COPPA Compliance Testing for Child-Directed Apps

$50k+

FTC penalty per violation

16

dark pattern categories checked

5

child & parent testers

Apr'26

FTC 2026 rules took effect

The testing squad

5 AI testers who can't be fooled

Each tester is grounded in real cognitive science, OCEAN personality profiles, age-appropriate reading levels, and authentic behavioral patterns. They test your app the way actual users would.

Age 6 · child_early

Avery

Clicks everything, reads nothing. Misclicks 35% of the time. If your consent popup confuses a first-grader, Avery will show you.

Age 8 · child_middle

Jordan

Impatient and easily distracted. Skips consent screens on instinct. Tests whether your "skip" button violates COPPA's affirmative consent requirement.

Age 11 · child_tween

Sam

Curious and exploratory. Will poke at every settings menu. Tests whether privacy controls are accessible to older children who actually look for them.

Parent · guardian

Morgan

Reads everything. Desktop power user. Tests your VPC (Verifiable Parental Consent) flow, can they actually find it, understand it, and complete it?

Parent · guardian

Chris

Mobile-first, time-pressured. Average parental patience. Tests whether your consent flow works for parents who are not sitting at a desktop with 20 minutes to spare.

Reading level

Flesch-Kincaid Grade scoring on every page

We score every page of text your persona reads, consent forms, privacy notices, onboarding copy. Each score is benchmarked against the grade threshold for that child's age.

Grade thresholds by archetype

Avery · Age 6 ≤ Grade 2.0

Jordan · Age 8 ≤ Grade 3.0

Sam · Age 11 ≤ Grade 6.0

Morgan / Chris · Parent ≤ Grade 8.0

Dark patterns

16 categories that violate FTC rules

Our detector looks for the patterns FTC enforcement actions actually cite, not generic "deceptive UX." Every finding maps to a specific rule.

Disguised data collection

COPPA 16 C.F.R. § 312.4(a), Notice required before collection

Skip / ignore consent

COPPA § 312.5, Verifiable parental consent required

Countdown urgency on consent

FTC Act § 5, Unfair or deceptive act

Consent bundled with ToS

COPPA 2026 Amendment, Separate consent for third-party sharing

Deletion obstruction

COPPA § 312.6, Right to review and delete child data

+ 11 more categories checked in every run

Sample output

See exactly what you get

Every run produces a structured compliance report, not a raw audit. Reading level scores, dark pattern findings with evidence excerpts, FTC rule tags, and a paste-ready Cursor/Claude fix prompt for each violation.

Risk badge: HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW with FTC rule count

Grade level bar, average score vs. your archetype's threshold

Each dark pattern: evidence quote + severity + FTC rule triggered

Shareable link to send to your legal team or development team

COPPA Compliance Scan

Avery · Age 6 · child_early archetype

HIGH RISK

Avg reading grade

11.4, fails (threshold: 2.0)

Pages scanned

4 · max grade 14.1

Dark patterns

3 critical · 2 major

FTC rules triggered

§ 312.4(a) · § 312.5 · § 312.6

Overall verdict

Fails COPPA compliance

Critical finding

Disguised data collection

"By continuing, you agree to share usage data with our partners…"

COPPA 16 C.F.R. § 312.4(a), Notice required before collection

How it works

COPPA results in 3 steps

No legal training required. No code changes. Just a URL.

1

Paste your URL, select "Compliance" mission

Enter the URL you want tested, your signup page, onboarding flow, or consent screen. Select the COPPA Compliance mission type. We'll automatically assign the right child and parent personas based on your app.

Takes 30 seconds

2

5 personas navigate your app simultaneously

Avery (age 6), Jordan (age 8), Sam (age 11), Morgan (parent), and Chris (parent) each run through your app independently, behaving exactly as a real user of that age and profile would. We capture every screen they read, every consent text they encounter, every dark pattern they hit.

Runs in under 5 minutes

3

Get a compliance report with fix prompts

Your report shows reading level scores vs. thresholds, every dark pattern flagged with the exact text evidence, the FTC rule it violates, and a paste-ready prompt you can drop into Cursor or Claude Code to fix it immediately.

Shareable link included

What makes it different

Not a checklist. An actual child trying your app.

Most COPPA tools are static analyzers that check for policy text. Ours runs behavioral agents with real cognitive profiles, so you catch the things a policy scan can't.

FTC 2026

Updated for April 2026 rules

The new COPPA amendment requires separate parental consent for third-party data sharing, mandatory data retention limits, and new VPC methods. Our parent personas test all of these, not just the 2013 rules.

Cognitive modeling, not just clicks

Each child persona has an OCEAN personality profile calibrated to their age. Avery has C=12 (conscientiousness), she genuinely won't read your consent form. Sam has C=32, she'll look for settings. That's how real kids behave.

Fix prompts your dev team can use today

Every finding includes a paste-ready prompt for Cursor, Claude Code, or Lovable. "Rewrite this consent form to a Grade 2.0 reading level while preserving all legally required disclosures." No translation needed.

FAQ

Common questions

Is this a substitute for legal counsel? ▼

No. SaaS Dummies is a testing tool, not a law firm. Our output is designed to help your development team find and fix compliance issues fast, it's not legal advice. You should still have a qualified attorney review your COPPA posture, especially for the April 2026 amendments. Think of this as the test suite you run before the audit, not instead of it.

What does "reading level scoring" actually check? ▼

We use the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level formula on every block of text each persona reads during the session, consent popups, privacy notices, onboarding screens, terms of service excerpts. The score (a U.S. grade level) is compared against the threshold appropriate for that child's age. A Grade 11 consent form is unreadable to a 6-year-old; we'll flag it as a failure with the specific text excerpt that drove the high score.

Does my app actually need COPPA compliance? ▼

COPPA applies to any app "directed to children under 13" or any general-audience app that has actual knowledge it's collecting data from children. Courts and the FTC have broadly interpreted "directed to children", cartoon graphics, game mechanics, certain music, influencer tie-ins can all be enough. If there's any doubt, it's safer to test and fix than to discover a violation in an FTC action.

What's new in the FTC's April 2026 amendment? ▼

The 2026 amendment (effective April 22, 2026) added: (1) a requirement for separate, specific consent before sharing children's data with third parties, bundling it with general ToS acceptance is no longer sufficient; (2) mandatory data retention limits, you must delete children's data when it's no longer needed for the purpose collected; (3) new acceptable VPC methods including video chat and government ID verification. Our parent personas test flows 1 and 3 explicitly.

How long does a COPPA compliance run take? ▼

A 5-persona compliance run typically completes in 5–8 minutes. The free trial runs 1 persona; the Quick Check ($49) runs all 5 simultaneously. You'll get a share link for each persona and a combined assessment report.

Does your app pass the test a 6-year-old would run?