Draft for review - not legal advice - review before use.

Your child's privacy

For parents and carers. Studytutor lets children revise for their GCSEs with an AI tutor. This page explains what we keep about your child, what you can see, and why their chats stay private. The full details are in our privacy notice, and there are versions for young people aged 13 to 17 and for children under 13 that you could read together.

Who we are

Studytutor is run by Polylabs Research (company number 17530882). Michael runs it for the company. Contact us at contact@studytutor.co.uk.

About the tutor

• The tutor is an AI (Claude, made by Anthropic), not a person. It can get things wrong. Every session starts by saying so.
• It's built to help children learn, not to do their homework. Its marks are practice, not predicted grades.
• Studytutor is a small beta for pupils in England and Wales. We approve everyone who joins, one by one.

Who can join

• Young people aged 13 or over join the waiting list themselves. We approve only young people we can place, for example because we know their family. They sign in with Google or an email code using their own approved address. Google isn't required for email-code sign-in.
• Children under 13 are added by a parent or carer who already has a Studytutor account, from their Family page. We check with that parent before anything happens, and the parent confirms their child's details before the child can start (see Adding your child below).
• Parents and carers can join to use the tutor themselves.

What we keep about your child

Their first name, icon, sign-in email and school year; their chats, photos of their work and marks; any notes they write for the tutor; how much they use it each day; how many of their messages the AI refused (a number, not the messages); and, if our safety check is on, how many of their messages it flagged and the kind of worry (numbers, not the messages). We ask a student's birth month and year once. For 13 and over we keep only "13 or over"; for a child under 13, only while you look after their account. We never ask for their surname, school, address or full date of birth.

Backups can hold deleted data for up to 14 weeks, and a monthly copy kept apart from the live service for up to a year, in case of disaster. Nobody reads a backup; if one is ever restored, deletions made since are repeated.

What you can see

If your child is 13 or over

Their progress is theirs. You won't see their account unless they choose to share their marks and progress with you, from their account or when you invite them (they're asked when they first sign in, with an equal choice either way). They can stop sharing at any time, and you'd be told. Sharing is never a condition of using the tutor.

If your child is under 13

You'll see their marks, the topics they've practised and how much they've used Studytutor each day. You can say whether they may use the microphone. When they turn 13, you'll stop seeing their progress unless they choose to keep sharing it with you.

If your child tells us the adult who can see their marks isn't their parent or carer, that adult's view stops at once while we check. Your child can keep using the tutor, without the microphone, for up to 7 days meanwhile.

Never their chats

Whatever their age, you won't see your child's chats, or what time of day they chat. Your child is told exactly what you can see, and a sign on their screen says so.

Adding your child

Sign in and choose Add a child on your Family page: their first name, whether they're under 13, and the email address they'll sign in with. Michael checks every new account first, and you'll get an email when it's done. Nothing is ever emailed to the address you give until then, and the form answers the same way whatever you type, so it can't be used to find out who has an account. Each child you've added shows under Waiting on your Family page with where things stand; if your child already uses Studytutor, they're simply asked whether to share with you.

• 13 or over: your child gets the "you're in" email and signs in. At their first sign-in they're asked whether to share their progress with you, with two equal buttons. It's their choice, and they can change it later in their account.
• Under 13: we email you how it works. Your child signs in with the address you gave, tells us their birth month and year, and types your email address (only the address we have for you is ever sent anything). You then get an email, sign in with your own account, check their details and say yes, ticking each statement yourself: that you're 18 or over, that you're their parent or carer and look after them, that the details are right, and that you've read what we store and who can see it. You can also allow the microphone if you have parental responsibility. The tutor starts as soon as you say yes, unless something looks unusual (for example, the confirmation came from the same browser your child asked from), in which case Michael checks first. If nobody says yes within 30 days, we delete what your child told us; we remind you after 3 days, and your child can send one reminder.

Your Family page shows each child's latest marks and topics, lets you allow the microphone for a child under 13, and lets you stop supervising or unlink at any time. Stopping supervision of a child under 13 stops their tutoring at once; they're told, and their account closes 30 days later unless you restart it, so ask us for a copy of their things before then if you want one.

Why chats stay private

Children have a right to privacy (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 16), and the ICO's Children's Code asks services like ours to explain the balance between a parent's oversight and a child's own privacy, which shifts as they grow up. Knowing their chats are private helps children ask the questions they'd be embarrassed to ask out loud, which is how they learn.

