Terms of Use

1. Agreeing to these terms

These Terms of Use are an agreement between you and PlayOwl ("PlayOwl", "we" or "us") for the PlayOwl website, the PlayOwl app for grown-ups on the web, and the PlayOwl apps for Windows, Android, iPhone and iPad. By creating an account or using PlayOwl, you agree to these terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you accept them for a school or organization, you confirm that you're allowed to do so on its behalf.

2. Who can use PlayOwl

• Accounts are for grown-ups 18 or older: parents, guardians and caregivers, teachers and tutors, and school and organization staff. You confirm your age when you sign up.
• Children use PlayOwl through a grown-up: on a profile a parent or guardian creates in their family account, or one a school adds for its classes. Children never create accounts.
• Anyone can visit: browse the website, play free levels as a guest and print the printables without an account.

3. Accounts and security

• Give accurate information, keep your password to yourself, and tell us at info@playowl.com if you think someone else has used your account. You're responsible for what happens under your account. We recommend turning on two-step sign-in.
• A device or browser you set up for your kids, a class badge and an Adventure Pass let children in without a password. Keep them where only your children or students can use them, and remove the device or revoke the badge or pass if one is lost.
• Grown-ups you add to your family, and staff you add to a school, can see and do what their role allows.

4. Children and their grown-ups

A parent or guardian who adds a child agrees, for the child, to these terms and to our Children's Privacy Notice, and is responsible for the child's use of PlayOwl. PlayOwl gives you tools such as daily PlayTime limits, allowed hours, switching games off and choosing Olly's help, but it doesn't replace a grown-up's care and supervision.

5. Plans and billing

The free plan

The free plan has no time limit and needs no payment details. What it includes is shown on our Plans & pricing page.

Paid plans

• Paid plans, their prices and what they include are shown on Plans & pricing and again before you pay. Prices are in US dollars and are per child or per student, monthly or yearly. If tax applies, it's shown at checkout.
• A family's owner or guardian, or a school's or organization's administrator or billing manager, buys a plan on Plans & billing in the PlayOwl app on the web. Our apps for Windows, Android, iPhone and iPad don't sell anything, but a plan you've bought works in them once you sign in.
• Payments are processed by Stripe. By buying a plan, you authorize us to charge your payment method through Stripe for the plan, its renewals and any changes you confirm.
• If a plan includes a free trial, the trial and its length are shown before you start. When it ends, the plan starts and you're charged unless you cancel before then. We email you a few days before a trial ends.

Automatic renewal

Paid plans renew automatically at the end of each monthly or yearly period, and we charge the payment method on file the price shown on Plans & billing, until you cancel. Plans & billing shows your next renewal date and amount.

Changing your plan

You can change your plan on Plans & billing, which shows exactly what changes before you confirm. Upgrades, such as monthly to yearly or more children or students, start straight away and you pay the difference for the rest of the period. Moving to a lower price, or from yearly to monthly, starts at the end of the period you've paid for. When we change a plan's price, the new price applies to new purchases; subscriptions you already have keep their price.

Cancelling

Cancel any time on Plans & billing by choosing Cancel at period end. Your plan keeps working until the end of the period you've paid for and doesn't renew after that; you can choose Keep my plan before then to undo it. Cancelling never deletes your family's progress or creations, and the free plan's levels stay open.

If a payment fails

Your plan keeps working for a few days while the payment is retried. You can update your payment method and pay the missed payment on Plans & billing. If the payment still isn't made, the plan's paid features end and the free plan carries on.

Refunds

Cancelling stops future renewals; it doesn't refund the current period, which keeps working until it ends. If you think you were charged by mistake, or have another billing question, email info@playowl.com. You can see every charge and receipt on Plans & billing.

If a payment is refunded in full, the paid features it covered end straight away.

6. Acceptable use

Please use PlayOwl for learning and creating, and treat others with respect. You agree not to:

• break the law, or use PlayOwl to harm, harass or deceive anyone;
• try to see or change accounts, children's information, classes or schools that aren't yours;
• get around security, sign-in limits, plan checks or other protections, or test PlayOwl for weaknesses without our written permission;
• copy, scrape or download PlayOwl's content or data in bulk, or use bots, except for search engines indexing our public pages;
• upload or send anything harmful, such as malware, or try to slow down or disrupt PlayOwl;
• pretend to be someone else, or add children or students you aren't responsible for;
• use PlayOwl to collect information about children, or put personal details such as full names, addresses or phone numbers into creations, answers or messages.

