Start here
The free tool below runs entirely in this browser — no account, nothing stored or transmitted. Redact anything you would not want kept before you type it.
Open the companion tool →Why settings beat bans
A ban moves the app to a friend's phone, where the settings are nobody's. A configured app stays where you can see it and produces a conversation about what the defaults were designed to do.
Four areas cover most of the risk: the age or teen mode, memory and history, sharing visibility, and time or notification settings. Each one has a plain-language effect you can explain while you click it.
The protocol
- Open the app together and find the age or teen setting first. Turning it on changes what the model will produce, not just what the interface looks like.
- Review memory and history: what it stores, whether it can be cleared, and whether a fresh conversation is possible without deleting the account.
- Check sharing and visibility: whether chats, images, or a profile are visible to anyone, and whether generated images can be posted automatically.
- Set time and notification limits with the teen rather than for them, and note where the settings live so they can be changed later.
- Write down what was decided and when you will look again — a term, a birthday, or a new app.
What the tool does
Walk through an app's safety settings with your child and write down what was decided in four areas: age mode, memory, sharing, and time. It stores nothing and sends nothing.
Limit first: This is a settings-walkthrough aid, not parental-control software and not a safety guarantee. Menus change between versions, and some settings may be unavailable on some plans.
Open the companion tool →One human next step
If your child shows you something in the app that worries either of you, treat it as information rather than a breach of trust, and decide together whether to report it to the platform. For anything that touches a child's safety, the school or a counselor can help.
Research log and safety checks
AI-assist path: not applicable — this is a joint settings walkthrough; the value is in the two of them doing it in the app's own menus, which no generated artifact can substitute. §6.10: not a frontier-pace topic.
§0.5 protection result: category is family-teen-safety; crisis-adjacent: no; fear/urgency/scarcity toolkit used: no. The protective function is free and the paid feature is convenience only.