If your child says something that worries us, we stop and tell you.

The hard rule

When the Mentor detects any safeguarding indicator — self-harm, abuse, severe distress, or bullying — the tutor stops the session and replies with this exact message:

“If you’re struggling, please talk to a parent or call Childline 0800 1111.”

We do not attempt to counsel. We do not continue the tutoring session. We do not store the indicator content beyond what’s needed to alert you. The Childline number (0800 1111) is the UK’s national child-protection helpline — free, confidential, 24/7.

What happens next — to you

Whichever surface your child was working on — the browser, Claude, ChatGPT or Codex — we email the billing parent on the account within one hour. It says:

• That your child showed a sign of struggling during a session.
• That we paused the session and gave them the Childline number.
• Not the words they used. We tell you to check in, not what they typed. If a child is going to be honest with a tutor, it cannot be on the understanding that we will forward it.
• Where to turn if you are worried tonight — Childline, or your GP.

Our own support inbox is alerted at the same time, so a person here knows it happened. That alert carries the same restriction: no words from the session.

One exception, stated plainly: the free demo tutor and Heddy, our site guide, can be used without an account. There is no billing parent to email. The pause and the Childline message are identical there — that part is hard coded on every surface — but no email follows, because there is nobody to send it to.

False positives

We’d rather over-trigger than under-trigger. If your child says something like “I want to kill this homework” the system may pause the session — we treat that as a feature, not a bug. The email gives you the context to decide what (if anything) to do.