Privacy & safety

Who Koalu is for

Koalu is a learning companion for children aged 4–12, used under a parent's account. A parent or legal guardian creates the family account, adds each child, and agrees to this notice. Children never create accounts, never enter an email or phone number, and cannot contact anyone through Koalu. How we verify consent: after sign-up we email you a confirmation link; nothing is collected from your child until you tap it, and a day later we send a written copy of what you agreed to and how to withdraw (COPPA's "email plus" method). A companion chatbot may not be suitable for every child; you decide if and how your child uses Koalu.

What we collect

• From the parent: email address, a password (stored hashed), a 4-digit PIN (hashed), your name if you give it, and your language.
• About each child: first name (or nickname), age, grade, languages, interests, the companion they chose, and the settings you set (time limits, allowed hours, bedtime, blocked topics).
• What the child does in the app: conversations with the companion (text — voice is turned into text), games and results, stories, drawings, quests, stars, minutes used, and how the app is used (which screens, taps, errors). Parents can read every conversation in the Parent Hub; nothing is hidden.
• Daily check-in: once a day the companion asks how the child's day went. The mood the child expressed and a one-line note for you are saved so you can see them in the Parent Hub. Your child is told you can see this.
• Homework photos: sent to the AI to build the game and NOT saved on our servers.
• Voice: the microphone is only on while the child holds the button. Audio is sent to the speech service to turn it into text and is NOT stored by us. We never build voiceprints.

Who processes it (our service providers)

• Anthropic (Claude) — the AI that tutors, writes stories and games, and checks every message for safety. Anthropic does not use API data to train its models.
• OpenAI — speech-to-text for the child's voice, the illustrations for stories and lessons, coloring pages, and the Spanish voice. Audio and prompts are processed for the request and not used for training.
• Microsoft Azure Speech — optional Spanish voices (only when enabled).
• Railway — the servers and the disk where the family data lives (United States).
• No advertising, no analytics SDKs from third parties, no data brokers. We never sell or share children's data.

How long we keep it (retention schedule)

• Family and child profiles, conversations, progress, quests and drawings: for as long as the account exists, so parents can review them. Deleted immediately when you delete the child or the family.
• Story and lesson pictures: 90 days after the story was created (the story text stays; pictures are repainted if the child reopens it). Lesson pictures: 30 days.
• Usage events (screens, taps, errors): 12 months.
• Homework photos and voice audio: not stored.
• Backups of the database: 14 days, on the same server disk.

Your rights as a parent

• See everything: Parent Hub → Conversations shows every session and transcript.
• Export: Family settings → Export data gives you everything as a file.
• Delete: Family settings → Delete account removes the family, every child, every conversation, picture and drawing — right away and for good. You can also delete a single child.
• Refuse: you can stop using Koalu at any time; nothing is charged during the beta.
• Ask: write to torrestransportone@gmail.com for any question, correction or deletion request.

How the companion keeps children safe

• It says it is an AI and never pretends to be a person, a friend who misses the child, or someone with secrets from parents.
• It teaches rather than gives homework answers (you choose: guide / check / explain).
• It never asks for personal details and gently moves on if a child shares them.
• No violence, horror, sexual or romantic content, drugs, weapons or hate; topics you block are redirected.
• Two independent checks on every message: the tutor's rules and a separate safety classifier that the child cannot talk out of its job.
• Time limits, allowed hours and bedtime are enforced on the server; when time is up the companion says goodbye kindly and never asks the child to stay. After about 45 minutes of continuous use it suggests a break.

If a child seems to be in danger (our protocol)

• If a message suggests self-harm, abuse, bullying, threats or a “don't tell anyone” situation, the companion answers warmly in one or two sentences, tells the child to talk to a trusted grown-up right now, and stops there — it does not counsel.
• A high-severity alert with the child's words appears immediately in the Parent Hub and on our team dashboard.
• If you or your child need help now in the United States: call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, English and Spanish), or 911 in an emergency. Childhelp: 1-800-422-4453.
• In Puerto Rico: Línea PAS 1-800-981-0023.

During the trial

Koalu is in an early-access trial. The Koalu team can read conversations to fix problems and improve the app; we tell you that at sign-up. Parental consent is verified by email (above); a certified COPPA safe-harbor review is planned before a wider launch. We will email the account address before any material change to this notice or the terms.