Every story is already checked for what suits your child's age group. On top of that, you can name topics you never want in their stories, and decide whether silly toilet jokes are allowed. Both are on your child's Safety page, in the card called "What stories can include".
To find it, go to Readers, choose your child, open "Safety" and scroll to "What stories can include".
Never include
This is a list of topics to keep out of your child's stories, whatever they choose. You might use it for something your child is frightened of, such as storms or hospitals, or something your family would rather avoid.
- Type a topic in the box under "Never include". To add several at once, separate them with commas.
- Press "Add a topic", or press Enter. Each topic appears as a chip above the box.
- To take a topic off, press the cross on its chip.
- Press "Save". Nothing changes until you save.
You can list up to 40 topics, and each can be up to 40 characters long. Topics are saved in lower case.
What the list does
The list works in three ways:
- In the book maker. If your child picks a character, a place or a theme whose name is on your list, the book is not started and they see "That idea is turned off for this reader. Try another one." They can go back and choose something else, and nothing is used from your allowance.
- When we plan the story. The list goes with the plan of every story we write for your child, as topics that must not appear. This is how it reaches things that are not a choice in the book maker, such as a beginning your child writes themselves.
- In suggestions. Anything on the list is never offered as a suggestion in the book maker.
The finished words are not matched against your list one by one. If a topic you listed still turns up in a book, please tell us.
The book maker check matches whole names, so use the same word the book maker shows. For example, "dragon" stops the dragon character, but "dragons" does not. The book maker's characters include dragon, fox, bear, owl, robot, pirate and dinosaur; its places include forest, beach, space, castle, jungle and cave. The book maker lists every step.
Allow silly toilet jokes
"Allow silly toilet jokes" is off by default. Some children find a joke about a fart the funniest thing in the world, some grown-ups have heard enough of them, and we cannot tell which kind of house yours is.
While it is off:
- We write your child's stories without jokes about bodily functions, and our checks look for them.
- If your child types one into something they write, such as the beginning of their own story, Pip steers them back with "Let's keep it to story ideas. Shall we pick who is in it?"
When you turn it on, those jokes can appear in your child's stories and in the story ideas they write. The switch only covers your own child's stories and writing; comments in the shared library never allow them.
What your child sees
Your child is never shown your list. When a choice is turned off, they see only the short message above and can carry on.
If something in a finished book still upset your child, you can tell us. Telling us about a problem with a book explains how, and How stories and pictures are checked describes the checks every book goes through.
If you are worried about something your child wrote, rather than something in a book, see Safety alerts, or ask us from Help in your dashboard.