# Kairoo

> Kairoo is an intelligent operating layer for a family’s digital life, and it starts with screens. Parent and child sit down together, in about ten minutes, write the agreement and both sign it. From then on Kairoo acts inside that boundary on the parent’s behalf: the reminding, the negotiating, the explaining and the holding of the line, with a reason for every no. The parent stops being the bad cop, and the child gets a safe space to practise agency and self-regulation: when time is up they choose to stop and bank the minutes or ask for more, and they can ask for the agreement itself to change. Privacy first: it sees time and apps, never messages or location. Built in the UK in partnership with Nesta, on sixty years of research, and free.

Kairoo is not a wall a parent puts up around a child. It is a neutral third party both of them agree to. The parent and child sit down once, for about ten minutes, and decide together what an evening looks like: when screens start and stop, how long, which apps, and how extra time can be asked for. The child has a real say in it. Both of them sign it. From then on Kairoo holds that agreement, and the child takes the argument up with Kairoo instead of with the parent.

How early it is matters, so it is stated up front. Kairoo is in early access. Families join a list and are taken on a few at a time. What the site reports from real use are observations from its pilot families, not measured results, and nothing below should be quoted as a trial outcome.

The site is one main page at https://kairoo.family/ plus the agreement page, the first phone readiness check, a comparison page, a privacy notice and terms of use. The links below are that page, the anchors on it, and the other three.

Last updated: 28 September 2026, in step with the page footer and the sitemap.

## The page

- [Kairoo](https://kairoo.family/): the whole product, on one page.
- [The story](https://kairoo.family/#act): the bedtime argument, and what replaces it.
- [The difference](https://kairoo.family/#compare): the same rules held by a parent, compared with the same rules held by Kairoo.
- [Why it exists](https://kairoo.family/#why): every layer of a child's digital life works for a platform, and none of them works for the family.
- [What Kairoo is](https://kairoo.family/#what): an agreement you both sign, and someone neutral to keep it.
- [How it works](https://kairoo.family/#how): the three steps, from setup to a child who can stop on their own.
- [What your child gets](https://kairoo.family/#child): parent and child on the same team; the child helps write the rules, practises stopping on their own, and earns more freedom as trust grows.
- [Where the asks go](https://kairoo.family/#paths): the three kinds of ask, and which of them reach the parent at all. On the page this is an interactive demonstration, so it is written out in full below.
- [The science](https://kairoo.family/#science): the eight bodies of research the mechanism is built on.
- [Trust](https://kairoo.family/#trust): what Kairoo does not do with a family's data.
- [Price and access](https://kairoo.family/#price): free, with no card needed.
- [Questions](https://kairoo.family/#faq): the sixteen asked most often, answered in full.
- [Join the next group](https://kairoo.family/#join): the sign-up for the next intake of families.
- [The agreement](https://kairoo.family/agreement.html): the Family Digital Agreement, free, to fill in with your child in about ten minutes and print (two A4 pages) or share by link: our screens (when they stop, what comes first, which apps, asking for more, where phones don't go, where the phone sleeps), being online (private details, people you know, kind, photos, money), if something goes wrong (tell a grown-up, and you won't lose the phone for telling), what each of you promises, how trust grows, and a review date. With what goes in one, the conversation to have, and why signing matters. Leave an email on the page and it sends you a link that reopens your filled-in agreement, plus a blank PDF.
- [First phone readiness check](https://kairoo.family/first-phone.html): a free five-minute check for parents before a child's first phone: why now, where the child will spend time, what to set up before the first problem, what worries the parent, six readiness signals with a green, amber or red reading (a reflection tool, not a test), what to practise, and a review date. Prints on two pages; leave an email on the page and it sends you the link and a blank PDF. It cites Ofcom's 2026 finding that phone ownership rises from 56% of 10-year-olds to 83% of 11-year-olds.
- [How to set up Kairoo](https://kairoo.family/how-to.html): the walkthrough of every tap on both phones, with captioned videos: [the parent's phone](https://kairoo.family/parents.html) and [the child's phone](https://kairoo.family/kids.html). Kairoo Kids on iPhone is in early access through TestFlight; a six-letter code from the parent's phone pairs the two.
- [Support](https://kairoo.family/support.html): straight answers on pairing, Screen Time, what syncs between the phones, getting a family back on a new phone, and deleting everything; hello@kairoo.family, a human answers.
- [Compared with the rest](https://kairoo.family/compare.html): Kairoo next to Apple Screen Time, Google Family Link, Microsoft Family Safety, Qustodio, Norton Family, Bark and TAP, on nine questions, from each maker's own pages, with a section on when Kairoo is not the right choice.

