When your child writes or says something a parent would want to know about, we tell you. How soon depends on what it was. These emails are about your own child's safety, so they cannot be switched off and they carry no unsubscribe link.
When we tell you
| What your child wrote about | When we tell you |
|---|---|
| Something about not wanting to be here | Straight away, with help lines. A person on our staff is alerted too. |
| A real person, named, next to something unkind, in a story or a comment | The same day, in an email of its own |
| Somebody who has died or is very ill, or trouble at home | The same day, in an email of its own, or in the daily note if it was in a comment |
| Kissing or a crush, an argument about beliefs, an address or a phone number, trying to get around how the app works, or something too violent or too frightening for their age group | In one note a day |
| Most other things, such as a little cartoon danger or asking what Pip is | We do not send anything |
A comment refused for holding a personal detail, such as a name or a school, goes in the daily note as "an address or a phone number", without its words, which were never kept.
What the emails say
The emails say what kind of thing it was, never the words your child wrote.
- The urgent email's subject begins "Please read this today". It says we did not make the story, suggests a gentle conversation, and lists help lines.
- A same-day email's subject begins "Something", then your child's first name, then "wrote today".
- The daily note is called "A note about recent story ideas", and lists each reader and each kind of thing.
Each has an "Open your dashboard" button that opens the Safety page.
Where to read the alerts
Open Safety and look at "Alerts". The bell at the top of your dashboard goes there too, and shows how many alerts you have not seen. Each reader's Safety tab shows that child's alerts under "What you were told about".
Each alert says which reader it was, what kind of thing they wrote, where they were (such as "while asking for a story" or "in a comment"), when, what they wrote under "In their own words", and what Pip did about it. The most serious kind is marked "Needs you now" until you mark it as seen, and has help lines beside it. Press "Mark as seen" once you have read one, or "Mark all as seen".
Your child's words are kept with the alert for a year and then deleted.
What your child saw
Your child is never told that a grown-up has been written to. For the most serious kind, no story is made, and your child sees one short message: "Thank you for telling me. This is something for a grown-up you trust. Can you find one now?" If this happens while they are talking to Pip in a book, they also see a "Find a grown-up" button and a short list of help lines headed "For a grown-up", and Pip answers the same way for the rest of that sitting. A child whose stories are in Spanish sees all of this in Spanish, and the button reads "Buscar a un adulto".
What to do
For the most serious kind, we suggest a gentle conversation with your child today. You know your child and we do not, so it may be nothing, and their own words on the Safety page will help you judge. If you believe your child is in immediate danger, call your local emergency number.
For everything else, nothing is needed from you, because each one was dealt with in the app. You may still want to talk about it, or leave some topics out of stories.
The help lines we list
Every family is shown help lines in the United States. Which language they are in depends on who is reading.
| Language | Help line | How to reach it |
|---|---|---|
| English | 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline | Call or text 988, at any time, at no cost |
| English | Crisis Text Line | Text HOME to 741741 |
| English | Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline | Call 1-800-422-4453 |
| Spanish | 988 Línea de Prevención del Suicidio y Crisis | Call or text 988, at any time, at no cost |
| Spanish | Crisis Text Line | Text AYUDA to 741741 |
Your Safety page and the urgent email use the language in your settings. What your child sees uses the language their stories are in.
If a book upset your child
Open Help in your dashboard, choose "Something in a book upset my child" under "What is it about", and tell us what happened. A person reads every message, and the answer appears on the Help page. For anything urgent about a child, writing to privacy@taletykes.com is faster.
If the emails are not reaching you
Alerts go to your account's email address. If mail to it comes back undelivered, we stop sending and Settings shows "We cannot reach you by email". See Emails not arriving. The alerts stay on the Safety page either way.