your Pixalate account manager.

Coverage

  • Mobile apps in the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
  • CTV apps in the Roku and Amazon Fire TV app stores.

Use cases

  • Audit your own COPPA compliance processes using the COPPA Audience and COPPA Violation Risk data feeds.
  • Monitor likely child-directed apps in your ad or inventory network, and your potential COPPA risk exposure based on your campaign traffic.
  • Review an app’s likely intended audience, privacy policy and data collection permissions.
  • Search app privacy policies for COPPA-related keywords.

Supply-side platforms, publishers and exchanges

  • Monitor your network’s exposure to likely child-directed apps with Analytics compliance reports.
  • Scale and supplement your manual app review with Pixalate’s automated COPPA Audience and risk assessments.
  • Identify the apps and publishers in your network that carry the highest concentration of potential COPPA risk.
  • Automate pre-bid workflows for likely child-directed apps with the COPPA Audience data feed.
  • Check an app’s or publisher’s COPPA data points in the MRT before you onboard it.
  • Search app content with your own keyword list to find apps likely intended for children.

Demand-side platforms, buyers and advertisers

  • Build targeting or exclusion lists by filtering apps in the MRT on COPPA risk and audience assessment.
  • Block risky inventory from your campaigns with the COPPA Violation Risk data feed.
  • Use post-bid Analytics to see your COPPA risk exposure across campaigns and inventory sources.

How the assessments work

Pixalate assesses an app’s likely audience from app store signals such as categories, content ratings and child-related keywords in the app name or description. Educators on Pixalate’s Trust and Safety Advisory Board also review apps manually, using the child-directed factors in the FTC’s COPPA Rule, and a manual review can change an app’s assessment.

The Violation Risk rating adds signals about the app’s data practices: whether a privacy policy is detected, whether a mobile app has sensitive device permissions, and whether the app’s ad traffic passes residential IP addresses or location data.

For the full methodology, see Pixalate’s COPPA methodology for mobile apps and COPPA methodology for CTV apps. For the rules behind each result, see COPPA reason codes.

COPPA data dictionary

Every COPPA field for mobile and CTV apps, with API field names.

COPPA reason codes

Why an app got its audience assessment and risk rating.

COPPA pre-bid data feeds

Folder names, file names, format and refresh schedule.

Children's Privacy Index

How Pixalate rates sellers on Child Audience Risk.

COPPA FAQ

Common questions about COPPA and Pixalate’s assessments.

Questions? Contact support@pixalate.com.

Disclaimer

Pixalate’s COPPA Compliance Tools render opinions that Pixalate believes may be useful to our clients and others in the digital media industry. It is important to note, however, that the mere fact that an app appears to be directed to children (e.g., data subjects under 13 years of age, as defined by the COPPA Rule) does not mean that any such app, or its operator, is failing to comply with the COPPA Rule. Further, with respect to apps that appear to be child-directed and have characteristics that, in Pixalate’s opinion, may trigger related privacy obligations and/or risk, such assertions reflect Pixalate’s opinions (i.e., they are neither facts nor guarantees); and, although Pixalate’s methodologies used to render such opinions are derived from a combination of automated processing coupled with significant human intervention, no assurances can be – or are – given by Pixalate with respect to the accuracy of any such opinions.