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COPPA and Google Play's Designed for Families

X3M allows publishers of child-directed or child-oriented apps to specifically identify end-users as children, in accordance with the United States' Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA") and/or other relevant data protection laws such as the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"), Apple App Store and Google Play Store policies, which restricts the processing of information collected from children.

To be compliant with these and other regulations, publishers must indicate to X3M if the app is directed to children, or if the user has been identified as a child. In such cases, mediation calls will only be made to networks that explicitly identify themselves as COPPA-compliant, thus X3M mediation uses this information to notify the networks, ensuring that the ads align with COPPA regulations. For detailed information, it is recommended to contact each network directly.

For a better understanding of your obligations under COPPA, we recommend reading the materials available here.

How to flag a specific end-user as a Child​

It is the publisher's responsibility to correctly mark an end user as a child, either flagging the app as child-directed or identifying a specific user as a child.

If the application is partially (but not primarily) directed at children under COPPA, known as a "mixed audience application", it should incorporate an age gate and the publisher must set whether a specific end user is a child, under applicable laws and policies.

Learn how to flag users as children using the X3M SDK on the following platforms:

Google Play Families policy (Android)​

According to Google, if you serve ads in your app and the audience of your app only or partially includes children, then you must only use ads SDK versions that have self-certified compliance with Google Play Families policies

Developers can find a list of Families Self-Certified Ads SDKs and can check which specific versions of those ads SDKs are self-certified for use in Families apps here.

SDKMavenSelf-certified version(s)
AdColonycom.adcolony sdk4.8.0 or later
Chartboostcom.chartboost chartboost-sdk9.1.1 or later
DT Exchange SDKcom.fyber marketplace-sdk8.2.1 or later
Google Ad Managercom.google.android.gms play-services-pal18.0.0 or later
Google AdMobcom.google.android.gms play-services-ads19.0.0 or later
InMobicom.inmobi.monetization inmobi-ads10.1.1 or later
ironSourcecom.ironsource.sdk mediationsdk7.2.1 or later
Unity Adscom.unity3d.ads unity-ads4.0.1 or later
Vunglecom.vungle publisher-sdk-android6.10.4 or later

X3M's collection and use of data from child-directed applications​

When mediating advertising inventory for users tagged as children, X3M imposes the following restrictions:

  1. Persistent identifiers are not shared with external third-party bidders, such as DSPs, SSPs, exchanges, and markets.
  2. Networks not identified as COPPA-compliant are excluded from the mediation process. Calls to networks that do not adhere to the standard are discarded.
  3. Regardless of COPPA, X3M never stores personally identifiable information from users in its data storage.

This article does not provide legal advice on COPPA or privacy law. We strongly recommend consulting with your own lawyer for guidance.

COPPA non-compliant partners and special cases​

X3M's partners that, at the moment, are non-compliant with COPPA regulations are:

  • APS
  • Criteo
  • Meta/Facebook
  • Ogury
  • Startio

Special Cases:

  • AdView: The publisher must contact the network and send an email informing that the application is directed at children.
  • Startio (Android): Requires a specific implementation by the publisher. It is recommended to refer to their technical documentation.