Child data laws and compliance
Learn what to do for each of your Unity Ads-enabled app which must specify whether your app targets age-restricted users.
Read time 1 minuteLast updated 4 days ago
Child data laws, including but not limited to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), impose restrictions on how data can be collected and used from age-restricted users (for example, children under the age of 13, 16, or 18 depending on the applicable laws). Unity Ads provides game-level and user-level features to help publishers provide a safe and positive user experience to those users protected by relevant child data laws. Each Unity Ads-enabled project must specify whether their game targets age-restricted users. Unity Ads provides APIs, tools, and settings that help publishers manage these requirements and deliver a safe, compliant ad experience for younger audiences.
Important
It is your responsibility to ensure your Game-level and User-level age designations are set up accurately in the Unity Ads Monetization dashboard.
COPPA compliance
Unity Ads supports COPPA compliance by letting you define whether your app or individual ad requests are directed to children. Each Unity Ads-enabled app must include a COPPA designation in the Unity Ads Monetization dashboard. This determines how the SDK processes ad requests and which types of ads can be served.Warning
You’re responsible for ensuring that your app-level and user-level COPPA designations are correctly configured in the Monetization dashboard.
Set game-level COPPA designations
Your app’s COPPA designation determines how Unity Ads processes ad requests. At the app (game) level, you can mark your app as directed to children, not directed to children, or as a mixed audience. If your app serves both children and adults (a mixed audience), you can also apply user-level COPPA settings to specify the appropriate ad behavior for each user. These are the COPPA compliance options available through the Monetization dashboard:COPPA compliance option | Description | Notes on usage |
|---|---|---|
| This app is directed to children | The app falls under COPPA restrictions, and can therefore only serve contextual (non-personalized) ads to all users. | This designation permits you to enable user-specific COPPA designations solely for applications you also designate as mixed audience applications. |
| This app is not directed to children | The app does not fall under COPPA restrictions, and can therefore serve behavioral (personalized) ads to all users. | |
| Mixed audience | The app is directed to both children and non-age restricted users. | You can detect at the individual level what age group your users are and serve each user ads accordingly. |
Setuser-level COPPA designations
Note
You can only implement user-level COPPA designations if your app’s enabled for a mixed audience in the Monetization dashboard.
Set programmatic user-level designations
To represent a mixed audience programmatically, you can send an age-based flag to the Unity Ads SDK using the nonbehavioral Privacy API. This lets you specify, at runtime, whether the current user should receive behavioral (personalized) or non-behavioral (contextual) ads. Refer to the child-directed or non-behavioral users code sample for more information.Unity Ads exclusive and self-mediated customers
If your project sends ad and privacy signals directly to Unity (without using Unity LevelPlay or a partner mediation platform such as MAX or AdMob), follow these steps to implement user-level child-directed designations for each app under your projects:- Implement a way to determine if the user should receive personalized ads. How you do this is up to your discretion.
- Communicate the child-directed status of each user to Unity by implementing the metadata API.
nonbehavioral - Rebuild your application.
- In the Monetization dashboard settings: a. Select the Monetization dashboard from the side navigation, then click Apps. b. Select the app from the Apps list that you’ll be specifying child-directed designation for. This opens the app overview page. c. Go to the Monetization tab, then edit the Child-directed ad network settings section. d. Set the Game-level and chld-directed designation to This app is primarily targeting children as defined by applicable laws. e. Specify if your app is a mixed audience:
- If your app targets both children and adults, set Is this a Mixed Audience app? to Yes.
- If your app only targets children, set Is this a Mixed Audience app to No.
Third-party mediation customers
If your project uses a supported mediation platform and you want to implement user-level age designations, do the following in the Monetization dashboard for each app under your projects:- Implement a way to determine if the user should receive personalized ads. How you do this is up to your discretion.
- Follow your mediation provider's documentation on how to communicate that information to their platform. Unity currently supports LevelPlay, MAX, and AdMob as third-party mediation solutions for user-level age designations.
- In the Monetization dashboard settings: a. Select the Monetization dashboard from the side navigation, then click Apps. b. Select the app from the Apps list that you’ll be specifying child-directed designation for. This opens the app overview page. c. Go to the Monetization tab, then edit the Child-directed ad network settings section. d. Set the Game-level and child-directed designation to This app is primarily targeting children as defined by applicable laws. e. Specify if your app is a mixed audience:
- If your app targets both children and adults, set Is this a Mixed Audience app? to Yes.
- If your app only targets children, set Is this a Mixed Audience app to No.
Third-party mediation platforms
If you’re a mediation provider that wants to support sending user-level COPPA signals to Unity on behalf of developers, contact Unity Customer Support or your managing partner for implementation details.Tracking user-specific COPPA signals
After setting up your COPPA designations in both the Monetization dashboard and your app, you can monitor user-level COPPA activity:- View user signal statuses in your app, per platform, if applicable.
- Track your audience breakdown between adult traffic and child traffic.
CARU compliance
The Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) sets guidelines for ethical advertising and privacy practices aimed at children. To support compliance with CARU standards, all Unity Ads that adhere to COPPA include the following features:- A watermark identifying the content as an "Advertisement"
- Bolded exit and skip buttons for clearer visibility
Google Play Families compliance
If your Google application serves ads and is designed for children, ensure the following:- It must comply with the Google Play Families policy.
- Update its Game-level COPPA designation setting in the dashboard to This app is directed to children.
- If your app is participating in Google's Designed for Families program, update its App Store compliance setting in the dashboard to enable the Google Designed for Families flag.
Warning
Unity Ads publishers with apps that only target children must follow additional requirements for the Designed for Families program. These apps must also enable the Google Designed for Families flag in the section of the Monetization dashboard to avoid disruption of services.
Implementing user-level COPPA with Google Families
If you implement user-level COPPA statuses, your app is still eligible for the Google Families program. To implement the user-level COPPA flag for your Android app:- Follow the Unity Monetization dashboard instructions for enabling mixed audiences.
- Implement the user-level COPPA flag in your app code.
- If your app is participating in Google's Designed for Families program, update its App store compliance setting in the dashboard to enable the Google Designed for Families flag.