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SmartMins Terms of Service

Effective date: [EFFECTIVE DATE]

Last updated: [LAST UPDATED DATE]

Version: 1.0

These Terms are a contract between you (the parent or guardian who holds the account) and [COMPANY NAME], Ontario, Canada ("SmartMins", "we", "us"). By creating an account or using the app, you agree to them. If you do not agree, do not use SmartMins.

We have kept these short and plain on purpose. Headings are there so you can skim. Our Privacy Policy (smartmins.com/privacy) is part of these Terms.

1. Who can use SmartMins (eligibility)

• You must be at least 18 years old and the parent or legal guardian of the child who will use the app.
• You are setting up SmartMins for a child aged 7 to 14. If your child is outside that range, the app is not designed for them. [LAWYER: Confirm whether we should state that a child who turns 15 must be removed, or simply that content is designed for 7–14.]
• You are giving consent on your child's behalf and taking responsibility for your child's use of the app.
• You must be able to form a binding contract under the law of where you live.
• Only one adult account holder per account. You may add a co-parent as an additional notification recipient in the future if we offer that feature; the account holder remains responsible.

2. Your account

• You create the account with an email and password, or with Sign in with Apple or Google.
• Keep your password private. You are responsible for everything that happens under your account unless it results from our fault.
• Your child never has a login. The child uses the app on a device you set up. Do not give your child your account password; the parent sheet is protected by a parental gate and by your device's authentication.
• Tell us right away at support@smartmins.com if you think someone else has accessed your account.
• Give us an email address you actually check. We send consent confirmations, receipts, and security notices there.

3. Your child's use of the app

• Your child reads short, human-reviewed science "Discoveries", answers three questions, and earns Joules.
• Your child can spend Joules to unlock timed access to apps you chose, or to buy cosmetic items for their virtual companion ("Mini").
• Your child can send you a "pitch" request: the title of a Discovery they want to explain to you. That is the only thing a child can send, and it goes only to you.
• There is no chat, no social features, no user-generated content, no free-text fields, and no contact with other users.
• You are responsible for supervising your child's use of the app and the device.

4. Joules, Mini, and virtual items

• Joules are a game currency. They have no cash value, cannot be purchased with money, cannot be redeemed for money, cannot be transferred to another account or person, and cannot be sold.
• Cosmetic items for Mini are likewise virtual, have no cash value, and exist only inside SmartMins.
• Joules and items are a limited, revocable, non-transferable licence to use a feature of the app. You do not own them.
• We may adjust Joule earning rates, prices of items, unlock costs, and the catalogue of items at any time to keep the app balanced and fair. We may also correct balances affected by bugs or abuse.
• Joules and items are lost when the child profile or the account is deleted, when a subscription ends and the account becomes inactive and is deleted, or if we discontinue the app. We do not refund or compensate for lost Joules or items.
• We do not sell "loot boxes" or random-chance items, and there are no in-app purchases inside the child's experience. [LAWYER: Confirm this remains true at launch; if any paid cosmetic is ever added behind the parental gate, this clause and the App Store Kids Category answers must change.]

5. Subscriptions, free trial, and refunds

Plans (prices in CAD for Canada, USD for the US; local taxes may be added by the app store):

[LAWYER: Confirm "Lifetime" wording. Some jurisdictions treat "lifetime" claims as misleading if the service can be discontinued; the definition in Section 11 is intended to address this.]

