TEPP · for parents

Permission that scales.

Choose who can talk with your child online. Then extend trust to the people you already rely on: the wider family, the school, the club, other parents. Watch your child’s world grow – while you stay in control.

See how it works Try it yourself

An open standard from the Web of Trust Foundation, a Dutch non-profit. Apps that support it are being built.

  • Parents decide
  • Communities help
  • Every decision explained
Animation: a child starts in a small, safe circle close to home. The parents extend trust to a few people and groups they rely on: the wider family, the school, a friend’s family, a club, a parents’ group and a helpline. The child’s world grows into a wide circle. When a parent says no to one person, that person disappears from the child’s world, even from the lists that include them.

The problem

The internet wasn’t built with children in mind

Parents want their children to explore, learn and keep in touch with friends online. Each of the usual answers has a problem.

Blocklists are always one step behind

Blocking the bad stuff sounds simple. But new accounts, apps and videos appear faster than anyone can block them.

Closed apps put someone else in charge

Kids’ apps and platform settings decide for you. They only work inside one app, and your child soon outgrows them.

Bans and ID checks close the internet for everyone

Phone bans shut children out. ID checks for every user close the open internet to adults too. And determined children find a way around both.

Giving permission alone keeps the world small

Allowing only what you’ve given permission for is the safest way. But no parent can check every classmate, club and channel alone – so your child’s world stays tiny, and children start looking for a way out.

What if permission could grow – with help from the people you already trust?

How it works

Permission that scales

It starts with permission: you decide what’s allowed. TEPP is an open standard that any app can use. It lets that permission grow with help from people you trust, while you stay in charge.

Illustration of the four steps. First, the parents allow a few people, online spaces and posts. Next, they extend trust to the school and to a friend’s family, and their lists flow in. Then a new classmate appears automatically. Finally, the parents say no to one person, who disappears even though a trusted list includes them.

  1. 1You choose

    Start with what you know

    Pick the people your child may see posts from or talk to. Add the online spaces they may visit, like the football club’s own space, and any individual posts they may see. What your child sees comes mostly from these, and they can only talk to people you allowed them to talk to.

  2. 2Extend trust

    Let people you trust help

    The school keeps a list of the class. The parents of your child’s best friend have made careful choices of their own. Extend trust to the school or to that family, and what they share openly can open up for your child too – always within your limits.

  3. 3It stays up to date

    New classmates appear automatically

    When a new classmate joins, the school updates its list – and your child’s world updates with it, usually within the hour. The people you trust keep their lists up to date, so you don’t have to.

  4. 4Say no

    Your ‘no’ always wins

    Say no to someone, and they stay out – even when a list you trust includes them. A parent’s no overrules every yes, wherever it comes from.

You’re in control

Your family, your rules

TEPP doesn’t decide what’s right for your child. You do – in as much or as little detail as you like.

Look or talk

Choose whether your child may only look (see someone’s posts) or also talk (chat, reply and send messages).

When

Allow things on weekdays only, only after school hours, or never after bedtime.

What kind

Allow articles and pictures but not video posts – or allow private messages with family only.

Trust with limits

Extend trust to a list for looking only, and it stays that way, whatever its owner adds later. The limits they put on each yes, such as ‘only after school’, apply too. But what they said no to doesn’t apply to your child – only what your own family says no to does.

One step, no further

Extend trust to your child’s friend, and your child can reach the people that friend’s parents allowed them in their shared rules. It stops there: trust that family extends to others is not passed on.

A no is a no

Each parent or carer can say no – to a person, a space or everything after bedtime. That no stands, even if someone else said yes.

Change any of it, or stop extending trust, whenever you like. Your child’s apps pick up changes the next time they check – usually within the hour.

Leverage your community

It takes a village

You already rely on others to help raise your child – teachers, coaches, family, other parents. TEPP lets you rely on them online too.

Illustration: several families are connected to the same school, club, parents’ group and helpline. Each of them keeps a list, and it flows out to every family that extends trust to them. Some families also extend trust to each other.

Schools

A school can keep its class lists up to date, and every family that extends trust to it gets the updates automatically. Extending trust to a school brings in everything it shares – so a school may share each class separately.

