Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of Family Lens—including our website and mobile app—operated by Family Lens ("we," "us," or "our"). By accessing our website or using the Family Lens app, you agree to these Terms. If you don't agree, please don't use our services.

What Family Lens is

Family Lens helps busy parents instantly know if a book is right for their child, using personalized content readiness based on reading history instead of generic age ratings. The service includes:

• A website where you can learn about Family Lens and sign up
• A mobile app where you can create child profiles, check books for content readiness, and manage reading lists

We may update features, add new capabilities, or modify the service. We'll do our best to keep you informed of significant changes.

Who can use Family Lens

You must be at least 18 years old (or the age of majority where you live) to use Family Lens. The service is designed for parents and caregivers—not for children to use directly. By using Family Lens, you confirm that you meet this requirement and that the information you provide is accurate.

Your account

Creating an account: To use the Family Lens app, you'll create an account with your email address (or sign in through Google, Apple, or Facebook). You're responsible for keeping your account secure and for all activity that happens under your account.

Your responsibilities:

• Keep your login information confidential
• Provide accurate information when creating child profiles
• You're responsible for all content and activity in your account
• Let us know immediately if someone uses your account without permission

Communications

By using Family Lens, you agree we may contact you via:

• Email for account updates, service announcements, and support
• Push notifications (optional—you can turn these off in your device settings)
• In-app messages about new features or updates

You can unsubscribe from promotional emails anytime using the link in our emails. Some service-related emails (like password resets) can't be turned off. Your information is handled as described in our Privacy Policy.

Acceptable use

When using Family Lens, you agree not to:

• Use the service for any unlawful, harmful, or fraudulent purpose
• Submit false information or someone else's information without permission
• Share your account credentials with others
• Create accounts for children or allow children to use the service directly
• Interfere with or disrupt the service, its security, or infrastructure
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to any system, data, or other users' accounts
• Use automated tools to scrape, crawl, or harvest data without our consent
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the source code of the app
• Remove or obscure any copyright, trademark, or other proprietary notices

We may suspend or terminate your account if you violate these terms.

Child profiles and your responsibilities

Family Lens allows you to create profiles for your children to get personalized book readiness assessments. By creating a child profile, you represent that:

• You're the parent or legal guardian of the child, or have permission from their parent/guardian
• You understand and consent to how we handle children's information (see our Privacy Policy)
• You're responsible for reviewing our readiness assessments and making final decisions about what your child reads
• You understand that Family Lens provides guidance, not guarantees—every child is different, and you know your child best

Content and recommendations

Family Lens analyzes books across multiple content dimensions and provides readiness assessments based on your child's thresholds. However:

• Use your judgment: Our assessments are tools to help you decide—they're not guarantees or requirements
• Book data accuracy: We use third-party book data (like Open Library) and content scores. We can't guarantee all information is complete or accurate
• No liability for content: We're not responsible for the content of books, publishers' descriptions, or the appropriateness of any book for your child
• You're in charge: You have the final say on what your child reads

Your content and feedback

When you use Family Lens, you may provide feedback about books (ratings, notes, appropriateness assessments). By submitting this content:

• You grant us a license to use, store, and display your feedback to provide the service
• You confirm the content is accurate and doesn't violate anyone's rights

Intellectual property

Family Lens and its content—including the app, website, text, graphics, logos, and design—are owned by Family Lens or our licensors and protected by intellectual property laws. The "Family Lens" name and logo are our trademarks. You may not copy, reproduce, modify, distribute, or use our content for commercial purposes without our written permission.

Third-party services

Family Lens uses third-party services to operate:

• Supabase for database and authentication
• Open Library for book data and metadata
• OAuth providers (Google, Apple, Facebook) if you choose to sign in through them
• Google Analytics on our website

We don't control these services and aren't responsible for their content, policies, or practices. Your use of them is subject to their own terms of service.

Service availability and updates

Availability: We strive to keep Family Lens available, but we don't guarantee uninterrupted access. The service may be unavailable due to maintenance, updates, or technical issues.

Updates: We may release updates to the app that add features, fix bugs, or improve performance. Some updates may be required to continue using the service.

Changes and discontinuation: We may modify, suspend, or discontinue features or the entire service at any time. We'll try to give you notice of significant changes, but we're not required to.

App store terms

If you download Family Lens from an app store (Apple App Store, Google Play Store), you also agree to that app store's terms of service. If there's a conflict between these Terms and the app store's terms, the app store's terms control regarding your use of the app store.

Termination

By you: You can stop using Family Lens anytime and delete your account from Settings → Privacy & Data. When you delete your account, we'll permanently delete your data as described in our Privacy Policy.

By us: We may suspend or terminate your access if you violate these Terms or for other reasons like fraud, abuse, or legal requirements. We'll try to give you notice when possible.

Disclaimers and limitations

Service disclaimer: FAMILY LENS IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. We don't warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or meet your expectations.

Content disclaimer: Book readiness assessments are provided for informational purposes only. We don't guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any content scores, book data, or recommendations. You're solely responsible for decisions about your child's reading.

Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, FAMILY LENS AND ITS TEAM ARE NOT LIABLE FOR:

• Any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages
• Loss of profits, data, use, or other intangible losses
• Damages related to book content, appropriateness assessments, or your child's reading experiences
• Unauthorized access to your account or data
• Third-party services or content (like Open Library data)

Where liability cannot be excluded by law, it's limited to the amount you paid us in the past 12 months (or $100 if you haven't paid anything).

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Family Lens from any claims, damages, losses, or expenses (including legal fees) arising from:

• Your use or misuse of Family Lens
• Your violation of these Terms
• Your violation of any rights of others
• Content you submit (like book ratings or feedback)

Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we do, we'll revise the "Effective date" at the top and notify you (via email or in-app notification) if the changes are significant. Your continued use of Family Lens after changes are posted means you accept the updated Terms.

Disputes and arbitration

If we have a dispute, we encourage you to contact us first at contact@familylens.org so we can try to resolve it informally. Any disputes that can't be resolved informally will be subject to binding arbitration under the rules of the American Arbitration Association, except where prohibited by law.

Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Georgia, United States, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Any disputes will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Georgia, unless applicable law requires otherwise (like consumer protection laws in your jurisdiction).

General terms

Entire agreement: These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, make up the entire agreement between you and Family Lens.

Severability: If any part of these Terms is found to be unenforceable, the rest remains in effect.

No waiver: Our failure to enforce any right or provision doesn't mean we're waiving it.

Assignment: You can't transfer your rights under these Terms without our consent. We may transfer our rights to any affiliate or successor.

Force majeure: We're not liable for delays or failures caused by circumstances beyond our reasonable control (like natural disasters, pandemics, or internet outages).

Contact us

Questions about these Terms? Email us at contact@familylens.org.