Legal
Project Content & Acceptable Use
In our app-building programs you choose what to build. This page explains the small number of things a project must not be about, and what to do when you are not sure. It applies to everyone in a program, and it matters most in the student ones.
Start from yes
The point of these programs is that you build your own idea, not ours. Strange ideas, funny ideas, unglamorous ideas that solve one real annoyance, ideas about games, sport, music, study, family, money, a club, a pet, a hobby nobody else in the room cares about — all good. If an idea is genuinely yours and you want to spend two days on it, that is usually reason enough.
The limits below exist because these are shared rooms, some of the people in them are 15, and a few subjects cannot be handled safely in a two-day build with a facilitator and a laptop.
What a project must not centre on
Do not build a project whose subject is:
- Weapons — designing, comparing, sourcing, modifying or simulating the use of real weapons.
- Graphic violence — realistic injury, gore, or violence presented for its own sake.
- Sexual content — sexual or sexualised material of any kind.
- Hate or harassment — anything demeaning a person or a group because of race, religion, ethnicity, disability, gender, sexuality or any similar characteristic, and anything built to pile on, rate, rank, shame or humiliate people.
- Self-harm — suicide, self-injury or disordered eating presented as instruction, encouragement, competition or entertainment.
- Illegal drugs and illegal activity — promoting, sourcing, dosing, or explaining how to do something illegal, including hacking other people’s systems, fraud, evading detection, or getting around a school or workplace’s controls.
- Real people — a project aimed at a real, identifiable person: a classmate, a teacher, a public figure, an ex. This includes impersonating them, scoring them, tracking them, or building something they would reasonably object to being the subject of.
The difference between being about something and centring it
Serious subjects are not banned. A respectful project that helps someone find support, or explains a hard topic properly, is a different thing from a project that dwells on the harm — and difficult subjects handled well are often the best work in the room. The distinction is judgement, not keyword matching, which is why the next section exists.
If you are not sure, ask first
The rule is simple: if you are unsure whether an idea is appropriate, check with the facilitator before you build it.
Not after. Not once it is half finished and you are attached to it. Asking costs you thirty seconds and it is never held against you — it is exactly what a facilitator is there for, and “I asked and they said go ahead” is the end of the matter. Being told to change direction on the final afternoon is a much worse outcome for you than being told on the first morning, and the only difference is when you asked.
Other people, and their information
- Do not put real personal information about other people into a project — names, photos, phone numbers, addresses, messages, class lists. Use made-up data. Every project in these programs works perfectly well with invented examples.
- Do not enter personal, confidential or sensitive information into the AI tools used in a session. What you type goes to a third-party service, and neither you nor we control what happens to it after that.
- Respect other people’s work. Do not pass off someone else’s code, art, music or writing as your own, and check the licence before you use something you found.
If a project crosses the line
In almost every case this is a conversation, not a sanction. A facilitator will tell you what the problem is and help you find a version of the idea that works — usually the same idea with the sharp edge taken off.
If someone keeps going after being asked to change course, or the material is serious enough that a conversation is not the right response, they will be removed from the session. For a student participant we will contact the parent or guardian, and the school where a program runs through one. Removal for conduct does not come with a refund or a credit — see our terms of sale.
What you build is yours
You own your project and you take it home with you. We may describe the kinds of things built in a program, in general terms, but we will not publish your project, your name or your work without asking you first — and for a student participant, without a parent or guardian specifically agreeing.