7. Our content and printables

PlayOwl's games, courses, books, printables, art, characters (including Olly the owl), names, logos and software belong to PlayOwl or the people who license them to us, and are protected by law. We give you a personal, non-transferable permission to use PlayOwl for learning under these terms. It ends if your use of PlayOwl ends.

Printables

You may print and photocopy PlayOwl's printables, and sheets you make with the printable generator, for use at home, in homeschool and in classrooms, including copies for the students you teach. Please don't sell them, include them in paid products, or post the files on other websites or file-sharing services; share a link to the printable instead.

Your ideas

If you send us ideas or feedback, we may use them to improve PlayOwl without owing you anything for them.

8. What you and your children make

You and your children keep ownership of the drawings, stories, comics, animations, games, puzzles and answers they make in PlayOwl. You give us permission to store, copy, display and process them only as needed to run PlayOwl for you: to save them, show them to your child and their grown-ups, and show them to a class's teachers when your child shares one and the teacher approves. We don't show children's creations publicly or use them for advertising.

Please help your child keep personal details, such as a full name, address or school, out of what they make. What happens to creations when they're deleted is explained in our Privacy Policy.

9. Olly and learning help

Olly is PlayOwl's owl guide. He reads directions aloud, gives hints and explanations, and celebrates progress. Everything Olly says is written and reviewed by our team in advance. Olly isn't an AI chatbot: he doesn't hold conversations or answer questions in his own words, and PlayOwl doesn't send what children do to an AI service. If we ever add AI features, we'll update these terms and our Privacy Policy before they're available.

Lessons, hints, levels, printables, placement checks and reports are learning help. They aren't professional advice, a formal assessment or a guarantee of any result, and although we review them, they may contain mistakes. If you find one, please tell us.

10. Schools and teachers

• If you use PlayOwl for a school or organization, you confirm you're authorized to, and the school or organization is responsible for following its own policies and the laws that apply to student records.
• A school that imports a roster confirms it's authorized to provide those students' details and to authorize their use of PlayOwl for school purposes. The school controls those records.
• Teachers who invite families can add a child to a class only after a parent or guardian agrees. Teachers see a child's class work, never their home play.
• A school's or organization's plan is bought by the school or organization on its own account.
• If your school has a separate written agreement with us, that agreement applies where it differs from these terms.

11. Other companies' services

Some parts of PlayOwl rely on other companies: Stripe for payments, the speech voices built into your browser or device for reading aloud, and the Microsoft Store, Google Play and the App Store for our apps. Their own terms apply to their services. PlayOwl also links to other websites, such as sources in our guides. We aren't responsible for other companies' services, websites or content.

12. Disclaimers

We work hard to make PlayOwl accurate, safe and available, but we provide it "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent the law allows, we make no warranties beyond those in these terms, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement, and we don't promise that PlayOwl will always be available, uninterrupted or free of errors.

13. Limits on liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, PlayOwl isn't liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits or data, arising from your use of PlayOwl. Our total liability for any claim about PlayOwl is limited to the amount you paid us for PlayOwl in the 12 months before the claim, or US$50 if that is more. Some places don't allow these limits, so they apply to you only as far as the law allows, and nothing in these terms limits liability that can't be limited by law.

14. Suspension and ending

You can stop using PlayOwl at any time, and delete your account on Your data (cancel a paid plan first). We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, puts children or others at risk, or where the law requires it. These sections continue after an account ends: our content, what you make, disclaimers, limits on liability and general terms.

15. Changes to PlayOwl and these terms

We keep improving PlayOwl and may add, change or remove features. When we change these terms, we update the "Last updated" date at the top. If a change is significant, we'll tell grown-ups who have an account, by email or in PlayOwl, before it takes effect. If you keep using PlayOwl after a change takes effect, you accept the new terms; if you don't agree, you can stop using PlayOwl and delete your account.

16. General

These terms and our Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about PlayOwl. If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, the rest still applies. If we don't enforce a part straight away, we can still enforce it later. You can't transfer your rights under these terms to someone else without our permission.

17. Contact us

Questions about these terms? Write to us, or use our Contact us page.