Kids safety

Section 1. What this app is for

Sketch Anything is a drawing app for families. A child types what they want to draw, picks a picture, and either copies it from the screen in Draw Mode or traces it onto paper in Trace Mode. That is the whole of it: there is no feed, no chat and nothing to scroll for its own sake.

Section 2. Safe Search is always on

Safe Search is enforced on every source that offers it — Pixabay, Openverse, Unsplash and Google Images. The rest are curated collections — museum, nature and space archives, an icon set, and a moderated stock-photo library — chosen because their catalogues are suitable to begin with. It is not a setting, there is no switch for it anywhere in the app, and it does not change with the age of the account. Words we will not search for are turned away before any source is asked, and that filter applies to every source alike.

No filter is perfect. If something gets through, the information button on the preview screen reports it, and a person looks at it.

Section 3. There is nobody to talk to

There are no public profiles, no usernames to find, no comments, no messaging and no way for one person using the app to reach another. A child cannot be contacted through Sketch Anything, because there is no channel to contact them through.

There are also no ads over the canvas. The drawing surface stays the drawing surface.

Section 4. The camera is never recorded

Trace Mode shows a live camera preview so the picture can be lined up with the paper. The preview is processed on the device. Nothing from the Trace Mode camera view is recorded, stored or sent — no photograph of the room, the child or the page exists anywhere, including with us.

The camera is used one other way: if you choose to take a photo for Create with AI, that photo is handled as Section 5 describes.

Section 5. Photos used with Create with AI are never stored

Create with AI can start from a photo. That photo is sent once to make the picture and is never stored: not on our servers, not in the database, not in a log. Only the drawing that comes back is kept, and only if it is saved.

Each style is built around a description that asks for something plain, friendly and suitable for young children, and what is typed is checked before anything is made.

Section 6. Accounts

Searching, drawing and tracing work without an account. Saving pictures to My Images needs one.

An account belongs to a parent or guardian who is 18 or older. Signing up asks for that confirmation before an account is made. Children do not hold accounts of their own: they use the app under the adult’s account, or as a guest, with that adult’s supervision. The adult holds the password and agrees to the terms and conditions. There are no public details on an account: the display name is only ever shown back to the person signed in.

Everything saved can be deleted from My Images. The whole account goes through Delete Account in Profile: we email a confirmation link, and nothing — no row, no stored file — is removed until somebody opens it. A guest session has no confirmable email address, so Delete Guest Data removes it straight away.

Section 7. Parental controls

The controls built into the phone are the right place to decide how long the app is used for and whether anything can be bought. The app’s own notification switches sit alongside them:

• iPhone and iPad — Screen Time sets app limits and requires approval for purchases.
• Android — Family Link does the same, and Google Play’s purchase approvals sit alongside it.
• Notifications — Profile → Notifications has two switches, one for messages about the account and one for tips and news. Both start off, and the app only asks for permission to notify once at least one of them has been turned on. Turning either off stops those messages at our end, not just on the phone.

Pro is a subscription sold through the App Store and Google Play, so a purchase needs the store account holder’s approval like any other. Nothing in the app can be bought without going through the store.

Section 8. Tracing safely

Trace Mode asks for a phone to be held above a sheet of paper. Set it on a stable surface or in a holder, and never prop it where it could fall onto a child or onto their work. An adult should set the phone up the first few times.

Section 9. Ask us

If something here is not clear, or you have found something in the app that should not be there, write to [email protected] or use the contact form.

Three documents go further than this page does. The privacy policy sets out what the app collects and the rights a parent has — Section 14 is written for children’s privacy in particular. The data use policy lists every category of data in tables, with who processes it and how long it is kept. The terms and conditions are the agreement the account holder makes with us.