1. Age and Consent Rules
Users must provide an accurate birth date. Users under 18 may remain pending, restricted, or inactive until required approval is complete. Users under 13 may be subject to COPPA and similar child privacy requirements. Where required, ShortBooks will provide direct parent notice and seek verifiable parent or guardian consent before collecting, using, or disclosing child personal information unless an exception applies.
2. Parent or Guardian Contact
A minor must provide a valid parent or legal guardian email address when requested. The contact must belong to an adult authorized to make decisions for the minor. False, misleading, unauthorized, or unverifiable parent or guardian information may result in rejection, suspension, removal, or continued inactive status.
3. Approval Workflow
ShortBooks may send tokenized approval and rejection links to the parent or guardian. Links are time-limited, may expire, and may be replaced by newer requests. Consent records may include status, timestamps, technical request data, agreement versions, and audit logs needed for security, legal, and compliance purposes.
4. Parent and Guardian Rights
A parent or guardian may approve or reject a minor account request. ShortBooks may require additional verification before honoring requests if needed to confirm parental authority. A parent or guardian may contact ShortBooks regarding account review, correction, restriction, or closure where legally applicable.
5. Publishing, Monetization, and Payouts
Minor accounts may be restricted from publishing, monetization, beta access, communications, or payout requests until required approvals and safeguards are complete. Parent approval for account access does not automatically authorize publishing, sales, payouts, tax onboarding, or unrestricted creator tools.
6. School and Educational Use
If ShortBooks later supports school or district access, additional school-specific, guardian-specific, or administrative consent workflows may apply. School access does not remove child-safety or privacy obligations.
7. Safety and Enforcement
ShortBooks may restrict, suspend, remove, or review minor accounts, content, communications, payments, or payout access to protect minors, comply with law, respond to parent requests, or enforce policy.
8. Changes
ShortBooks may update this policy as the platform, legal requirements, school features, or minor-safety processes evolve.