Terms of use

What this is

Paired Parent is two apps. One runs on a phone or tablet you provide to a child, and is openly announced on that device's lock screen. It arrives already set up on a device we prepare for you, or you set it up at home on your child's own phone, with our Paired Parent Connect program for a Windows or Mac computer and a USB cable. The other runs on your phone and is how you see and control what the first one does.

These terms are a contract between you and Paired Parent LLC, a Florida limited liability company, Sunbiz L26000464384 (“Paired Parent,” “we,” “us”). Notices, and anything else these terms ask you to send us, go to the address or email under “Contact,” at the end of these terms.

The child app is installed as Android Device Owner, the strongest management role Android offers, and, on a phone, as the default messaging app, so every text message arrives there first. Setup of that role is done before the device is handed to the child. Uninstalling the child app, clearing its data, and turning the phone back into an ordinary unsupervised device are deliberately blocked; the way out is Release, described under “Ending it,” below. See also “How the child device is managed.”

Installing the parent app and pairing it with a child's phone or tablet means you accept these terms and the privacy policy. The privacy policy is part of this agreement. A current copy is always inside the parent app and on our website.

Reading both documents, ticking the unticked box, and tapping “I agree” is your electronic signature under the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act and the Florida Uniform Electronic Transaction Act. The app stores the version of each document, the time, and the device. A copy of that record is available on request (see “Contact,” below). This electronic acceptance binds the contract. It is not, by itself, verifiable parental consent under COPPA; that separate step is described in the privacy policy and runs only if you say the child is under 13.

Who may use it

By using Paired Parent you confirm that:

• You are an adult, and the parent or legal guardian of the child whose phone is supervised.
• You own or otherwise control that phone and are entitled to decide what runs on it.
• You are lawfully entitled to supervise that child's use of it where you live and wherever the device is used.
• The person who will use the phone is under 18, and the age you give for them is true.

This is not a tool for monitoring another adult, an employee, or anyone whose phone is not yours to decide about. Laws on recording and intercepting messages and calls differ from place to place, and some require the knowledge or consent of more people than you might expect. What you are responsible for is set out under “Your responsibility; our limits,” below: above all, your own legal authority over this child and this phone, including after a custody order changes.

For as long as the child's phone is supervised, it announces that supervision on its lock screen, and that notice cannot be removed. That is deliberate. If your intention is that someone not know they are being monitored, this is the wrong product.

Acceptable use

You may use Paired Parent only to supervise a device that a minor in your legal care will use, and only in a way that is lawful where you live and where the device is used. Without limiting that rule, you agree that you will not:

• Pair, supervise, or attempt to supervise a device used by another adult, an employee, a contractor, a student who is not your child, or anyone you do not have legal authority to supervise.
• Use the product to violate a parenting plan, custody order, injunction, condition of probation, or other court order.
• Use a second-parent slot, a borrowed phone, or a guessed PIN to monitor a co-parent or to defeat a co-parent's lawful access.
• Hide, cover, or instruct a child to hide the lock-screen management notice, or present the product as something other than parental supervision.
• Probe, reverse-engineer, or disable Device Owner protections, USB-debugging blocks, update signing, or the release two-party rule, except as the app itself permits through Maintenance mode or Release.
• Use the product, the relay, or the name server to attack, scan, or burden systems that are not yours.
• Upload or share judgement text in order to publish a child's or a third party's messages outside the family.

We may end the service for a pairing that we reasonably believe violates this section. Its subscription then ends, and the child's phone follows the steps under “If a subscription ends,” below. A violation of this section is a material breach.

