Direct Notice to Parents

This Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA") Direct Notice explains how Optiarms, Inc. dba TaleTykes collects, uses, and discloses personal information from children under 13 who use TaleTykes.

TaleTykes is designed for children to learn reading, writing, math, and related skills under adult, parent, guardian, school, or district management. Children may not create unmanaged accounts or accept legal terms on their own.

This notice supplements our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. For school use, the school or district may act as the consent authority where permitted by law.

02

Operator and Contact

Operator: Optiarms, Inc. dba TaleTykes

Privacy contact: privacy@taletykes.com

Support contact: support@taletykes.com

If your child's account is managed by a school or district, you may also contact the school for education-record questions under FERPA.

03

Information We Collect from Children

We collect only information reasonably necessary to provide the educational features enabled for the child. The exact categories depend on account type, parent controls, school settings, and enabled features.

Profile and account data

Display name, first name, birth year, grade level, avatar, language preference, interests, sensitivities, and learning preferences.
Guardian links, class enrollment, and organization membership when a school or family connects the learner.
Birth date is stored as a hash for verification purposes; we do not store plaintext full birth dates in learner profiles.

Learning activity

Reading sessions, books, comprehension answers, writing projects and drafts, math attempts, skill states, assessments, achievements, assignments, and portfolio artifacts.
Optional oral reading audio and transcripts when a parent or school grants fluency_audio_capture consent and the feature is enabled.

Technical data

Session identifiers, device and browser metadata, feature interactions, and security signals needed to operate and protect the platform.
We do not use child personal information for behavioral advertising.

04

How We Use Children's Information

We use children's personal information only to provide, secure, support, and improve the educational services authorized by a parent, guardian, or school.

Deliver reading, writing, math, assignments, adaptive practice, stories, feedback, reports, and parent-visible progress.
Apply parent controls, consent records, moderation, safety systems, and role-based access.
Generate AI-assisted content and feedback when the applicable consent and controls allow.
Send transactional notices to authorized adults, not marketing emails directly to children.
Detect abuse, protect accounts, maintain audit logs, and comply with law and school contracts.

05

Parental Consent and Consent Types

For children under 13, we collect and use personal information only with verifiable parental consent, school-authorized consent where legally permitted, or another recognized legal basis.

Verifiable parental consent

For direct family accounts, we may require verifiable parental consent before creating or activating a child under 13.
Our default verifiable parental consent method uses Stripe Identity document verification. When configured, Persona may serve as an alternate provider.
School-rostered children may use school consent authority when consentAuthority is set to school and permitted by applicable law.

Feature-specific consent records

child_account — creation and use of a child learner account.
ai_generation — AI-assisted story and text generation.
image_generation — AI-generated illustrations.
public_publishing — sharing learner work beyond private or family scopes.
fluency_audio_capture — oral reading audio capture and transcription.
tutor_training_data — optional capture of pseudonymized tutor interactions for product improvement when enabled.
ap_mode — Advanced Placement program features when enabled.
school data sharing and FERPA disclosure consents when connecting family and school accounts.

06

How We Disclose Children's Information

We do not sell children's personal information. We disclose children's information only as described in our Privacy Policy and as authorized by consent, parent controls, school contracts, or law.

To linked parents, guardians, and authorized teachers or administrators.
To schools and districts that administer the learner's account or class.
To service providers that help operate the platform under contractual restrictions.
To AI providers with pseudonymized prompts when AI features are enabled and consented.
As required by law, school instruction, or to protect safety.

07

Parental Rights

Parents and guardians may review, correct, export, or request deletion of their child's personal information through parent tools where available, by contacting privacy@taletykes.com, or through the child's school when the school controls the account.

Review learner profile information and learning activity through parent dashboards and reports.
Adjust parent controls and withdraw consent for features that require consent, which may disable those features.
Request a learner data export bundle through parent settings.
Request deletion or anonymization subject to legal, school-contract, security, and audit retention limits.
Refuse further collection or use of a child's personal information by discontinuing use and requesting account closure.

08

No Targeted Advertising to Children

TaleTykes does not display third-party behavioral advertising in the child experience. We do not use child personal information for targeted advertising. We do not condition a child's participation in core learning on consent to unrelated collection.

09

Changes to This Notice

We may update this Direct Notice from time to time. Material changes will be posted on this page with an updated last updated date and, where appropriate, communicated to parents or school administrators.

10

Contact

COPPA and child privacy questions may be sent to privacy@taletykes.com. Support requests may be sent to support@taletykes.com. Legal notices may be sent to legal@taletykes.com.

See also our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service for additional information about student data, FERPA, and school use.

COPPA Direct Notice to Parents