Safety
What happens if a child is struggling
Phoque is a tutor. It is not a counsellor, a safeguarding service or an emergency line, and it does not pretend to be. What it can do is notice when a child writes something that suggests they need help, and point them to people who are trained for exactly that.
What Phoque does
We check what goes to the AI
Chat messages, written lesson answers and exam answers are checked before the AI sees them, using thresholds set tighter for children than the defaults. Every AI reply is checked on the way back.
We look for signs a child is struggling
Separately from that, Phoque recognises language suggesting a child may be in trouble — including someone being hurt at home, which no ordinary content filter notices. It works in English, French, Spanish and German, because children write in the language they are learning.
We answer with words written in advance
If something looks serious, your child sees a fixed message we wrote and tested, pointing to people trained to help. The AI never improvises its own response to a child in difficulty.
That check does not depend on anyone else
It runs on our own systems. If an outside safety service is unavailable we switch chat off rather than let it run unchecked — but a child asking for help still gets an answer.
What Phoque does not do
Being clear about the limits matters more than sounding reassuring. A product that claims more than it does is worse than one that is honest about where it stops.
- We do not monitor your child. Nobody sits watching conversations.
- We do not counsel, assess or investigate. We point to organisations who do that properly.
- We do not email you automatically when a concern is detected. The most serious things a child says are sometimes about home, and an automatic message could put a child at risk.
- We do not keep what your child wrote. A safety record holds the category of a concern and when it happened, not their words.
- We are not an emergency service. In an emergency, call 999.
Where to get help
These are the organisations Phoque points a child towards. They are free, and they are open at any hour.
- Childline0800 1111
- Free, any time, for anyone under 19. It does not show on the phone bill.
- Samaritans116 123
- Free, any time, for anyone of any age.
- ShoutText SHOUT to 85258
- Free, any time, if talking out loud feels like too much.
- Emergency services999
- If someone is in danger right now, or you cannot keep yourself safe.