We'd share something from a chat only if your child agrees, or if we're worried about their safety, and then with whoever can best help. That may not be you: for example, if a child's worry is about home, we'd go to children's services or the police.

What Michael sees

In Studytutor's admin screens: each person's name, school year, email, how he checked them before approving, how much they use Studytutor and how many chats they have. Not their notes or their chats. He can technically read stored chats, but would only do so for a safety concern (an alert from the safety check is one), a problem your child reports, or your child's own request. Never because a parent asked. Every look is recorded. He never contacts a child first: messages to a child come from the app, and he writes to a child only to answer a message they sent us.

Who else gets your child's data

• Anthropic, which makes the AI, gets their messages and photos so it can reply (and, if our safety check is on, so it can check them), and what the tutor is told about them: first name, age group, school year, when they sit their GCSEs, their notes for the tutor, and in revise and exam sessions a summary of their earlier marks in that subject. It gets an account number, never their email. Anthropic's safety systems check messages and photos automatically. Most are deleted within 30 days; anything flagged as breaking its rules can be kept for up to 2 years. Anthropic reports child sexual abuse material to NCMEC, a US child-protection organisation that works with the police. Claude may run in the US and other countries. Anthropic may not train its AI on your child's chats.
• Google hosts Studytutor in London. If your child chooses Google sign-in, Google also handles that sign-in. The microphone uses Google's speech service in the EU; recordings aren't kept.
• Scaleway, in the EU, sends the one email we send when someone's approved.

No adverts. Nothing is sold. No other user can see your child's chats.

Keeping children safe

• The tutor's instructions keep it on schoolwork: no romantic or sexual content, and it never asks children to keep secrets from adults. If a child seems at risk, it responds kindly and points them to a trusted adult, Childline and 999.
• Nobody reads chats as they happen, and the tutor can't get help for a child. Children are told this plainly, so they know to talk to a person.
• Children are asked to send only photos of their work, never of themselves or anyone else.
• Our safety check, if Michael switches it on: an AI reads each message and photo your child sends for signs that they or someone else may not be safe, such as self-harm, abuse or sexual content. If it sees one, Michael is told the kind of worry and which chat, never the words, and he may then read that message, and as much before it as he needs, under the safeguarding policy. We keep a count of flagged messages for 90 days, never the messages; each alert, and anything he does about it, also goes in his safeguarding record, kept as our privacy notice says. The check never pauses an account and never alerts you, and your child isn't told when a message is flagged; their Before you start screen tells them when it's on. It can be wrong, and nobody watches it as it happens.
• Michael follows a written safeguarding policy.

If you're worried about a child, the NSPCC helpline for adults is 0808 800 5000 (weekdays, 10am to 4pm), or email help@nspcc.org.uk. If a child is in immediate danger, call 999. More on our safety page.

If you're worried about your child using Studytutor

Tell us at contact@studytutor.co.uk. We take every worry seriously. For a young person aged 13 or over, we'll hear your child's view too before deciding anything, and we won't show you their chats just because you ask. If you're worried about their safety, say so and we'll act on it straight away.

Your child's rights, and yours

Your child can ask for a copy of their data, correct it or delete their account, and can do this themselves. You can act for them if they agree, if they're too young to understand their rights, or if it's clearly in their best interests. Email contact@studytutor.co.uk; we reply within a month. If you're unhappy with how we've handled your family's information, tell us, and you can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.

Helping Studytutor improve

To improve the explanations, we keep a record of what students practise: the skill each marked question tested, how it went, and the help before it, under a scrambled code rather than their name, with the day but never the time, and never anything your child wrote. We only ever look at totals across many students. Your child can untick Helping Studytutor improve in their account, and we delete what was kept. We never sell any of it.

Reports and help

Your child can press Report under any tutor reply that's wrong or upsetting. Michael reads that reply and your child's message just before it (never a photo), answers in the app, and deletes the report 30 days later. You don't see your child's reports. The Help assistant answers questions about using Studytutor; it's told only whether someone is a student or a parent and their age group, and we don't keep what's asked.

Talking with your child

• Ask what they're revising and how the tutor explains it.
• Remind them the tutor is an AI that can be wrong, and to check important things with their teacher.
• Remind them not to hand in AI-written work as their own.
• Make sure they know they can come to you, or another adult they trust, if anything online worries them.