TaleTykes is built around the rules for children under thirteen. If you tell us when your child turns thirteen, we stop treating them as a child under those rules on that day. Their books and their reading stay exactly as they are, but we stop learning from their reading and stop basing suggestions on it.
Telling us is optional, and we never guess it from a birthday or an age group. If you never give a date, nothing changes.
Giving the date
- Go to Readers, choose your child and open "Settings".
- In the "Profile" card, find "When they turn thirteen".
- Choose the "Month" and type the "Year" they turn thirteen.
- Press "Save".
You need to give both the month and the year, or neither. A month that has already passed is refused, so check the year if you see "That month has already passed, so please check the year." If you choose the month you are in now, the change happens within a day, with no month's notice.
We ask for a month and a year and keep neither of them as such. What we keep is one date: the first day of that month, which is the day the change happens. To change the date, choose a new month or year and save; to take it away, tick "Remove this date" and save.
A month before
About 30 days before the date, or within a day of saving it if the date is sooner than that, we email you with the subject "... turns thirteen soon". The email says what will change and that nothing will be taken away. If you share your readers with other grown-ups, they get the same email.
Around the same time, "Needs your attention" on your Home page shows when your child turns thirteen, with a link to their settings.
If the date is wrong, change it in their settings. When you change it, we write to you again a month before the new date.
On the day
On the first day of that month, we email you again, with the subject "... is thirteen", and these things stop for good:
- Learning from their reading. Everything we had learned about what they enjoy, including the estimate of the level that suits them, is deleted, and nothing more is learned. The "Learn what they enjoy" switch no longer does anything for them.
- Suggestions from reading. Suggestions are no longer built from what they have read. Only the things your child picked or said themselves still count; things you added for them no longer steer suggestions.
- Sharing. Their books can no longer be shared to the shared library, and any book still waiting to be shared is withdrawn.
The "Profile" card then says that your child has turned thirteen and that the settings for readers aged thirteen and over now apply. The card about the library on their Safety page says the library community is off for good.
What stays the same
- Every book your child made stays on their shelf.
- They carry on reading and making books as before, in the same age group.
- Their settings, time limits and sign-in stay as they are.
- Their Activity and Progress pages still show what they read.
- Your plan is not affected.
Why there is no switch to turn it back on
The permission you gave us was for a child. Once your child is thirteen, it would not be right for us to keep relying on it, so there is no setting that puts learning or sharing back. Once the day has passed, the date can no longer be changed, and nothing undoes the change.
What we hold about your child lists what we keep about every reader. If you have a question about this, ask us from Help in your dashboard.