Kairoo is for children aged around eight to fourteen: a child with their own phone, or one who is about to get one. Families outside that range are welcome on the list and asked the child's age when a place comes up.

## What Kairoo is not

- Not a screen time manager in the usual sense. Screen use is where it starts; the agreement, and the layer that holds it for the family, is the product.
- Not a monitoring or surveillance product, and not intended to become one.
- It does not read a child's messages.
- It does not track location.
- It does not show a parent a feed of what their child has been watching.
- What it does see is time and apps, measured against an agreement the child signed. The child knows exactly what Kairoo can see, because they signed it.
- It is not something to impose. If a child refuses to sign, the advice on the site is not to install it, because a Kairoo imposed on a child is just another wall.

## How it works, in three steps

1. **Agree it together.** Ten minutes, once. What matters to your family, when screens start and stop, how long, and which apps. The child helps write it. That part is not a nicety. It is the reason the whole thing works.
2. **Kairoo holds the line.** Gentle reminders as the limit gets close, then it does what was agreed. Every no comes with a reason: what was asked for, what the agreement says, and how today's time was spent. The child takes it up with Kairoo, not with the parent.
3. **Freedom grows as trust does.** At every reminder the child chooses: stop early and bank the minutes, ask for more, or carry on and spend it. Stopping well earns a wider agreement. The goal is a child who can stop on their own and no longer needs the app.

## Where an ask goes: the three kinds

This is the most distinctive thing about Kairoo, and on the page it is an interactive demonstration rather than text, so it is set out here in prose. The section is headed "Hundreds of tiny decisions. They don't all belong to you." A child's asks are sorted into three kinds, and the three are handled differently.

1. **The everyday ask. Kairoo settles it, and nothing reaches the parent.** The child asks for ten more minutes. There are fifteen spare under the agreement, so Kairoo says yes, sets the time to be back by, and offers a nudge two minutes before. In the site's own words, it is answered by the deal you both signed: nothing reached the parent's phone, and nobody had to be the bad cop.

2. **The middle-sized ask. Kairoo decides it inside the ceiling the family set, and tells the parent afterwards.** The child asks for thirty more minutes because a tournament is running and everyone is staying on. Thirty is over the ceiling, because the agreement caps extra time at ten. Homework is done, so Kairoo gives the ten, explains to the child why it is ten and not thirty, and lets the parent know what happened. On the parent's phone it arrives marked for information, nothing to do, with the child's own reason quoted, what Kairoo took into account, and the outcome. The site describes it as a middle-sized call, made inside your ceiling and explained to both of you, that lands on the parent's phone as news, not as a job.

3. **The ask that matters. Kairoo refuses to decide it and hands it to the parent.** The child asks to install a new app, which sits outside the agreement. Kairoo tells the child that one is not its to decide, and that new apps go to the parent, then puts it to the parent properly with the child's reason attached. The parent sees the context and chooses an answer, and Kairoo delivers that answer to the child in the parent's words. In the site's own words: "Kairoo doesn't decide this one. It gathers the context, hands you the decision, and delivers your answer in your words."

The demonstration on the page shows Kairoo running on the child's phone and on the parent's phone, and shows the parent's phone quiet by default: nothing needs you tonight, with the evening summarised rather than a feed of alerts.

## What makes it different from a parental control app

| | Rules held by a parent | Rules held by Kairoo |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Who wrote it | You, alone | You and your child, together |
| At the limit | A wall, or an argument | A choice: bank it, ask, or spend it |
| Does it flex? | Only when you cave | Adapts to the day, inside your rules |
| Who says no | You. Every time. | Kairoo. With a reason. |
| What they learn | How to get round it | How to stop |

## Who it is for

- Parents who have become the only off-switch in the house, and want the nightly screen time argument to stop being theirs to win.
- Children who already have their own phone. Phones are what Kairoo covers today.
- Families whose child does not have a phone yet. They are early, which is a good place to be: they can start with the agreement before the phone arrives.
- Children specifically, not only parents. When children review parental control apps, three in four give them one star: Ghosh et al., CHI 2018, analysed 736 Google Play reviews written by children aged 8 to 19 of 37 parental control apps, and 76% were one star (doi:10.1145/3173574.3173698). The site adds, as its own view, that those apps were built from a parent's fear and sold to the parent alone. What Kairoo offers the child is a say in the rules, limits that are predictable, a proper way to ask, somewhere to be annoyed that is not the parent, and more freedom, earned.
- Every family, including families on free school meals: Kairoo is free, because learning to manage your own screen use should not be a skill only some children get.