How the child device is managed

On a phone, the child app is both the Device Owner and the default messaging app. That has consequences you should read before you hand the device over:

• Every text sent or received through the device is handled by the child app first. Screening and the word filter run on that device. Message content is not sent to us to be checked.
• New apps the child installs are held until you approve them. Two kinds are not held: an app installed while a maintenance window is open, which is allowed at once, and an app with no icon of its own on the home screen, such as a widget pack, which is listed in your app but not held. Allowed hours, daily limits, pause, and block are enforced on the device.
• Contact gating, quiet hours, web filtering, places, and the call-log copy work as the handbook describes. Paired Parent never blocks or holds calls or texts to or from 911, 988, or short codes.
• While the device is supervised, its lock screen states that it belongs to the name you set and that it is managed by Paired Parent — Messaging Oversight & Monitoring System. Android requires a managed-device notice; we also use it so the child is not monitored in secret.
• Play Protect scanning is left off so that our signed updates are not interrupted. App installs are still held for your approval. Switching Play Protect back on does not restore the original state by itself and may require a USB session to repair updates.
• A Wi-Fi tablet, or a tablet set up without texting, uses the same management role with texting turned off; a tablet set up with texting works like a phone. Part 7 of the handbook states what a tablet does and does not supervise.

You choose a 4-to-8-digit PIN for the parent controls on the child device before you hand it over. Until that PIN is set, whoever opens those controls first chooses it. Keep the PIN from the child. The main parent can reset it from Advanced Settings.

Confirming you're an adult, for a child under 13

When you connect a child's phone you tell us how old the person using it is. If you say 18 or older, the phone is disconnected and not supervised. For a child under 13, you are asked to confirm that you are an adult through Kids Web Services, a service of Kids Web Services Ltd, part of Epic Games — with a card charge of 5 cents that is refunded, or your Social Security number. That check is theirs, under their terms; it is not a payment to us, and we never see the card or the number.

Until you confirm, for that child, web filtering, Location and Places stay off, and problem reports and your judgements on alerts are not sent. You may confirm later, and you may withdraw at any time in the app; withdrawing is the same as never confirming. The privacy policy says exactly what is shared with Kids Web Services and what comes back.

Updates

The child's phone updates itself, but only after you approve the update in your app, and every update is checked on the phone against our signing certificate and a checksum before it is installed, so a compromised server cannot push code to it. The parent app comes from Google Play, which keeps it up to date, and Version Update opens its page there.

For Android's own updates, the child's phone tells our server:

• The child's phone model, its Android version and security update level, the version of our app, and whether Android has offered it an update, so we can test that update before your child's phone installs it.

If an update changes what is collected or shared, you are asked to make that choice again before anything new is shared. See the privacy policy.

Availability, and the state of this software

This software is early and is being tested with a small number of families. It is provided as it is, without any warranty or guarantee. Features may change, and services it depends on — a phone network, third-party notification services, a DNS name server, among other variables — can fail in ways we do not control.

We will make an effort to tell you what we know when something breaks, as timely as practical. However, we cannot promise it will not fail.

License to use the apps

We grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to install and use the parent app on devices you own or control, and to use the child app on the child device we prepared or that you pair under these terms, and to run Paired Parent Connect on a computer you own or control to set up a child device under these terms, solely for the lawful supervision described above. All other rights are reserved. You may not copy, modify, distribute, rent, or create derivative works from the apps except as a license of included open-source components already permits.

Ending it

• Remove disconnects a parent phone from a child's phone. The disconnected phone's access stops within a heartbeat.
• Release ends supervision entirely and gives the phone back. It needs both you and the person holding the child's phone to agree, within ten minutes of each other — neither side alone can do it, deliberately, so that neither a lost parent phone nor a guessed PIN can end supervision on its own. There are two other ways, both on the child's phone, from its parent controls, without the parent app: at any time, with the parent PIN and a code we email to the address on your account; and, once our servers have not answered that phone for ten days, with the parent PIN alone.
• Either way, the pairing is deleted from our server, with what it needed to run: sealed packages still waiting to be delivered, the child's phone software details and its subscription status. A released phone keeps its own message archive for whoever holds it, and stops being filtered.
• Problem and crash reports naming your pairing are not deleted with it. Delete My Data, in the app, deletes them at once, but only while the pairing still exists, so use it before you remove or release. To have us delete what we still hold about your family after that — any of those reports — write to us (see “Contact,” below). Your consent records are the one thing that request does not reach: they are kept as proof of what was agreed, tied to your account, until five years after your service ends. The privacy policy says what can and cannot be reached.

