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Children’s Privacy

Children's Privacy

Last updated: 6 October 2026 · Version 2026-10-06 Status: in force for the beta. Takes effect for the public on the day Bema opens.

Most people using Bema are 16 to 18 years old. A few are younger. Because we are collecting real information from minors, this notice sets out the rules we hold ourselves to, separately from the main Privacy Policy.

Bema is for ages 13 and over

You must be at least 13 to create a Bema account.

How we check: students type their date of birth at signup, and our server works out the age. The question is neutral (it does not hint at a "right" answer). If you are under 13 the form stops: no account is created and nothing you typed is stored. We keep only your age range and birth year, never the full date. Parents are not asked their age; accepting the terms confirms they are 18 or older.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), as amended by the FTC in 2025 with full compliance required from April 2026, sets specific requirements for under-13s — verifiable parental consent, separate consent for disclosures, data-retention limits and a written security program — that we are not currently set up to meet, so rather than meet them badly we have set the minimum age at 13 and say so plainly. Bema is not directed at children under 13, and we do not treat any user as under 13 unless we have actual knowledge of it.

If you are 12 or younger, please do not sign up. A parent can create their own account and start organizing, and you can join when you turn 13.

If we learn a child under 13 has signed up

We will delete the account and everything in it, promptly and without asking for anything in return.

If you believe a child under 13 has given us information, email getbemaai@gmail.com with enough detail to find the account. We will confirm deletion to you.

If you are between 13 and 18

You have the same rights over your data as anyone else, and we do not treat you as less entitled to them because of your age. Specifically:

  • Your essays are yours. A parent sees them only after you connect with that parent, and you can disconnect at any time.
  • Your conversations with the AI coach are private, including from a connected parent.
  • You can delete your account and your data yourself, from Settings.
  • You can leave any field blank. Nothing in the Common App workspace is required by Bema, including everything about your family, your finances and your immigration status.
  • The AI treats you with extra care. It says it is an AI, it will not produce sexual or romantic content, it will not help you keep secrets from a parent, and if you say something that sounds like a crisis it stops and gives you a real person to talk to (988). After three hours of continuous use in one session it suggests a break. The full protocol is in the AI policy.
  • We never store identity numbers. SSNs, FSA IDs, ITINs, A-Numbers and license numbers are refused by the server, even if you try to type one in.

We ask that a parent or guardian knows you are using Bema. We do not require their permission to create a student account, because requiring it would lock out students who most need an organized process — students whose parents did not attend college, who are not around, or who are not safe to ask.

What we will not do with a student's data

We commit, for every user and by name for students:

  • We do not sell student data. Not now, not as part of any future business model.
  • We do not use student data for targeted advertising. Bema shows no ads.
  • We do not build an advertising or behavioral profile of any student.
  • We do not use student essays or application content to train AI models, and our AI provider does not either.
  • We do not disclose student data to colleges, or to anyone selling admissions or scholarship services.

These commitments reflect the substance of California's Student Online Personal Information Protection Act (SOPIPA) and the student-privacy laws modelled on it in other states, and we apply them everywhere, not only where required.

Schools and districts

Bema is sold to families, not to schools, and we are not currently a "school official" under FERPA for any district. If your school or district wants to make Bema available to students, contact getbemaai@gmail.com — that arrangement needs a written agreement covering FERPA and your state's student-privacy law, and we would rather do it properly than by implication.

For parents

If your child has a Bema account and you want to know what is held about them, correct it, or have it deleted, email getbemaai@gmail.com from an address we can verify against the account.

One honest caveat about how we will handle that: where your child is 13 or older, we will normally tell them about your request before acting on it, and we will not hand over the content of their essays or their private coaching conversations without their knowledge. The way to see their work is the way the product is built for — ask them to connect you, which takes them one tap and which they control.

We know that answer will occasionally frustrate a parent acting in good faith. The alternative — a back channel around a teenager's consent — would make the consent model meaningless, and the consent model is the reason students trust the product enough to put real writing in it.

A parent who does not want their 13–17-year-old to use Bema at all can ask us to close the account at getbemaai@gmail.com; we will verify you are the parent and act on it. Everything a parent account can and cannot do is set out in the Parent & Guardian Agreement.

Contact: getbemaai@gmail.com