Keeping children safe

Kids Coding Platform is built for children, so safety comes first in everything we make. This is how it works.

Parents are in charge

• Only a parent or guardian can create a child's account. Children never sign up on their own.
• The parent chooses the child's nickname, avatar and password, and can change them, reset the password or delete the account at any time.
• Child accounts are for ages 13 to 16. Where we have switched it on in your country, children from 9 to 12 can join too, once a parent confirms with a verified consent step (a small card check, a signed form, or an email confirmation).

Children stay anonymous

• Other people only ever see a nickname and one of our preset avatars. Never a real name, photo, school or exact location.
• Our nickname check blocks names that look like real names, rude words, links and phone numbers.
• There are no private messages: no adult can message a child, and children can't message each other one to one. Children talk only in team rooms, for a team, class or event they are part of. Under-13s send ready-made phrases only; from 13, typed messages pass a filter that blocks links, phone numbers, email addresses, other apps and unkind words. Parents can read their child's rooms, anyone in a room can report a message, and moderators deal with every report. Room messages are deleted after 90 days.
• Hackathons are team events for older students. A parent approves each child's place in a team. Teams build in a private repository that only the team, its mentor (an adult whose background check passed), the judges and our staff can open, and talk in their moderated team room. Only nicknames appear in the team's work, and our staff can take a student out of a team at any time.
• Teachers are adults our team adds for a school with an agreement with us; they sign in with two-factor codes. They see nicknames only, and a child joins a class only once a parent approves. Teachers and classmates talk in a moderated class room, never privately.

Sharing is off until a parent turns it on

• Leaderboards: a child appears on public leaderboards only if their parent switches it on, and even then only with nickname, avatar and XP.
• Projects: shipped projects are private to the child and their parent. A parent can share them with a link, only while "Public projects" is on. Switching it off stops the link at once, for good.

Code runs in a safe box

Students' code runs in a separate, locked-down "sandbox" on its own web address. It can't see anyone's account, can't send data anywhere and can't open other websites.

Paid hub work stays safe

Students of 15 and up who join a paid hub project stay anonymous to the client ("Developer A"), and only talk with their lead developer and team in a moderated room — never with the client. The platform keeps the timer, and with it all hub work, outside school hours, before 9 pm and within a few hours a week. A parent approves every project and can stop hub work at any time; earnings go only to the parent.

We collect as little as we can

We store a child's year of birth (not the full date), their country, and optionally a region and city, to run local leaderboards. No photos, no advertising and no trackers. The privacy policy has the details.

Something worries you?

Tell us straight away with the Feedback button (at the bottom of every page once you're signed in) or by replying to any email from us. A person reads every message, and safety reports come first.