## The evidence base

Kairoo is built on eight bodies of research. The site heads the section "Sixty years of research. One mechanism." and says none of the research is new: what it claims is new is that all eight are built into the thirty seconds where the argument actually happens.

Each item below states the research finding first, with the researchers named, and then, separately, what Kairoo infers from it. The inferences are Kairoo's own. They are not findings of the researchers named, and should never be quoted as such. The site cites each work with its year in the section, and gives the full references with DOIs in a list headed The full references at https://kairoo.family/#references.

1. **Procedural justice.** Research: people accept an outcome they dislike when the process is fair, meaning a say, a neutral decider, the same rule every time, and a reason given. Thibaut and Walker; Tyler.
2. **Reactance.** Research: children push back against being controlled far harder than against the limit itself. Brehm. Kairoo's inference: move the limit off the parent and the fight mostly goes.
3. **Self-determination.** Research: rules are internalised where there is autonomy, and controlling conditions buy compliance, not internalisation. Deci and Ryan; Grolnick. Kairoo's inference: a controlling setting on a phone is one of those conditions.
4. **Authoritative parenting.** Research: warmth and structure together produce the best outcomes, and either one alone does worse. Baumrind; Steinberg. Kairoo's inference: the warmth and the structure need not come from the same place.
5. **Screen-time transitions.** Research: ending a session goes measurably better when the technology ends it than when a parent does, in a diary study of families with children aged one to five. Hiniker et al., CHI 2016.
6. **Imposed monitoring.** Research: children reject imposed monitoring and try to get round it; three in four child reviews of parental control apps give one star. Ghosh et al., CHI 2018. Kairoo's inference: rules a child helped write are kept more readily.
7. **Commitment devices.** Research: adults already pay a third party to hold them to their word, because it will not renegotiate. Bryan, Karlan and Nelson. Kairoo's inference: families have never had the two-party version of that.
8. **Scaffolding.** Research: support is given, then withdrawn step by step as competence grows. Wood, Bruner and Ross; Vygotsky. Kairoo's inference: what a family needs is a ladder, not a timer.

## Privacy and data

- No surveillance. Kairoo does not read messages, log what a child watches, or produce an activity feed for the parent.
- Family data is not sold, not shared, and not used for advertising.
- No ads. The business model is that parents will one day pay for the app, never with their family's data.
- Registered with the ICO, and built to the Children's Code.
- Made in the UK, in partnership with Nesta, the UK's innovation agency for social good. Kairoo is the trading name; the company behind it is named in the privacy notice and terms.
- The full privacy notice is at https://kairoo.family/privacy.html and the terms of use at https://kairoo.family/terms.html.

## Availability, devices and price

- Kairoo is in early access. Access is by list, and families are taken on a few at a time, on the view that a half-working app is worse than no app.
- Families anywhere may join the list. Kairoo is made in the UK and sets no country restriction; during early access groups are taken on a few at a time.
- Free. No card is required.
- For comparison, the site notes that existing apps charge £44 to £76 a year (Qustodio, September 2026) to watch your child.
- Android phones today, for the child's phone and the parent's. If either is an iPhone, the family can join the list and say so: they keep their place and are told when Kairoo runs there. Tablets, consoles and the TV are coming: half the pilot families asked for them unprompted.
- The demonstration on the site shows Kairoo on the child's phone and on the parent's phone.

## What the site does not say

The site states none of the following, so any specific answer to these would be invented. Please do not fill them in.

- When an iPhone version will arrive. The site says only that iPhone families keep their place on the list and are told when Kairoo runs there. No app store or handset is named.
- Which countries Kairoo supports beyond the UK today. The site says families anywhere may join the list and sets no country restriction; it does not say when a given country's group is taken on.
- A launch date, or how long a place on the list takes.
- Any measured or controlled result. The site reports no trial; what it reports from real use are observations from its pilot families.

