Safeguarding: how we keep children safe

Last updated 2 November 2026

Howardites is a place to learn about meteorites and space. Many of the people who use it are children, so the site is built to keep them safe from the start, not as an afterthought. This page explains how, in plain words.

Who the site is for

Everyone, from young children to adults. Every page can be read without an account and without telling us anything. The children's stories, games, tests and certificates have no adverts. Lessons are written for each stage, from Key Stage 1 to A-level and beyond.

Children's accounts

An account is optional. It keeps lesson results, test scores and certificates. When someone makes one, we ask how old they are: 18 or over, 13 to 17, or under 13.

• Under 13: a child can't make an account alone. A parent, carer or teacher makes it with their own email address and ticks a box to say they agree. The child's own name goes on the account so it appears on their certificates. We never ask an under-13 for the name of their school.
• 13 to 17: young people can make their own account. They can choose to say where they study, but they don't have to.
• Everyone under 18: their email address is never shown in full to anyone, not even to the people who run the site, who see only a masked version. Accounts whose age we don't know are treated the same way. No adverts are shown on a device while a child's account is signed in.

There are no passwords to guess or share: each sign-in uses a code sent by email. When an account is made, the email address is typed twice, so the code goes to the right person.

No chat between users

There is no chat, no comments, no profiles to visit and no way for one member to find or message another. Students can't write anything to a teacher or to each other. Teachers can post short notices to a whole class and a short note on a student's result, and those can't contain links, web addresses or email addresses. Students can't reply to them. Messages sent through our contact page come only to us.

Teacher accounts and student approval

Teacher and educator accounts are for adults aged 18 or over. A teacher gives their details, including their school or organisation, and we can remove the educator role from any account that doesn't look genuine. We can't check every teacher's background, so the site is built so that a teacher can never contact a child privately.

A student can join a teacher's class in two ways:

• by typing the class code their teacher gives them in class, or
• by giving their teacher their own share code. That only sends a request: the teacher sees nothing until the student presses Approve on My progress or Account.

An under-13 can only join a class when the adult who made the account has ticked the box. A student can remove a teacher at any time, and the teacher stops seeing their progress straight away.

What teachers can see

For each student in their class, a teacher sees the student's name and Learn progress: lessons passed, test and quiz scores, certificates, pages read, when they were last active and what is left before their next stage. Teachers never see a student's email address, age answer, or anything else about them.

"I need help" flags

On a lesson, a student in a class can tap "I need help with this lesson". That sends no words: their teacher just sees which lesson and when, and can mark it as dealt with. It is a way to ask for help in class, not a way to talk online.

Reporting a concern

If you are worried about a child's safety, or about anything on Howardites (a class notice, a teacher account, or something that doesn't feel right), please tell us on our contact page. Say what worried you and, if you can, which page or class it was, and tick "This is a safety concern". Messages are read and answered by the site owner through the site, usually within 2 days: the reply appears on your private conversation page, not by email. Safety concerns are flagged as urgent and dealt with first. If anyone is in danger right now, call 999. We can remove a notice, a class or a teacher's educator role, and delete an account.

If a child is in danger now, call 999. If you are worried about a child but it isn't an emergency, you can contact the police on 101 or the children's services team at your local council. Children can talk to Childline free on 0800 1111.

How information is kept and deleted

We keep only what an account needs: a name, an email address for sign-in codes, the age group, and learning progress. We never sell information, never share it for marketing, and never use a child's information for advertising. Location is never collected unless someone chooses to use it for sky alerts or a fireball report, and then it is made less exact first (to about 10 km for alerts).

An account can be deleted at any time from the Account page by typing DELETE. Everything, including progress, classes and teacher links, is removed from our database straight away. A parent or carer who made an account for a child can delete it the same way, or ask us on the contact page. Our privacy policy has the full details.

Staying safe online: tips for children

• Keep personal details private. Your full name, home address, school, phone number and passwords belong to you. Don't share them with people you only know online.
• People aren't always who they say they are. Someone online can pretend to be a child, a teacher or a friend. Never agree to meet someone you only know online.
• Your sign-in code is secret. Howardites will never ask you for it. Don't give it to anyone, even a friend.
• Think before you post. Photos and words online can be copied and kept for ever.
• Trust your feelings. If something feels wrong, it probably is. Close the page and tell a parent, carer or teacher.
• Take breaks. Learning is better in short bursts. Nothing on Howardites is lost if you stop and come back another day.