• Billing is handled entirely by Apple (App Store) or Google (Google Play). Your subscription is a contract with them for payment purposes and is governed by their terms. We never see your card number.
• Free trial. The 7-day trial (yearly plan only) converts automatically to the paid yearly plan unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the trial ends. You cancel in your Apple or Google subscription settings, not in our app. One trial per family.
• Auto-renewal. Monthly and yearly plans renew automatically at the then-current price until you cancel. Cancel any time through Apple or Google; you keep access until the end of the paid period.
• Refunds. Refund requests go to Apple or Google under their refund policies. We cannot issue refunds directly for app store purchases, but we will help you if you contact support@smartmins.com. Nothing in this section limits refund rights you cannot waive under the law where you live, including under Quebec's Consumer Protection Act or Ontario's Consumer Protection Act. [LAWYER: Confirm interaction between app-store refund policies and Quebec CPA / Ontario CPA 2002 (and the new Ontario CPA 2023 when in force) cancellation rights for subscriptions, including any required auto-renewal disclosures.]
• Price changes. We may change prices with at least 30 days' notice by email and in-app. Apple or Google may also require you to actively agree to a price increase before it applies. If you do not agree, cancel before the new price takes effect.
• Deleting your account does not cancel your subscription. You must cancel with Apple or Google.

6. Acceptable use

Do not:

• use SmartMins for any purpose other than the educational, family use it is designed for;
• try to bypass the parental gate, extract or tamper with Joules, or exploit bugs to gain Joules;
• reverse-engineer, decompile, scrape, or copy the app or its content, except where the law expressly allows it;
• resell, sublicense, or share your account with people outside your household;
• use the app on behalf of a child you are not the parent or guardian of;
• upload or attempt to upload malware or interfere with our servers;
• use any automated tool to access the service.

We may suspend or close accounts that break these rules (Section 10).

7. Content and intellectual property

7.1 Our content

The Discoveries, questions, illustrations, Mini and its items, the app design, our name and logo, and all software belong to us or our licensors and are protected by copyright and trademark law. We give you a personal, non-commercial, non-transferable, revocable licence to use them inside the app for your family. You may not reproduce or distribute them.

7.2 Third-party and openly licensed sources

Our Discoveries are written by humans and cite their sources. Some Discoveries draw on material published under open licences such as Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA). Where we use CC BY-SA material, we attribute the source in the app on the Discovery itself and, where required, the adapted text is available under the same licence. Those portions are not subject to the restrictions in Section 7.1 beyond what the open licence requires. [LAWYER: Confirm the attribution and share-alike approach for CC BY-SA adaptations, and that it does not conflict with our proprietary claim over the rest of the Discovery.]

7.3 Your feedback

If you send us suggestions, we may use them without owing you anything. We will never ask your child for feedback.

7.4 Apple and Google

Apple and Google are not responsible for the app, its content, or support. If you got the app from the App Store, Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce them against you. [LAWYER: Apple's Developer Program Licence Agreement requires specific "minimum terms" for EULAs when a developer uses its own terms instead of Apple's standard EULA; confirm all required items are present (acknowledgement, scope of licence, maintenance and support, warranty, product claims, IP claims, legal compliance, developer contact, third-party terms, third-party beneficiary).]

8. Disclaimers

8.1 Educational content

Our Discoveries are educational, written and reviewed by humans, and cite sources. Science changes and people make mistakes. We do not guarantee that any content is accurate, complete, or current. Nothing in the app is medical, health, nutritional, safety, legal, or financial advice. If a Discovery raises a question about your child's health or safety, talk to a qualified professional.

8.2 Screen-time controls

The app-unlock feature depends on your device's operating system: Apple's Screen Time / Family Controls on iOS, and usage-access and overlay permissions on Android. These controls:

• can change or stop working when Apple or Google updates their software;
• may behave differently on different devices and OS versions;
• can be circumvented by a determined child (for example by changing device settings, using another device, or uninstalling the app).

SmartMins is a tool to support your parenting, not a replacement for it. You remain responsible for supervising your child's screen use. We do not guarantee that any app limit will be enforced.

8.3 "As is"

To the fullest extent the law allows, SmartMins is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not promise the app will be uninterrupted or error-free.