We may also end or refuse a pairing if we reasonably believe these terms have been broken, if required by law, or if we stop offering the product. When we end the service for a pairing, its subscription ends and the child's phone follows the steps below. If we stop offering the product, we will make reasonable efforts to tell you in advance, so that you can release each phone while our servers are still running, and to keep them running long enough for each phone to complete the steps below once its subscription ends. A phone that no longer hears from our servers can also be released from its parent controls with the parent PIN alone once ten days have passed without an answer, and its messages stay on it. Ending our service does not, by itself, factory-reset the child device.

If a subscription ends

Prices and what a subscription includes are shown on our website, and again before anything is charged. A subscription is billed monthly or yearly, and renews automatically at the end of each period, at the price shown when you subscribed, until you cancel it. Each subscription covers one child device.

A free first month. If you subscribe with a promotion code for a free first month, your payment card is collected at checkout but not charged then. The first charge, at the full price of the plan you chose, is made one month later, and the subscription renews from then as above, unless you cancel before the month ends.

Canceling. To cancel, email info@pairedparent.com from the address on your account. Your cancellation will be processed as soon as possible, and will take effect for billing purposes on the date we receive it. No renewals will be billed beyond that date, and any renewal charged after it will be refunded. Supervision only continues until the end of the period you've already paid for prior to the cancellation request. A cancellation during a free first month is processed as soon as possible, and you will not be charged.

Refunds. You can cancel at any time, but a period already paid for, or partly used, is not refunded, except where the law requires it. If you set up your child's own phone and the setup cannot be finished, write to us with your setup code, and we will help you finish it or refund your order.

A subscription can end because it is canceled, because a payment is missed, or because a free trial ends without one. The child's phone then changes in steps:

• After a missed payment, or a trial that ends, supervision carries on for seven days while your app warns you on its main screen; nothing changes on the child's phone. After a cancellation, supervision carries on to the end of the period already paid for.
• Then supervision stops. The child's phone is no longer supervised or filtered, nothing more is sent to you, and its lock screen no longer says it is monitored.
• Ten days after the unpaid date — the day the payment was due, the trial ended, or the paid period ran out — and never less than three days after the child's phone first learns of it, the phone can be reset. Its message history is not deleted because a subscription ended.

At any point you can release the phone from its parent controls with your PIN and a code we email to you, as described under “Ending it.” Paying again starts supervision again from that day.

Buying a phone from us

When you buy a phone from us with a subscription, we set it up for Paired Parent before we ship it, which means opening its box. Shipping costs are shown at checkout. Once you have paid for it, the phone is yours.

Returns. You may return the phone within 30 days of delivery if it is in new condition, with all the accessories it came with, in its original packaging. Every return needs our authorization first: email returns@pairedparent.com with the reason for the return and your original order number, and we will send you a return shipping label. If the phone is defective, the return label is free, and once we have received the phone we ship you a replacement at no charge. If it is not defective, we refund the phone's price after we have received and inspected it, less a restocking fee of 10% of that price and the cost of the return label; the original shipping charge is not refunded either. Returning the phone does not cancel your subscription; to end it as well, cancel it as described above.

Defects. If the phone develops a hardware fault within 30 days of delivery, email returns@pairedparent.com with what is wrong and your original order number, and we will send you a free return label; once we have received the phone, we ship you a replacement at no charge, or, if we cannot, refund the phone's price and the original shipping charge. That is the only warranty we give on the phone. We are not its manufacturer or an authorized retailer of it, and we do not promise that the manufacturer will honor its own warranty. To the extent the law allows, any warranty implied by law is limited to the same 30 days.

If your subscription ends. You keep the phone. It stops being supervised as described under “If a subscription ends,” and you can release it from its parent controls with your PIN and a code we email to you, which makes it an ordinary phone.

