Staying safe on Biro

How to report, how fast we act, Biro's rules, and how to appeal. For students and parents.

Last updated [DATE] · Version 2.1 · Biro is run by AgentMaker LLC

1. How to report

Long-press a message, or tap Report on a profile, chat, league row or class.

• A message: press and hold it, then pick what's wrong.
• A whole chat or a person: tap their handle at the top of the chat, or their row in a league or class, then Report or Block.
• A friend request or a handle: tap their Biro, then Report.
• A class name: open the class, tap the owner, then Report. Or email support@birogcse.com with "Report" in the subject and the name of the class.
• After you've blocked someone, you can still read what they sent you for 30 days, so you can report it. Blocking doesn't delete the evidence, and they can't unsend it.
• If someone unfriends you or is paused, you can still read and report what they sent you in the last 30 days.
• If someone you've messaged deletes their account, what they sent you stays for 30 days so you can read and report it, shown as "Deleted account". Your replies stay with it, unseen, in case a moderator needs them. The same applies to what you send if you delete yours.
• No account, or a parent? Email support@birogcse.com with "Report" in the subject. Tell us the handle and what happened. Don't send us screenshots of sexual images of anyone under 18: tell us it exists and report it to CEOP or the police.

When you report someone you've messaged, Biro saves the last 10 messages between you, and any others its checks are worried by, so we can see what happened. If you report a handle from a profile, it saves only the ones its checks are worried by. You don't need to screenshot anything.

2. What happens next, and how fast

Serious reports alert an adult straight away. A person looks at others within 48 hours.

The times run every day, weekends and holidays included. When a person has decided, we tell you in the app: "We looked at your report and took action", or that we didn't find a rule broken. We won't tell you what happened to the other person. If you'd rather not hear back, tick "Don't send me updates" when you report.

If we think a child might be at risk, our safety lead passes it to the people whose job it is to help: the police, children's services or the child's school. When the law requires it, we report child sexual exploitation and abuse to the UK's National Crime Agency.

3. Biro's rules

Be kind, keep it clean, keep your details private, keep people safe.

1. Be kind. No bullying, threats, hate or ganging up on someone, including in leagues and classes.
2. Nothing sexual. No sexual messages, jokes or requests, ever.
3. Keep personal details off Biro. No phone numbers, addresses, schools, socials or plans to meet, even with friends. Biro stops most of these from sending.
4. Keep people safe. Nothing that encourages self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, violence, dangerous challenges, drugs or weapons. If you're struggling yourself, saying so is never against the rules. Childline is there on 0800 1111, and Biro's chat can point you to people who can help.
5. Be real. No scams, spam, pretending to be someone else, or cheating the leagues.
6. Clean handles and class names. Nothing rude, and no real names of schools.
7. Don't break the law.

4. What we can do

Remove messages, reset handles, pause or remove your social features.

• Remove a message, or reset a handle.
• Reset a class name that breaks the rules.
• Pause your social features (friends, chat, leagues, classes) for 7 days, or until we've checked a report.
• Remove your social features for good (a ban), for serious or repeated breaks of the rules. Deleting your account doesn't undo a ban or a pause: we keep a scrambled code of your email, never the address, for as long as the sanction lasts and at most 12 months. It stays if you delete your account, and the sanction comes back if that email signs up again.
• If three different people connected to you on Biro (a friend, a class, a league or a recent chat) report you within 30 days, or two pick "Sexual or creepy" or "Asked to meet or for personal info", your social features pause automatically for 48 hours while a person checks. A later report doesn't restart it, and our team is alerted when it starts and again before it ends.

Studying always keeps working. Your sets, papers, Bites, Biro chat and anything you've paid for aren't affected by a pause.

If we act on your account, the app tells you which rule it was about and how to appeal. We never tell you who reported you.

5. Appeals and complaints

If you think we got it wrong, tap Appeal or email us, and we look at it again.

• Appeal if we removed your message, reset your handle or paused your account, or if you reported something and think we didn't deal with it properly. You can also tell us if our filter stopped a message it shouldn't have.
• How: tap Appeal on the message that tells you what happened, or email support@birogcse.com with "Appeal" in the subject. Say what happened and why you think it's wrong.
• We look at it again. If someone else on our team made the decision, a person who wasn't part of it looks. We have one safety lead for now, so if they made the decision, they review it themselves, and we record that. We reply within 48 hours to say we've got it, and decide within 7 days. If we got it wrong, we undo it and say so.
• Complaints about how Biro keeps people safe, or that we're not doing what this page says: email support@birogcse.com with "Complaint" in the subject. Parents and people without an account can use this too. We answer within 14 days.
• Still not happy? You can tell Ofcom, the UK's online safety regulator. Ofcom doesn't settle single cases, but it uses complaints to check that apps follow the law. For anything about your personal data, see our privacy policy or contact the ICO.

6. Your safety settings

• Only friends can message you, and only after you've both accepted. You can turn friend chat off completely in Settings → Friends and privacy.
• Nobody can find you from their contacts unless you turn that on.
• The Community league is off unless you join it. People there see your handle and Biro, never your name, and can't message you.
• Chat is text only. No photos, voice notes, files or links.
• Message notifications are off unless you turn them on, never show what was said, and stay quiet from 9:30pm to 7am.
• Messages disappear after 90 days, unless they're part of a report.

7. Chatting with Biro

Biro itself is an AI, not a person. Chat with Biro is off until you turn it on. If something you write to Biro, or to a friend, or in an answer, suggests you might not be safe, Biro points you to Childline and an adult safeguarding lead at Biro is told, so they can decide what to do, which can include telling the police or children's services. They can't message you, though Biro may show you a short check-in with where to get help, so please tell an adult you trust too. Our privacy policy explains these checks.

8. For parents

Biro is a GCSE and IGCSE revision app for students aged 13 and over, mostly 14 to 16. Its social features are small on purpose: text chat between accepted friends, weekly leaderboards that show a handle, and student-made classes the owner has to approve. Biro treats every account as a child's, so everyone gets the safe settings above, and teacher accounts can't chat or add friends. If you're worried about something your child has seen or been sent on Biro, email support@birogcse.com. If a child is in danger, call 999 first.