Child-directed ad network settings

Review the app-level child-directed designation configuration and mixed audience user-level designations appropriate to your app.

Read time 3 minutes

Last updated 25 days ago

Child-directed ad network settings allow you to manage contextual ad settings for your app in a single place. Child data laws such as the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act COPPA impose restrictions on how data can be collected and used from children, as defined by each applicable child data law. Unity Ads provides tools to help publishers provide a safe and positive user experience. Accordingly, each Unity Ads-enabled app must specify whether their app targets children. This article will guide you through configuring the right setting for your app based on your target audience. To view and edit your app’s privacy settings on the Unity Monetization Dashboard, follow these steps:

Go to Monetization > Apps, then select the app you want to review privacy settings for. The app settings page for this specific app opens.
Select the Monetization tab > Child-directed ad network settings to set the app-level and user-level designations of your app.

Important

Only the app’s Organization Owner can edit child-directed ad network settings. Refer to Manage members, groups, user types, and roles in the Unity Cloud documentation for more information about role-based access.

App-level child-directed designation

This setting applies a single app-wide designation. There are two options:

This app is not primarily targeted to children as defined by applicable laws means the app does not fall under applicable child data law age restrictions, and can therefore serve behavioral (targeted) ads to all users.
This app is primarily targeting children as defined by applicable laws means the app falls under applicable child data law age restrictions, and can therefore only serve contextual (non-targeted) ads to all users. Note that this designation permits you to enable user-specific age designations solely for apps you also designate as mixed audience apps.

Note

To enable a mixed audience designation to your app, you must first select your app to be directed to children at the child-directed ad network settings section.

Mixed audience apps

If your app is directed to children, select This app is primarily targeting children as defined by applicable laws. A conditional field displays for you to specify if your app is a mixed audience app that targets both children and adults. Mixed audience apps allow you to pass individualized designations for each user to determine whether they fall under applicable child data law restrictions.

User-level age statuses

Note

You're only able to implement user-level age designations if your project is enabled for a mixed audience.

An app-level designation should be sufficient, however, apps with mixed audiences have one additional configuration choice. To enable user-specific age designations:

Present your users with an "age gate" in order to determine whether individual users meet the applicable age threshold.
Note
Unity doesn’t provide guidance or best practices for age gates.
Implement code to send the age gate value to your mediator/network of choice in the manner directed by your mediator or network.
If needed, enable the user-level designation feature inside LevelPlay mediation or your in-house mediation so that the mediation platform passes the appropriate age gate value along to Unity.
Set the App-level age designation to This app is primarily targeting children as defined by applicable laws.
Set Is this a Mixed Audience App? to Yes.

Code implementation

You must pass Unity Ads user-level age designations programmatically by using the

user.nonbehavioral MetaData

API. For complete instructions on how to implement this

MetaData

class in your code, refer to the documentation on child data law compliance.

Supported platforms

The following integrations currently support user-level age designation in Unity Ads:

Refer to the corresponding links for instructions on how to implement user-specific age designations in your app code.

Default behavior for unknown users

Default behavior refers to the baseline behavior of ads served in your app when a user-level age designation is absent. Unity Ads will default to treating users as children and only serve contextual ads when a user-level age designation is absent. The default behavior is relevant only for Mixed Audience applications, and cannot be independently altered.