## Questions, answered briefly

- **Won't my child just find a way round it?** Some will try. In the pilot, children made well over a hundred attempts between them, and dozens of holes were fixed because of them. What the site says surprised the team is that the attempts fell off night after night. Kairoo's reading is that this happened not because every route was blocked but because the children had signed the thing. That is an observation from the pilot, not a measured result. One girl who had added twelve hours to her own limit on the built-in controls stopped bothering once the rules were partly hers.
- **Is this spying?** No. Kairoo sees time and apps against an agreement the child signed. It does not read messages, track location, or report on what they watch. The site's own line is that if you want a surveillance product there are several, and this is not one.
- **My child doesn't have their own phone yet.** Then you are early, which is a good place to be. Join the list and start with the agreement before the phone arrives.
- **What if they refuse to sign?** Then do not install it. A Kairoo imposed on a child is just another wall, and walls do not work. If the conversation is hard, Kairoo will send you the one they use to start it.
- **What about tablets, consoles, the TV?** Coming. Half the pilot families asked for it unprompted. Today it is phones.
- **What happens when they get older?** Kairoo steps back. As the child shows they can handle bedtime themselves, it stops managing bedtime and takes on whatever the next thing is. Success is a child who does not need it.
- **Is it another thing for me to manage?** Ten minutes to set up. After that it should be silent unless something needs you.
- **What does it cost?** Nothing, and no card is asked for. For comparison, Qustodio listed £44 to £76 a year in September 2026.
- **Is it available where I live?** Families anywhere may join the list; Kairoo is made in the UK and sets no country restriction. Groups are taken on a few at a time.

## What families have said

Two quotes from the pilot appear on the page, and they are the only ones:

- "It reminds me sweetly. More sweeter than a parent." An eleven-year-old in the pilot.
- "Kairoo is the bad cop now. It's a relief: exactly what I wanted." A parent in the pilot.

One more thing from the pilot: a thirteen-year-old asked to sign the agreement his dad had skipped.

## Contact

- Email: hello@kairoo.family
- Join the next group: https://kairoo.family/#join
- Privacy notice: https://kairoo.family/privacy.html
- Terms of use: https://kairoo.family/terms.html
- Pricing, machine-readable: https://kairoo.family/pricing.md

## Guides

Sourced, dated guides for parents of 8 to 14-year-olds. Each opens with a short direct answer, separates what the law or research says from Kairoo's own view, and lists its sources. Index: https://kairoo.family/guides.html

