← The Digital Childhood
Frequently asked

The questions parents ask first.

Short answers. Email hello@thedigitalchildhood.com if your question isn't here.

How much does the app cost?
During the beta it's free. At public launch it's $6.99 a month or $49 a year, and there's a 14 day free trial. Beta users who stay subscribed lock in the founder rate of $29 a year for as long as they stay. One subscription covers your whole family no matter how many kids are on it.A real part of the app is free for everyone. Membership is $29 a year for your whole family, and it stays $29 for as long as you stay. Your first 30 days are free, with no card. Membership is $49 a year or $6.99 a month. Your first 14 days are free, and we ask for a card up front and email you three days before it ends. Founding members keep $29 a year for as long as they stay. One membership covers your whole family no matter how many kids are on it.
What's included?
All of it, while we're in beta. Explainers covers every major app, game, and AI tool your kid is on, and each one has a demo you can tap to see it from their side. Scripts has a growing library of hand-written scripts you can read or listen to. Protect holds the Family Digital Pact, the Friend Group Pact, and the School Action Kit. Then the Activity Generator with hundreds of offline ideas, the Tech Translator for the apps, AI tools and online terms your kid is using, and Leaf, the app's AI helper, which answers from Chelsea's scripts and explainers and follows the rules she set for it. After beta, some of it stays free for everyone and members get all of it.Free for everyone: every demo, the Tech Translator, the Friend Group Pact, the School Action Kit, the offline activity ideas, six scripts in full and the first step of every other one, and a few questions for Leaf each month. Membership opens every script and explainer in full, the Family Pact, and Leaf whenever you need it. Explainers covers every major app, game, and AI tool your kid is on, and each one has a demo you can tap to see it from their side. Scripts has a growing library of hand-written scripts you can read or listen to. Protect holds the Family Digital Pact, the Friend Group Pact, and the School Action Kit. Then the Activity Generator with hundreds of offline ideas, the Tech Translator for the apps, AI tools and online terms your kid is using, and Leaf, the app's AI helper, which answers from Chelsea's scripts and explainers and follows the rules she set for it.
Do I need to download an app?
No. The app opens in your phone browser. You can add it to your home screen if you want it to feel like an app: Safari → Share → Add to Home Screen. An iPhone app is on the way.
How is the Family Digital Pact different from rules?
A pact is something your family writes together. You pick only the agreements that fit how you actually want to live with tech, and your kids see their own name on it when you sign it together. Kids tend to keep the rules they helped pick.
What is the Friend Group Pact for?
When your kid says "everyone has it," it's usually something no one family can fix on its own. The Friend Group Pact lets families in the same friend group decide together (phones until a certain grade, social media until a certain age, whatever fits) and sign as a group. When enough families agree, your kid isn't the only one waiting.
Does the app monitor my child or their device?
No. The app is for you, the parent. There's no software on your kid's device and we don't read their messages or intercept anything. What we give you is the language and the context for the conversations you're already trying to have. If you want monitoring, tools like Bark and Aura do that, and this app is the conversation side of it.
How do you use my data?
To make the app personal for you. That's it. Nothing is sold or shared with advertisers, and there are no ads inside the app. The Privacy Policy spells out every database table and every third party service we use, and how to export or delete everything.
Can my kid use the app?
The app is built for parents (18+). When you add your kids on the My Family screen, you enter their first name, age, and stage, and we treat that as context you've given us, and it never creates an account for your child. Kids don't sign in or have profiles of their own. Our COPPA stance is in the Privacy Policy.
How do I cancel?
Settings → Manage subscription → Cancel. One tap. Your access continues to the end of your billing period, with no retention scripts or phone tree. Or email hello@thedigitalchildhood.com and we'll handle it by hand.
Who built The Digital Childhood?
Chelsea Redeker. She's the founder, and a mom of a son and a daughter right in the ages The Digital Childhood is for. She built it as the app she wished her own parents had when she was a kid, and the one she wished she had now as a mom. Her nephew, Jack Pohlad, built the app with her.