Setting up a device for your child

Your child can only sign in on a device that you have signed in on and set up for reading. That is what makes a short PIN safe: it only works on the devices you chose.

Setting the device up

Do this on the tablet or computer your child will use.

1. On that device, open the browser your child will use and sign in to your own account.
2. Press one of the buttons below. Each one sets up the device you are holding.
3. When the device is ready, you see "This device is ready" and a "Who is reading?" button that opens the list of readers.

The buttons that set a device up:

• "Trust this device" on Home. While you are still setting up, it is in the "Getting started" list; after that, it is on the "Reading on this device" card.
• "Trust this device" on the "This device" card, which you reach from "More" on a phone-sized screen.
• "Start (your child's name) reading" on a reader's card. This sets the device up and goes straight to that child's sign-in screen.

A device stays set up for 180 days. The setting is kept in that one browser, so if your child uses a second browser on the same device, set that one up too. If the browser's stored data is cleared, set the device up again.

A device is set up for one account at a time. If another account set it up first, "Start (your child's name) reading" asks before it moves the device to yours, because the other account's readers will not be able to sign in there afterwards.

What your child sees

1. "Who is reading today?" shows each reader's picture and first name. Your child taps theirs.
2. They tap their numbers and "Go", or their pictures in order and "Go".
3. The first time, Pip's welcome opens. After that, their Home opens.

A wrong try says "That is not quite right. Try again." After five wrong tries in a row, signing in stops for 15 minutes and the screen says "Too many tries. Ask a grown-up to help." You can lift that straight away with "Let (your child's name) try again" on the reader's Safety page; see Your child cannot sign in.

If the device has not been set up, "Who is reading today?" says "A grown-up needs to set this device up", with a "Set this device up" button for you.

Getting back to your own pages

While your child is signed in, your own pages are closed on that device, and opening the dashboard takes you to your child's Home instead. Your own sign-in stays in place underneath, which is what lets you get back.

The bar along the bottom of your child's screens has "Home", "Make", "Books" and "Grown-ups". Press "Grown-ups" to open "For grown-ups", which offers two things:

• "Someone else is reading" signs this child out and goes back to "Who is reading today?", so the next child can sign in. It needs no password.
• To reach your own pages, type your account password in "Your password" and press "Go to the grown-up bit". This signs your child out on this device.

The password is there so that a child tapping around cannot change the settings you chose. Who is reading, and the Grown-ups button has more detail.

Forgetting a device

Take the trust off a tablet that is being passed on, sold or lent.

1. On that device, sign in and go to the "Reading on this device" card on Home, or to "This device" under "More".
2. Press "Forget this device", read what will happen, and press "Forget this device" again to confirm.

Your readers can no longer sign in on it until you set it up again. Anyone reading on it is signed out, and books kept on it for reading without the internet are removed from it. Their books stay safe in your account.

Forgetting only works on the device you are holding. If a device is lost, use "Sign (your child's name) out everywhere" on each reader's Safety page, and consider changing your password, which signs your own account out on your other devices. See Sign a reader out everywhere and Trusted devices.