Clubs and online communities

A sports club or an online community can run its own space, with its own house rules for that space. Extend trust to it, and the people it allows can reach your child too – within your limits.

Helplines

A children’s helpline can publish how to contact it. Extend trust to it for talking, and your child can contact it privately – including new helpline accounts it adds later. A rule you set for everything, like a bedtime, applies to the helpline too.

Friends’ families

Like how another family has set things up? If they share their rules openly, you can extend trust to their child. Your child can then reach the people those parents allowed. What they said no to, and their bedtime, don’t apply to your child – yours do.

Parents’ groups

Like-minded parents can keep a list of great channels and creators. They can also share ready-made rules, such as school-night hours, that you can choose to use.

When a family, school or club keeps its list up to date, every family that trusts it benefits. That’s how permission scales.

Try it

Grow a world

Extend trust, choose look or talk, say no to someone, move the clock – and watch your child’s world change.

  • can talk
  • can look
  • not now
  • said no

Family: chosen by you directly

Extend trust to

The parents’ group shares its favourites for looking only, so talking can’t be switched on for them.

This person is on two lists: the best friend’s family and the football club.

16:00

School and club lists: only until 20:00

An illustration of the idea – not a real app.

A home, not a prison

Built to grow up with

Rules that are too tight make children look for a way out. TEPP is made to widen as your child grows – and to be left behind when they’re ready.

Four stages of growing up. The circle around the home gets wider at each stage, until the fence is gone and the child walks out into the open world.

  1. Close to home

    A small world: family and a few favourite channels.

  2. School years

    Classmates, the club and friends’ families join in.

  3. Teenage years

    A much wider world, with more room to talk.

  4. Ready

    They leave the rules behind – and, with their own login, keep their account.

Every decision explained

TEPP keeps track of which rule made each decision. Apps can show your child why something is or isn’t allowed – and your child can come and ask you.

Private means private

For private messages, TEPP only checks who is involved. Your child’s own app reads each message to find that out, then forgets the words. TEPP gives nobody else a way to read them – not even you.

Theirs to keep

The rules end only from your child’s own login – openly, never in secret – or when they stop using TEPP apps. Make sure they can take their login with them: then their account, contacts and everything they’ve made stay theirs.

TEPP is not a prison, it is a home. It’s the walls and structure your parents provide […]. The restrictions are, hopefully, in your best interest, to guide you on your way to get on your own two feet. In this case to at some point walk the digital plane permissionlessly.

Constant – author of TEPP and chairman of the Web of Trust Foundation

Behind the scenes – briefly

No company in the middle

TEPP is an open standard that apps can follow – not a service you sign up to.

Illustration: two parents each write their own rules in a parent app. A copy of each goes out onto an open network that no one owns and that other families share; one copy is sealed so only the family's side can read it, and other families link to the open one. The child's own apps each fetch both parents' rules; posts arrive over the same network, and the apps let them in or stop them – on the child's side, never in the network.

  1. In a parent app, you choose who and what is allowed. Your choices are saved as your own rules, and only you can change them. Your child’s other parent can set rules too, and theirs add to yours.

  2. The rules are stored on Nostr, an open network that no single company owns – a bit like email. Keep them private, or share them openly so other families can extend trust to them.

  3. Apps that support TEPP read your family’s rules and follow them themselves – no company decides for your child. It works in whichever of those apps your child uses.

Honest limits

What TEPP is – and isn’t

Trust is the whole point, so here is plainly what TEPP does and doesn’t do.

TEPP is

  • Controlled by parentsYou decide who can talk with your child and what your child can do – not a platform.
  • Built on permissionYour child can only talk with people allowed by you, or by someone you chose to trust. They see posts from the people and spaces allowed by you or those you trust, and whatever those posts quote, reply to or mention – plus the name and picture of anyone they come across.
  • OpenAn open standard, meant for any app to use.
  • ExplainableEvery decision can be traced back to the rule behind it.

TEPP isn’t

  • A filter for everythingTEPP works only in apps that support it – not in other apps or on websites. Your phone’s or tablet’s own parental controls help keep your child in those apps.
  • A guaranteeNo system makes the internet risk-free. TEPP lets you decide how much of it your child is ready for.
  • A company serviceThere is nothing to sign up for, and no company server deciding for your child.
  • A way around parentsTEPP only opens what a parent allows – even a helpline needs a parent’s yes. A child who needs protecting from their own home needs help that TEPP can’t give.
  • FinishedTEPP is an open standard in active development, and the apps that support it are being built.