Other people's work

Both apps are built with the use of open-source software, and the screening was trained on published research datasets. Several of those licenses require that credit travels with the product. It does: the parent app's About screen and the child app's About & licences screen show the full credits and license texts. Maps and map data are © Mapbox and © OpenStreetMap contributors. The Mapbox attribution drawn on the map must not be hidden or covered.

Your responsibility; our limits

You are responsible for the child device, the PIN, who you add as a second parent, the judgements you make on alerts, and for whether supervision is lawful in the places the device is used. You will defend and indemnify Paired Parent and its officers, contractors, and employees against claims that arise from your use of the product in breach of these terms, including unauthorized monitoring and custody-related misuse, except to the extent a claim is caused by our willful misconduct.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST MESSAGES, LOST LOCATION FIXES, MISSED ALERTS, OR A FILTER BYPASS. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF THE PRODUCT IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF ONE HUNDRED UNITED STATES DOLLARS (US $100) OR THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US FOR THE SOFTWARE IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM. If you have paid nothing, the cap is US $100. This limit does not apply to liability that the law does not allow to be limited, including our own gross negligence or willful misconduct where that exception is mandatory.

United States only

The product is offered only in the United States. It is not directed at users in the European Union, the United Kingdom, or any other country. You may not use it where United States export or sanctions rules forbid.

Disputes

Informal resolution. Write to us before filing, at the email or postal address under “Contact,” below. Identify the pairing or order, the problem, and the relief sought. We will try to resolve a good-faith notice within sixty days of receipt.

Small claims. Either you or we may bring an individual action in the small claims court for Bay County, Florida, instead of arbitration, if the claim is within that court's limits.

Arbitration. If the dispute is not resolved and is not filed in small claims court, you and we agree to binding individual arbitration before a single neutral arbitrator, administered by a recognized arbitration provider under its rules for consumer disputes. If you and we cannot agree on the provider, either of us may ask a court to choose one. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this clause. Hearings may be held by telephone or video, or decided on written submissions, as the provider's rules allow. Any in-person hearing will be held in Bay County, Florida, unless you and we agree on another place. The arbitrator may award the same individual relief a court could award.

Class and collective waiver. You and we may proceed only as individuals. No class, collective, consolidated, or representative action or arbitration is permitted. If this waiver is found unenforceable as to a particular claim, that claim may proceed in court and the rest of this dispute clause still applies.

Temporary court relief. Either side may ask a court for a temporary order to preserve a pairing or to stop misuse of the product, without waiving arbitration of the rest of the dispute.

Opt-out. You may opt out of arbitration and the class waiver by writing to us at the email or postal address under “Contact,” below, within thirty days after you first accept these Terms. State your name, the pairing or order identifier if you have one, and that you opt out of arbitration. Opting out does not change any other part of these Terms.

Any claim that goes to court under this section, a small claims case included, must be brought in the state courts for Bay County, Florida, or in the federal court with jurisdiction over Bay County, Florida.

Governing law

The laws of the State of Florida, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, govern these terms and any dispute arising out of the product, except that the federal Communications Act and COPPA control where they apply. Exclusive venue is the state courts for Bay County, Florida, or the federal court with jurisdiction over Bay County, Florida, unless a statute that cannot be waived requires otherwise. If a court holds one clause unenforceable, the rest remains in force. These terms and the privacy policy are the entire agreement for the product. We may assign this contract to a successor that takes over the product; you may not assign it. A revised version is published with a new date.

If these terms change

A changed version is published here with a new date. Where a change affects what is collected or shared, the app asks you again rather than assuming your previous answer carries over. Where a change is material to this contract, the parent app will ask you to accept the new version before you continue to manage a child device.

Contact

Paired Parent LLC, 2310 S Hwy 77, STE 110 Unit 130, Lynn Haven, FL 32444
privacy@pairedparent.com · +1 (850) 296-2667