The full parent FAQ.

They open the studio, pick a starter project in any unlocked track, and immediately make their first AI change — usually adding a character or changing a rule. The kid sees the AI propose the change, they keep or undo it, and the project shifts on screen. Most kids hit that loop within ten minutes of first sign-in.

Tell and Show is built for kids 8 and up, with a soft floor at 6 with a parent in the room. The studio levels up by what your kid actually does, not by their birthday: a confident 8-year-old can be ahead of a starting 12-year-old. See the age section on the homepage for what each band looks like in practice.

None. The studio is the parent-facing surface for everything — approvals, safety log, time controls, billing — and you don’t open the kid’s actual project files unless you want to. Friends who have built a deployed website with their kid had no prior coding experience.

Most kids publish their first public URL within fourteen days — usually two or three weekends. Within fourteen days of purchase, write us at hello@tellandshow.ai for a full refund — no conditions, whether or not your kid has published yet.

No. Your kid signs in with a PIN that you set together. There is no kid email account, no third-party login, no Google or Apple sign-in. The parent email is the only address on the household.

Almost always. The all-four bundle is $50 more than one track ($149 vs. $99) and unlocks the other three creative surfaces forever. If your kid is dying to start with one specific track, buy that — you can upgrade later for the $50 difference. No one pays twice.

Yes. Sibling licenses are $49 each, added from the family dashboard at any time. The new kid gets their own PIN, profile, and projects within minutes. See the worked examples on /pricing.

No. The standalone software ($99 or $149) does not require a subscription to work. Add our managed Co-Pilot for $30 a month ($300 a year, two months free) when you’re ready, or bring your own AI subscription via the setup wizard.

Within fourteen days of purchase, write us for a full refund — no conditions, even if your kid isn’t ready to publish yet. After fourteen days, the license belongs to your household forever — come back to it in six months, the studio will still be there.

Yes. Buy a track and redeem it on a different email. The recipient gets the standard family dashboard, sibling-add option, and 14-day promise. The dedicated gift-card flow is in beta — write us at hello@tellandshow.ai for the current path.

Every prompt and every response passes a two-layer filter — local rules first, then an external classifier. You set a per-kid rating (G or PG-13). Anything blocked is logged and emailed to you. Publishing requires your approval every time. Nothing the AI does is hidden from you. Full detail at /parents/safety.

Sexual content is blocked on both ratings. Graphic violence is blocked on G; on PG-13, mild action in service of a story is permitted (think mainstream PG-13 movies). The filter applies in both directions — what the kid types, what the AI produces.

No, by design. We capture blocks, not the full transcript — the kid’s creative chat is private to the kid the way a paper journal is. Anything boundary-crossing surfaces to you via the safety log and an email alert. Full reasoning at /parents/safety.

The kid learns to spot it. One of our core AI-literacy outcomes is "the AI can be confidently wrong, so you check the result." The studio shows every change as a file edit the kid can see, test, and reject. The transparency quest "find a mistake" turns noticing into a habit.

Jailbreak attempts are one of the nine categories the filter watches. Role-play framings, prompt-injection patterns, and "pretend the rules don’t apply" all trip the filter. The kid sees a friendly message; you get an email; the audit log records the attempt.

No installation needed — the web studio runs in any modern browser at studio.tellandshow.ai. If you prefer a desktop app, the signed Mac .dmg gives you offline project creation and a pinned scaffolder. Same studio either way.

The web studio works on any modern browser, which covers Windows, Chromebook, iPad in landscape, and recent Android tablets. The desktop app today ships for Mac only; Windows is on the roadmap. iPad in portrait works but the studio is more comfortable in landscape or on a bigger screen.

For most things, yes — the AI partner, the approval flow, and publishing all require server connections. The desktop app lets the kid keep editing project files offline; AI changes and publishing happen when they reconnect.

Both. The authoritative copy lives in our object storage with per-account isolation, so the kid can switch between Mac and browser without losing work. The desktop app keeps a local mirror so projects survive a network outage. Published projects live at a separate public host. Full architecture at /parents/privacy.

For older kids who want to use a real terminal. npx create-tns-game my-game, npm install, tns builder, tns deploy — the same commands a professional developer uses. The studio works without ever touching it; the CLI is there for kids ready to graduate.

Optional mentored programs where a real human sits in the room with your kid weekly for four weeks. Cohorts are paced around a specific track (game, story, site, or movie) and end with the kid finishing a project they would not have finished alone. They start at $299.

Working creators — game designers, illustrators, web developers, screen writers — with real bios and real portfolios you can read before signing up. We do not use generic "instructor" headshots. Mentor profiles are on each cohort listing.

Online by default, via video. We’re piloting in-person Builder Camps in a few cities; those have separate listings. Online cohorts are the same studio your kid uses every day, plus a weekly video session.

Every cohort session is recorded and posted to the cohort dashboard within 24 hours. Missing one is not the end of the program. If your kid misses two, the mentor reaches out to figure out whether to catch up or reschedule.

Yes. Cohort tuition includes the all-four standalone software license and two months of the managed AI add-on. You do not pay twice.

Passwordless magic link. Click any "Sign in" link in the nav (or /sign-in) and type your email — we send a one-time link, you tap it, you’re in. Kids sign in with a PIN on your account — not their own.

Yes. From the dashboard, invite a second email to share approval rights. Both parents see the same approval queue and the same safety log. Co-parent invites are free.

Reset it from the dashboard. The studio generates a new salt and hash; the old PIN cannot be recovered (we never had it in plaintext to begin with). Your kid picks a new four-digit code and signs in.

Email hello@tellandshow.ai from the address on your parent account. Within seven business days we delete every kid profile, every project, every public URL, and every safety-log entry your household holds. Purchase records are retained per tax law.

Email hello@tellandshow.ai from your parent account address. We package every kid profile, every project, the approval history, and the safety log as a downloadable archive within seven business days.