Questions

Questions parents ask

Can I use it today?

Not yet. TEPP is new, and the first apps that support it are being built. Follow the Web of Trust Foundation to hear when they’re ready.

Does it work on YouTube, TikTok, WhatsApp or in games?

No. TEPP works only in apps that support it, on Nostr, an open network. For other apps and websites, use your phone’s or tablet’s own parental controls.

Do I need to be technical?

No. TEPP works underneath the apps. The aim is that you only make simple choices: look or talk, when, and who to trust.

Can strangers still show up?

Yes, in a few ways. Your child may see someone a friend quotes or replies to, or anyone posting in an online space you allowed. They may also see anyone’s name, picture and profile text – when a post mentions them, for example, or when an app lets them look someone up. Some apps even show a private message from a stranger, when an allowed post points to it. But your child can’t answer or message these people unless you allow it. And if you say no to someone, they stay out everywhere.

Can my child get around it?

In apps that support TEPP, the rules hold. If the app that holds your child’s login supports TEPP, nothing goes out in their name against the rules, whichever app they write in. But whoever has the login itself can use it elsewhere without the rules, or take the rules off – taking them off always shows publicly. TEPP can’t stop your child installing other apps or making a new account; your phone’s or tablet’s own parental controls can help there. A new account won’t work in TEPP apps until someone is set up as its parent – and TEPP can’t check that it’s really you.

Can I read my child’s private messages?

No – TEPP gives you no way to read them. Your child’s own app opens each private message just long enough to see who it is from, who it is to and who it mentions. Then it forgets the words: they are never kept or passed on.

Can I see what my child posts?

If you want, TEPP can put a copy of what your child posts in an online space you choose. For private messages, that copy shows only that a message was sent, and when. Anyone who can read that space can see the copies, so it’s best agreed on together.

If I extend trust to the school, who decides what’s on its list?

The school does – just as the club or another family does for its own list. You decide who to trust, whether your child may only look or also talk, and when. Choose ‘talk’ only for lists you really trust. Anyone added to them later can message your child privately, without you being asked first. That includes someone added by mistake, or by a hacker. Your no always overrules their lists, and you can stop extending trust at any time.

What if my child’s other parent sets different rules?

Each of you can say yes and no. A no from either of you – to a person, a space or everything after bedtime – always stands. But a limit on a yes is not a no: one parent’s ‘look only’ or ‘until 8 pm’ doesn’t stop the other parent’s wider yes – and the same goes for a list you trust. You can’t say no to each other: parent apps won’t allow it, because it would stop your child’s TEPP apps altogether. It works best when you agree together on the big things to say no to.

Is our family’s information public?

Partly – you choose how much. Private rules can be read only by you and your child’s apps, and your child can always see them. Shared rules are public: anyone can see who your child may talk to, when, and that you are their parent. Sharing is what lets other families extend trust to them. Your names as parents can be kept private too – but then other families can’t extend trust to your child. Either way, it’s visible that your child’s account has parents linked to it.

What happens as my child grows up?

You widen the rules step by step. The rules end only from your child’s own login – always openly, never in secret – or when your child stops using TEPP apps. If your child can take their login with them, their account, contacts and everything they’ve made stay theirs.

Can my child’s school or club take part?

Yes – that’s where permission really scales. A school, club, library or helpline can publish its own lists, and every family that extends trust to it benefits.

Does it cost anything?

TEPP itself is an open standard, not a paid service. Apps that support it will each decide whether to charge.

What is Nostr?

An open network for social apps. Like email, no single company owns it, and many different apps can use it – your child keeps the same account whichever app they use.

Who is behind TEPP?

TEPP was written by Constant. The Web of Trust Foundation, a Dutch non-profit, is developing it.

Get involved

Help build a better internet for children

TEPP is being developed by the Web of Trust Foundation, a Dutch non-profit working towards a child-safe internet built on trust between real people.

Apps that support TEPP are being built now. Follow along to hear when they’re ready.