Hey Duggee: The Big Badge App - BBC Studios Limited

App Review

This review of Hey Duggee: The Big Badge App was completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 15 July 2021.

About the app

This section contains details about the app provided by an ACCM Reviewer.

ACCM review

This review of Hey Duggee: The Big Badge App contains the following information:

• The level to which the game was reviewed
• App description
• Reviewers comments
• In App purchasing
• Online information
• Gambling
• Advertising and product placement
• Gender stereotypes and sexual references
• Coarse language
• Game playing behaviour which may be of concern to some parents
• Other

The level to which the game was reviewed

All elements of the game were explored.

App description

Hey Duggee: The Big Badge App is based on the British, animated, educational preschool TV series Hey Duggee, which is aimed at 2 to 5 year-olds. The app features Duggee, a friendly dog who is the leader of “The Squirrel Club”, an activity club for children. The “Squirrels” are: Betty the Octopus, Norrie the Mouse, Happy the Crocodile, Roly the Hippo, and Tag the Rhino. The aim of the app is for all 5 squirrels to earn “Badges” by completing all the activities:

- The Drawing Badge: choose from different pencils, pens and paints to colour in a drawing.

- The Super Squirrel Badge: dress up a Squirrel as a superhero, choosing from a variety of hats, capes, masks and accessories.

- The Cake Badge: put together ingredients to make a cake and choose from a variety of toppings and decorations.

- The Leaf Badge: discover hidden leaves for a leaf collection.

- The Hair Badge: give a squirrel a unique hairstyle, choosing from different hair styling tools like scissors, comb, hair-grow potion and colour.

- The Tinsel Badge: decorate a Christmas tree with tinsel, baubles and lights.

Finished activities can be viewed in the Badge trophy gallery.

Reviewers comments

It is not necessary to be familiar with the TV series or characters. Parents may want to help their child with the initial setting up of the app because the user is asked to create one of up to three user profiles by typing a name and choosing a symbol as profile picture. Once set up, a narrator – with a British accent – guides the user through the app, and there are no written instructions.

All games and activities are explained in simple, age-appropriate language and can be played intuitively by tapping or dragging. There is no winning, losing, time limit, or right and wrong in any of the activities, and the narrator provides encouraging comments like, “Well done!” and “Excellent!”

If a child has earned all badges and wishes to start afresh, the parent can reset all activities by deleting and recreating a user profile.

In the Adults section – protected through a math problem – parents can access advertisements for more games, read about T&Cs, privacy policy and permissions, game instructions, and rate the app in the Google Play store.

In App purchasing

There is In-App purchasing in this game, examples include:

• Game play is free of in-app purchases, but there is a section advertising more similar apps – directed at the same age group – accessible through a small icon on the start screen (“More Apps”). This section is protected through a parental lock system in the form of a math problem, e.g. 12 - ? = 3. Solving the problem leads to the Google Play Store. Parents are advised to set their device settings to require password authentication to process purchases.
• More games can also be purchased in the Adult Section, accessible through the small symbol in the top right corner, protected by written instructions to solve a math problem.

Online information

There is no online information required to play this game.

Gambling

At the time of review, the reviewer found no simulated gambling content. If you discover simulated gambling content in this app, please contact us with the details so we can update our review.

Advertising and product placement

There is advertising in this game, including:

• As described above in the “In-app purchases” section, there is advertisement for related apps in a designated section.
• Game play is free of ads.

Gender stereotypes and sexual references

• None noted.

Coarse language

• None noted.

Game playing behaviour which may be of concern to some parents

• None noted.

Other

N/A.

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