The agreement · free

The family digital agreement you both sign.

Screens, the internet, money, what to do when something goes wrong, and what each of you promises: two pages, written together in about ten minutes. Fill it in here with your child and sign it, then leave your email to print it, save it or have it sent. Or have the blank emailed and do it by hand. If you’d like someone to hold the screens part at 8:45pm, that’s what Kairoo is for.

Free · two A4 pages · online or on paper · Not got the phone yet? Start with the readiness check · Back to Kairoo

Tick what fits your family, untick what doesn’t, and write the rest in your own words. Leave a blank and it prints as a line to fill in by hand. When you reach the end, leave your email and we send you the finished agreement, ready to sign.

Who
1 · What we want screens for

Start with the good bit. A phone is for something; say what.

2 · What the phone is for
3 · Time: when screens finish

A warning before the end, then a calm stop. Asking is allowed; asking with a reason is the rule; the ceiling stops one ask turning into three. The word makes the warning a routine instead of a nag.

4 · Screen-free times and places
5 · Staying safe and kind
6 · If something goes wrong

The line that matters most is in every copy: If something online worries, scares or embarrasses me, I tell a grown-up straight away, and I won’t lose the phone for telling.

Every UK safety body asks for a second trusted adult, and Childline (0800 1111) is free, any time.

If the agreement is broken, we will

We will try not to

7 · What we each promise

Your child promises to

The grown-ups promise to

8 · How trust grows

More freedom is earned by keeping the agreement, stopping when time’s up, asking for help, being honest about mistakes, being kind online, and school, sleep and family going well.

Freedoms we’ll review next

9 · Review

Four weeks is about right the first time, then once a term. Leave it blank to write the date in by hand. Rules that never get reviewed get ignored.

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Your agreement

Write in it, tick what fits, and sign it together.

Tap a blank to write in it, tap a box to tick it. Leave a blank and it prints as a line to fill in by hand. Tap a signature line to sign. When you are done, leave your email below to print it, save it or have it sent to you.

Kairoo Family Digital Agreement Page 1 of 2

Family Digital Agreement

We made this together. It isn’t a contract and it isn’t a punishment. It’s the plan we both agreed to, written down so nobody has to remember it in the heat of the moment.

Between
and , the family
Made on
Review on

1What we want screens for

We want this phone for .
The one thing we most want it to be good for: .

2What the phone is for

Allowed at the start: .
Not yet (we’ll talk again at the review): .
New apps and games come to first.

3Time: when screens finish

Screens finish at on school nights and at weekends. first.
Extra time can be asked for, with a reason. minutes is the ceiling. Stop early and the spare minutes go in the bank.
There is always a warning before the end. Our word for “nearly time” is . Then a calm stop, and no negotiating once it’s off.

4Screen-free times and places

Phones go away during .
At night the phone is kept .
The thing we’ll do instead, at least once a week: .

5Staying safe and kind

  • Private things stay private: full name, school, address, where I am, passwords.
  • I chat and play with people I know in real life, unless we’ve agreed otherwise.
  • I never meet up with someone I only know online without a grown-up.
  • I only post or send what I’d say to someone’s face, and I ask before sharing a photo of anyone.
  • I never send, ask for or pass on pictures of anyone’s body.
  • I block and report anyone who is nasty, and leave group chats that turn nasty.
  • I don’t buy anything, even inside a game, without asking first.
kairoo.family · built with Nesta · follows guidance from the NSPCC, Childnet, Internet Matters, the UK Safer Internet Centre, YoungMinds, the Children’s Commissioner and The Sleep Charity
Kairoo The family · Family Digital Agreement Page 2 of 2

6If something goes wrong

If something online worries, scares or embarrasses me, I tell a grown-up straight away, and I won’t lose the phone for telling.
Someone else I can always talk to: . And Childline, free, any time: 0800 1111.
If the agreement is broken, we will .
We will try not to .

7What we each promise

promises to:

  • Stop when time’s up, and ask properly, with a reason, if I want more.
  • Ask before downloading new apps or games.
  • Not use the phone secretly at night.
  • Tell a grown-up if something feels wrong, even if I made a mistake.
  • Remember that more trust means more freedom, and it works the other way too.

promise to:

  • Explain the reason behind every rule.
  • Give a warning before time’s up, never take a phone mid-game.
  • Listen before reacting if something goes wrong.
  • Never check the phone in secret; if there’s a real worry about safety, look together.
  • Answer a proper ask properly, with a reason.
  • Keep the same screen-free rules ourselves, at the table and at bedtime.
  • Loosen the rules as trust grows, not only tighten them when it doesn’t.

8How trust grows

More freedom is earned by keeping this agreement, stopping when time’s up, asking for help, being honest about mistakes, being kind online, and school, sleep and family going well.
Freedoms we’ll review next: .

9Review

We’ll read this again on and ask: what’s working, what’s causing arguments, what feels ready for next, what the grown-ups still worry about, and what we’ll change.
kairoo.family · built with Nesta · follows guidance from the NSPCC, Childnet, Internet Matters, the UK Safer Internet Centre, YoungMinds, the Children’s Commissioner and The Sleep Charity

Finished? Keep it: print, PDF, a link for the other grown-up.

Keep it

Finished? Print it, save it, or have it sent.

Leave your email and we send you this agreement as you have filled it in, with a link that reopens it on any phone or computer. Then the print, PDF and share buttons are yours.

To print this agreement, leave your email on the page at kairoo.family/agreement and the print button appears.

