Children's Privacy Index methodology
Pixalate’s Children’s Privacy Index for Sellers measures how much of each seller’s programmatic traffic runs in mobile apps that Pixalate assesses as likely child-directed. The measure is called Child Audience Risk. Pixalate calculates it for each seller listed in its Seller Trust Index and makes the rating public in the monthly Children’s Privacy Index.
Child Audience Risk doesn’t affect any other Seller Trust Index score or a seller’s overall ranking.
Methodology
Child Audience Risk is a comparative measure of a seller’s share of impressions that ran in likely child-directed apps.
- Pixalate aggregates impression data and notes which impressions ran in likely child-directed apps (including mixed audience) and which ran in general audience apps.
- For each seller, Pixalate calculates the percentage of impressions that ran in likely child-directed apps.
- Pixalate rates each seller as low, medium, high or critical risk, relative to its peers’ percentages.
Data used
- Child-directed assessment: an app counts as likely child-directed according to Pixalate’s COPPA Audience assessment for mobile apps in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. See COPPA compliance tools and Pixalate’s COPPA methodology.
- Third-party data only: Pixalate maps third-party data to individual sellers. As with other Seller Trust Index metrics, Pixalate doesn’t use first-party data for Child Audience Risk.
- Sellers included: sellers for which Pixalate has a statistically significant amount of post-bid impression data.
- Global data: the data set covers all programmatic impressions in Pixalate’s global data set, wherever they were served. COPPA can apply to foreign online service operators if their services are directed to children in the U.S.
Results scale
The rating is relative. A seller’s percentage of traffic in likely child-directed apps can fall from one month to the next while the seller still rates higher than its peers.
FAQ
What is Child Audience Risk?
Child Audience Risk reports the percentage of a seller’s ad impressions in likely child-directed apps (including mixed audience), compared with its peers. Each seller is rated low, medium, high or critical.
Does Child Audience Risk affect a seller's Seller Trust Index rank or score?
No. Child Audience Risk is independent of all other scores in Pixalate’s Seller Trust Index.
How do you decide that an app is likely child-directed?
Pixalate uses its COPPA Audience assessment. See COPPA compliance tools, COPPA reason codes and Pixalate’s COPPA methodology.
Does a Child Audience Risk rating mean a COPPA violation?
No. It shows how much of a seller’s traffic, as seen by Pixalate, is in likely child-directed apps. Whether there is a COPPA violation depends on other factors that Pixalate has no visibility into.
How often is it updated?
Child Audience Risk typically follows a monthly publication cadence.
As a seller, how can we change our Child Audience Risk rating?
Pixalate doesn’t consider running ads in likely child-directed apps a negative quality signal for a seller. COPPA doesn’t prohibit advertising to children, but the COPPA Rule prohibits collecting personal information (including cookies and other persistent identifiers) from children under 13 without verifiable parental consent (VPC). If a seller hasn’t verified that child-directed apps obtained VPC to collect personal information from their users, running ads in those apps carries risk.
To reduce your traffic to likely child-directed apps:
- Use the Media Ratings Terminal to find the apps and publishers that Pixalate assesses as likely child-directed (including mixed audience), and work with them directly to reduce potential risk.
- Use the COPPA report in Pixalate Analytics to see which apps in your inventory are assessed as likely child-directed. Analytics shows your first-party data, while Child Audience Risk uses third-party data mapped to each seller, so the two won’t match exactly.
Who do we contact with questions?
Contact support@pixalate.com or your Pixalate account manager.
Disclaimer
The content of this article, and the Child Audience Risk index, reflect Pixalate’s opinions with respect to factors that Pixalate believes may be useful to the digital media industry. It is important to note, however, that a seller’s rating on the Child Audience Risk index does not mean that the seller is failing to comply with COPPA. 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 automated processing and at times coupled with human intervention, no assurances can be – or are – given by Pixalate with respect to the accuracy of any such opinions. Neither this article nor the Child Audience Risk index are intended to impugn the standing or reputation of any entity, person or app, but instead, to report findings and apparent trends.