Children's Policy

Who the decoder is for

The Gen Alpha Decoder helps adults understand the slang young people use. It is not designed for, or aimed at, children. Anyone can type into the public decoder, so a child may sometimes use it, for example on a shared family device or in a classroom. We have designed it to be safe for that.

Accounts are for adults only

You must be 18 or over to create an account, and you confirm this when you sign up. We don't offer accounts, paid plans, or any social or messaging features to children. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18, we will close it and delete the information in it, unless the law requires us to keep something. If you think a child has an account, tell us through our contact page.

What we collect if a child uses the decoder

Without an account, the decoder collects very little, and nothing is linked to a name or an email:

• The words or text typed into the search box, only to give an answer. If a term isn't in our lexicon, the text is sent to an AI provider to write a definition, without your name or email.
• A random cookie that lasts 24 hours, and a short-lived IP-address counter (under 24 hours), used only to apply daily limits fairly and to stop automated abuse.
• Favourites, history and language, stored only in the browser on that device. You can clear them at any time.
• A safety record, only if what is typed suggests someone may be at risk of serious harm (see below).

We don't ask for age, birthdate, location, school or photos. We don't use cookies for advertising, we don't track people across other sites, and we don't build profiles of users, adult or child. More detail is in our Privacy Policy.

What we never do

• Sell personal information, or use it for advertising, or share it with data brokers.
• Profile children, or target anyone with advertising based on age, interests or behaviour.
• Ask about your children or students. Sign-up questions are for adults about their own role, use fixed options, and are all optional.
• Send marketing to parents or carers, or to anyone who hasn't ticked a box asking for it.
• Use dark patterns, streaks, rewards or notifications to keep anyone using the decoder.
• Use what someone types to train AI models of our own.
• Chat with, or let strangers contact, anyone through the decoder. It has no messaging or public profiles.
• Ask a child to pay for anything.

How we keep content safe for young people

• Every definition has a sensitivity rating, and mature terms are marked so adults can decide.
• AI-written definitions are labelled as AI-generated and screened by an automated safety classifier. Content that is flagged, or rated mature, offensive or vulgar, is held for a person to review.
• A keyword check shows support services (Kids Helpline, 13YARN, Lifeline, 000 and others, as listed on our Safety page) instead of a definition when text suggests self-harm, abuse or an emergency.
• User suggestions are reviewed by a person before they are published. Nothing a user writes is shown publicly automatically.
• Anyone can report a definition, without an account, and a person reviews every report.

If text suggests a child or anyone else may be at risk, a person on our team is alerted and we keep a secure record, which we delete after 90 days unless it is needed for an investigation. Where the law permits or requires it, for example to lessen or prevent a serious threat to life, health or safety, we may share it with police or emergency services. Reports of child sexual exploitation material are preserved without being opened or copied and referred to the Australian Federal Police or the eSafety Commissioner as the law requires.

Parents, carers and guardians

You can ask us to tell you what personal information we hold about your child, to correct it, or to delete it. We may need to check who you are first, and we may keep a record where the law requires. Because almost nothing we collect is linked to a name, we may only be able to find information if you can tell us the time and what was typed. Ask through our contact page or safety@wahub.ai. It's free, and we reply within 30 days. Talk with your children about what they see online, and use the device and family controls that suit your household.

Schools and educators

• Don't enter student personal information. Names, photos, health or behaviour details, school identifiers and anything that could identify a student must not go into search boxes, suggestions, feedback, reports or lesson plans.
• Students aren't users. Staff use the decoder; students don't sign in, and we don't offer student accounts. If you show it in class, use it from a teacher account or without signing in.
• Your own duties stay with you. Schools remain responsible for their own child-safety, privacy and mandatory-reporting duties, including those under Western Australian law and the policies of their education system or department. The decoder isn't a substitute for them, and we are not a mandated reporter for your students.
• Contracts and assessments. We can help with a school's privacy or vendor assessment, including for Western Australian government schools. Ask through the contact page.

If you or someone you know needs help

The decoder can't reply to what you type. If someone is in immediate danger call 000. Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800) is free and confidential for people aged 5 to 25, and parents can call it too. More services, including for the European Union, are on our Safety page. To report illegal or harmful content, you can also use the eSafety Commissioner's reporting tools at esafety.gov.au, or report child abuse material to the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation at accce.gov.au.

Laws and standards we follow

In Australia, we design to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and its Australian Privacy Principles, and to the Children's Online Privacy Code, which the Privacy Commissioner is due to register by 10 December 2026, and which we will review against the final text. We work to the Online Safety Act 2021 (Cth) and the Basic Online Safety Expectations, the Australian Consumer Law, and the relevant Western Australian laws. In the European Union and the United Kingdom, we apply the data-protection principles of the General Data Protection Regulation, including data minimisation, privacy by design and default, and plain-language information for children. Where those laws set an age for consent to online services (13 to 16 in different EU countries), we do not rely on a child's consent at all, because we do not offer accounts to anyone under 18. We follow the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the best interests of the child as our guide where rules are unclear.

Changes and contact

We review this policy at least every six months and whenever the law or our service changes. If a change is material, we will say so here and, for account holders, by email. Questions or concerns about children and the decoder: our contact page. To complain about privacy, see our Privacy Policy.