What goes in a family digital agreement

A family digital agreement is two signed pages that say what screens and the internet are for in your house, when they stop, and what each of you promises the other, written by the parent and the child together. It works because the child helped write it and signed it: people keep rules they had a say in, and push back hardest against rules that are simply imposed. Ours has nine parts: what we want screens for (start with the good bit); what the phone is for (allowed now, not yet, new apps to a grown-up first); time (finish times, what comes first, asking with a reason, a ceiling, the bank, and a warning word); screen-free times and places, and where the phone is kept at night; staying safe and kind; if something goes wrong (tell a grown-up, and you won’t lose the phone for telling; a second trusted adult; talk first; what we will try not to do); what each of you promises, grown-ups included; how trust grows, with the next freedom named; and a review date. Both of you sign it. Then it goes on the fridge.

  • Start with what screens are for. Every UK body that writes about this says the same thing: the conversation goes better when it starts with what your child loves doing online, not with what worries you.
  • A finish time, a warning, a ceiling. Sleep is the rule that matters most, so the finish time comes first. The warning before the end is what turns “time’s up” from an ambush into a routine; the ceiling on extra time is what stops one ask becoming three.
  • Screen-free places beat screen-time minutes. Meals, the hour before bed and where the phone is kept at night are the rules families actually keep; a minute count usually isn’t. Ofcom found mealtimes and bedtime are already the two most common phone rules in UK homes.
  • Safe and kind, in the child’s own voice. Private things private, people you know, never meeting alone, say it to their face, never pictures of bodies, block and report, ask before buying.
  • Telling never costs the phone. If a child fears the consequence of telling, they stop telling. Every safety body says this; most agreements forget to write it down. Name a second trusted adult too.
  • Grown-ups promise too, and trust goes both ways. No secret checking, a warning first, reasons for every rule, the same table rules for the adults, and more freedom named in advance so there is something to work towards.

Where this comes from

The nine parts follow what the UK’s children’s and online-safety bodies recommend a family agreement should cover, and the tone they ask for: positive, both sides, reviewed. In particular:

  • NSPCC, Talking to your child about online safety: involve them in setting boundaries together rather than banning technology; when a rule is broken, revisit it together and ask whether it still feels fair; make sure they know they can always come to you, and name another trusted adult.
  • YoungMinds, Social media and Gaming guides for parents (reviewed January 2026): agree ground rules together; tech-free times or zones as a household; a family agreement where adults get limits too; a timer so they know how long is left.
  • Childnet, Family Agreement (2022): the questions in “we”, what should happen if one of us breaks it, a review date and signatures; and, from their screen-time guidance, a warning before asking a child to come off a game.
  • Internet Matters, Digital Family Agreement template and their February 2026 expert Q&A: a family screen plan the adults follow too; phones off the table at meals; devices charging outside bedrooms; restrictions land better when they feel fair.
  • UK Safer Internet Centre, Screen Time: create expectations together, and set a date to review and adapt them as your children get older.
  • Children’s Commissioner, Digital 5 A Day: connect, be active, get creative, give to others, be mindful; and the line that it does not have to be about restriction and control, which is unlikely to win over any child anyway.
  • The Sleep Charity (where the NHS now sends parents for children’s sleep): screens off an hour before bedtime, and the bedroom a gadget-free zone.
  • Place2Be, Parenting Smart: keep to the rules you set your child; the device off at least an hour before bed; tell an adult if pressured to share or to meet someone.
  • Ofcom, Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes (21 May 2026): phone ownership rises from 56% of 10-year-olds to 83% of 11-year-olds; 89% of parents of 8 to 17s have phone rules, most often about mealtimes (57%) and bedtime (56%). This agreement writes those two rules down.

The asking-with-a-reason, the ceiling and the bank are Kairoo’s own mechanism, built on the research in the science section.

How to have the conversation (the one we use)

  1. Pick a calm time. A Saturday afternoon, not 8:45pm with the phone in their hand.
  2. Start with the good bit. “What do you love doing on it?” Then “what do you think is fair?” Children ask for less than parents expect, and a limit they named is one they’ll keep.
  3. Write their words down. If they say “nine, and ten more if I ask nicely”, that is the finish time and the ceiling. Their wording, not yours. Let them pick the warning word.
  4. Then your side. The finish time you can’t move, the places screens don’t go, and what you promise back. Warnings first. No secret checking.
  5. Read the safe-and-kind lines out loud, together. Most children already know them; hearing a parent say “you won’t lose the phone for telling me” is the part that lands.
  6. Sign it, both of you, and put it on the fridge. Set a date four weeks out to read it again. If they won’t sign, don’t force it; come back in a week and ask what they’d change.

Why signing changes things

Sixty years of research on fair process says the same thing: people accept an outcome they don’t like when they had a say, the decider was neutral, the rule is the same every time, and a reason is given. A signed agreement gives a child all four. That is why the child’s signature is not a nicety; it is the mechanism. The research, with references.

Three questions parents ask about the agreement
Does it work on paper, without the app?

Yes. Print the two pages, fill them in by hand, sign them and put them on the fridge. The app holds the screens part at 8:45pm; the agreement works on its own before that, and the online, money and what-if lines only ever live on paper.

What age is this for?

Children aged around eight to fourteen: a child with their own phone, or one who is about to get one. Younger children can use it with a grown-up filling it in; older teenagers usually want to write their own.

Can we change it later?

That is what the review date is for. Read it again after about four weeks, keep what worked, and rewrite what did not. A rule a child helped change is one they keep.

Then who holds it at 8:45pm?

Kairoo does. That’s the whole product.

Two apps, one on your phone and one on your child’s, holding the time part of this agreement: the warning, the bank, the ask with a reason, the no with a reason. The rest stays on the fridge, where it belongs. Free. Android today.

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