8.4 Consumer rights

Some laws do not allow these disclaimers for consumers. If you are a consumer in a place where that is the case (including Quebec, and some US states), the disclaimers apply only as far as that law allows. [LAWYER: Quebec CPA prohibits exclusion of the legal warranty; Ontario CPA restricts warranty exclusions for consumer services. Confirm wording.]

9. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows:

• We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for loss of data, loss of Joules or items, or loss of profits, however caused.
• Our total liability to you for all claims relating to SmartMins in any 12-month period is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid us for the service in those 12 months, and (b) CAD 100.
• We are not liable for the acts or omissions of Apple, Google, or your device manufacturer, or for how third-party apps behave when unlocked.
• Nothing in these Terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything that cannot be limited by law where you live. US consumers keep all non-waivable rights under their state's law. Quebec and other Canadian consumers keep all rights under their provincial consumer protection law.

10. Termination

By you. Delete your account from the parent sheet at any time, or email support@smartmins.com. Cancel your subscription separately with Apple or Google.

By us. We may suspend or close your account, with notice where practical, if you break these Terms, if your payment fails and is not resolved, if required by law, or if we discontinue the service. If we close your account for a reason other than your breach while you have paid time remaining, we will work with you on a pro-rated refund through the app store where we can.

Effect. When the account ends, the licence in Section 7.1 ends, Joules and items are lost, and we delete your data on the schedule in the Privacy Policy. Sections 4, 7, 8, 9, 12, and 13 survive.

11. Changes to the service and to these Terms

• We may add, change, or remove features. If we remove a major feature or discontinue SmartMins, we will give at least 60 days' notice by email. "Lifetime" plans mean for as long as the service is offered; if we discontinue the service within [24] months of a lifetime purchase, we will offer a pro-rated refund through the app store where the store permits. [LAWYER: Confirm the lifetime-plan discontinuation commitment is acceptable and enforceable via app stores.]
• We may change these Terms. For material changes we will email you and show an in-app notice at least 14 days before they take effect. Continuing to use SmartMins after that date means you accept the new Terms. If you do not, delete your account before the effective date.
• Changes that affect how we handle your child's personal information are governed by the Privacy Policy and may require fresh consent.

12. Governing law and disputes

• These Terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada that apply there, without regard to conflict-of-law rules.
• Disputes will be resolved in the courts of Ontario, Canada, and you agree to their jurisdiction, except that:

- if you live in the United States, you keep any non-waivable rights under the law of your state, including the right to bring a claim in a small-claims court where you live; and

- if you live in Quebec, nothing in this section limits your rights under the Quebec Consumer Protection Act, including the right to bring proceedings in Quebec.

• Before going to court, please email us. Most problems can be sorted out in a few days.
• No class-action waiver and no mandatory arbitration: we have deliberately not included these. [LAWYER: Confirm this choice. Ontario and Quebec consumer law substantially restrict mandatory arbitration and class-action waivers for consumers; if the founder wants a US-only arbitration clause, it must be drafted separately and carefully.]

13. General

• Entire agreement. These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between us about SmartMins.
• Severability. If part of these Terms is unenforceable, the rest still applies.
• No waiver. If we do not enforce a term, we can still enforce it later.
• Assignment. You cannot transfer your account. We may transfer our rights if the business is sold, with notice to you.
• Language. These Terms are in English. For Quebec users, the parties have expressly requested that these Terms and all related documents be drafted in English / Les parties ont expressément demandé que les présentes conditions et tous les documents connexes soient rédigés en anglais. [LAWYER: Confirm whether a French version of the Terms and Privacy Policy is required for Quebec consumers under the Charter of the French Language and Law 25, given this is a consumer contract of adhesion; the English-language clause may not be sufficient on its own.]
• Export and sanctions. You confirm you are not in a country subject to Canadian or US sanctions and are not on a restricted-parties list.

14. Contact

[COMPANY NAME]

[MAILING ADDRESS], Ontario, Canada

Support: support@smartmins.com

Privacy: privacy@smartmins.com

Website: smartmins.com