- [The AAP's new screen time guidance: why there's no magic number](https://kairoo.family/guides/aap-screen-time-guidance-2026.html): The American Academy of Pediatrics' updated digital media guidance deliberately goes beyond counting minutes. For school-age children it doesn't set a fixed daily limit. Instead it asks families to weigh the 5 C's (Child, Content, Calm, Crowding out and Communication) and to make a family media plan, with screen-free times such as meals, homework and before bed. (reviewed 2026-09-28)
- [AI chatbots and children: what UK parents need to know](https://kairoo.family/guides/ai-chatbots-and-children.html): Most children this age already use them. In a survey for Safer Internet Day 2026, 81% of UK 11 to 16-year-olds said they use AI chatbots, and almost a third of those said one felt like a friend. The UK has announced it will bar under-18s from chatbots built mainly for sexual or romantic role-play, and plans mandatory breaks for under-18s. General assistants remain open to teenagers, so the most useful protection is still an open conversation at home. (reviewed 2026-09-28)
- [Children want to cut back too: what Ofcom's 2026 research says about kids and screens](https://kairoo.family/guides/children-and-screen-time-ofcom-2026.html): Ofcom's 2026 Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes report found that 37% of 8 to 17-year-olds think they spend too much time on screens, rising to 44% of 16 to 17-year-olds, and 55% of parents think the same about their child. Among 13 to 17-year-olds, 29% had turned off notifications, 28% had set aside offline time and 21% had avoided taking devices to bed. (reviewed 2026-09-28)
- [How to write a family screen time agreement that actually holds](https://kairoo.family/guides/family-screen-time-agreement.html): A family screen time agreement is a short set of rules you and your child write together and both sign. It works best when your child has a real say, when it covers when screens stop, what comes first, which apps count and how to ask for more, and when it has a review date. Write it once, calmly, not in the middle of an argument. (reviewed 2026-09-28)
- [How to get kids off screens without a fight (and what to say to “five more minutes”)](https://kairoo.family/guides/five-more-minutes.html): Acknowledge how hard it is to stop, hold tonight's limit, and give your child a say over next time. For example: “I know it's really hard to stop mid-game. Want a slightly longer slot? Let's set it when we review our deal.” Research on self-determination theory links this kind of autonomy-supportive parenting with children taking rules on as their own. (reviewed 2026-09-28)
- [How much screen time is too much? What the guidance says, age by age](https://kairoo.family/guides/how-much-screen-time-by-age.html): It depends on age, and for school-age children there's no official number. UK guidance published in March 2026 says under-2s should avoid screens except shared, interactive time, and 2 to 5-year-olds should have no more than an hour a day. For older children, the UK's paediatricians and the American Academy of Pediatrics don't set a daily limit: they look at what screens are replacing, especially sleep, and advise screens off for the hour before bed. UK guidance for 5 to 16-year-olds is due this autumn. (reviewed 2026-09-28)
- [Is Roblox safe for kids? What changed in 2026](https://kairoo.family/guides/is-roblox-safe-for-kids.html): It's safer than it was, but it isn't hands-off. Since January 2026, Roblox has required an age check to use chat. Since 16 June 2026, under-16s have been placed in age-based accounts: Roblox Kids for 5 to 8-year-olds, with chat off by default, and Roblox Select for 9 to 15-year-olds, where chat opens up gradually. Parents can set screen time and spending limits until 13 and manage chat until 16. Roblox isn't covered by the UK's planned social media ban. (reviewed 2026-09-28)
- [Phone-free schools in England: what the new rules mean for families](https://kairoo.family/guides/phones-banned-in-schools-england.html): Since 29 June 2026, schools in England must have regard to the Department for Education's guidance on mobile phones, which gives it the force of law, and they were expected to follow it from 1 September 2026. The guidance says schools should be phone-free by default: pupils shouldn't have access to their phones at any point in the school day, including breaks and lunch. Ofsted now checks this at every inspection. (reviewed 2026-09-28)
- [Screens before bed: when should they go off, and how do you make it stick?](https://kairoo.family/guides/screens-before-bed.html): Keep screens out of the hour before bed. That's the advice in the UK's 2026 guidance for young children, and the rule of thumb from the UK's paediatricians for children generally. A review of 20 studies covering more than 125,000 children linked using a device at bedtime to too little sleep, poorer sleep and daytime sleepiness, and found that simply having a device in the bedroom at night was linked to worse sleep too. So: screens off an hour before bed, and phones charging outside the bedroom. (reviewed 2026-09-28)
- [The UK's under-16 social media ban: what's changing, and when](https://kairoo.family/guides/uk-under-16-social-media-ban.html): On 15 June 2026 the UK government announced a ban on social media for children under 16, expected from spring 2027. It covers platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook and X, but not messaging services like WhatsApp. It goes further than Australia's by restricting livestreaming and contact with strangers for under-16s, and 16 and 17-year-olds will get default overnight curfews from midnight to 6am. Nothing has changed yet for families today. (reviewed 2026-09-28)
- [What age should a child get a phone? What UK research says](https://kairoo.family/guides/what-age-first-phone.html): There's no official right age in the UK. In practice, most children get a smartphone around the move to secondary school: Ofcom's 2026 research found ownership rises from 56% at 10 to 83% at 11. UK parents polled by Internet Matters in 2024 put the right age, on average, at 11 years and 11 months. A Stanford study found no link between the age of a first phone and children's wellbeing, so readiness, and the rules that come with the phone, matter more than the birthday. (reviewed 2026-09-28)
- [WhatsApp age limit in the UK: what parents need to know](https://kairoo.family/guides/whatsapp-age-limit-uk.html): WhatsApp's minimum age in the UK is 13. It was lowered from 16 in April 2024. Messaging services like WhatsApp aren't included in the UK's planned under-16 social media ban, so for many children it will stay the main app they use with friends. If your child is on it, the settings to check together are who can see their profile photo, last seen and online status, and who can add them to groups. (reviewed 2026-09-28)