Positive Penguins - HR Inside

This review of Positive Penguins was completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 23 April 2019.

About the app

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

ACCM review

This review of Positive Penguins 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

Our Reviewer played this game for several hours.

App description

Positive Penguins is an app that guides children through 2 main modes – “How are you feeling?” and “Meditation”. Players get to choose their own penguin (male or female) and dress them up before the guided feature. “How are you feeling?” asks the player to choose from a range of feelings (displayed by penguin faces that show the expression of the listed emotion; angry, bored, calm, hurt, etc.). The game then guides the player to help them understand why they are feeling that way, challenge any negative thoughts and what thoughts you could focus on to help you with your problem or way of thinking. “Meditation” is simply a guided meditation through audio.

Reviewers comments

Positive Penguins has some good features; it’s very simple to use as players just need to respond to its step by step guidance. Some may find that challenging their negative thought really helped and that coming up with their own solution for better thinking somewhat empowering. However, the relevance of addressing problems in this way may depend on the nature of the problem and may inadvertently cause self-blame where it’s not justified. Furthermore, if you choose “Happy” as your current feeling, the game then encourages you to go back and select a time when you weren’t feeling happy to help you with those feelings;this seems very counter-productive and against the point of the app altogether. However, overall the app is well-intentioned and may be beneficial for many players. This reviewer would suggest that parents of younger children supervise or pay due attention to what their children are listing as problems and help them where practical (or seek professional advice with complex issues).

In App purchasing

• There is no In-App purchasing in this game.

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 no advertising or product placement in this game

Gender stereotypes and sexual references

• None noted

Coarse language

• None noted

Game playing behaviour which may be of concern to some parents

• Please see reviewer’s comments above.

Other

N/A.

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