Age Suitability & the Six Profile Bands

Inky is built for storytellers of every age under 18 — from infants listening to board books at bedtime to teens building YA universes. Six profile-tuned bands gate what each reader sees, automatically and behind the scenes. This page explains how the bands work, what content fits each one, and how the safety gates are enforced.

App Store Rating: 4+

Inky is rated 4+in Apple's App Store, the broadest rating Apple offers — appropriate for any age, with parental controls available to restrict the experience by band. The 4+ rating reflects the absence of objectionable content in the app itself; the profile-band system is what tunes the content within the app to each reader.

The Six Profile Bands

Stories, themes, story types, and author voices are all tagged with the bands they're appropriate for. When you set a parental content ceiling on a profile, Inky filters everything that profile can see and generate to fit. The bands map to standard publishing taxonomy:

Ages 0–2 (Board Books)

Bright visuals, repetition, gentle words. No plot — texture, rhythm, and naming. Read aloud by a caregiver. Very short, no peril, no scary themes.

Ages 3–5 (Picture Books)

Short sentences, playful pictures, simple story arc. Read aloud or TTS-narrated. Audio matters as much as prose. Mild peril acceptable; nothing horror-coded.

Ages 6–8 (Early Readers)

Beginner chapter starts. Fun plots with beginner vocabulary. Friendship and family stakes. Stronger character arcs and satisfying endings; no horror, no romance.

Ages 9–12 (Middle Grade)

Adventure, fantasy, mystery, real character development. Universe building. Mild peril and emotional complexity acceptable. The spinoff/series mechanic earns its place at this band.

Ages 13–15 (Lower YA / Tween)

Darker themes, first crushes, friendship complexity, identity questions. Real stakes. Stories begin to feel like the reader made them — not like an app made them for the reader.

Ages 16+ (Upper YA)

Full YA range — fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, realism, romance (within profile bounds). Mature themes, complex characters, real stakes. Curated, never sexualized; tonally adult but always age-appropriate at the upper boundary.

How the Safety Gate Works

Inky's suitability gate runs server-side, before a story is generated. Three layers:

  • Profile ceiling enforcement: the parentalallowedAgeRangecap is checked against the requested band on every generation request. Out-of-band requests are rejected before any prompt runs.
  • Theme & story-type suitability:every theme and story type in the catalog declares which bands it's appropriate for. A request that combines an adult-leaning story type with a young band is rejected at the request itself, not flagged after.
  • Post-publish content classification: after a story generates and publishes, a content classifier runs. If a story tagged for a young band (0–2 through 9–12) is flagged asmaturewith sufficient confidence, the story auto-unpublishes — the contradiction itself (mature flag on a young-band story) is the signal.

Parental Controls

Comprehensive controls to manage the experience per profile:

  • Settings PIN Protection: Parents can set a PIN to prevent younger profiles from accessing settings, making purchases, or changing app preferences.
  • Daily Story Limits: Cap how many stories a profile can create per day (1–10).
  • Profile Management: Parents control profile creation and settings, including age band and reading level for each profile in the family.
  • Purchase Controls: All in-app purchases require authentication and can be protected with a PIN.
  • Content Filters: Beyond the age band, parents can additionally exclude violent, scary, or mature themes for any profile.

User-Generated Content Safety

Stories are created from prompts and shared selectively:

  • AI Naming Guardrails:Inky's AI names all content — characters, universes, series. Free-form name input is blocked to keep names safe and on-brand.
  • Community Guidelines: Stories shared to the community must pass content policies for their band.
  • No Direct Communication: The app has no messaging, chat, or direct-communication features between users.
  • Private by Default: Stories are private until the reader explicitly chooses to share them.

Safety Features

  • No External Links: The app does not open web browsers or external websites from within stories or the reader.
  • No Advertising: No third-party advertising, anywhere.
  • Secure Authentication: Sign in with Apple and passwordless email authentication.
  • Privacy-First Design:Minimal data collection; anonymous analytics that don't track individual users.
  • No Location Tracking: No collection or use of location data.
  • No Social Media Integration: No direct social media sharing or integration (stories can be shared via standard iOS sharing, which parents control on younger profiles).

Educational Value

Inky supports learning and development across the full age range:

  • Reading Practice:Stories adapt to the reader's band and reading level.
  • Read-Aloud Features: Professional text-to-speech narration with word highlighting supports literacy at every band.
  • Imagination & Creativity: Encourages creative thinking and storytelling — particularly at middle-grade and YA bands where readers become creators.
  • Series & Continuity: Helps readers understand narrative structure and character development across installments.

Content Categories

The available themes scale with the band. All themes are designed to be positive and developmentally appropriate. Younger bands stay in family-safe territory; older bands open up to more complex fantasy/sci-fi/mystery/realism subject matter while remaining curated.

Privacy & Data Protection

Inky is committed to protecting users' privacy, and especially children's privacy:

  • COPPA Compliant:For under-13 profiles, we comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.
  • Minimal Data Collection:Only what's needed to provide the service.
  • Parental Consent: Account creation for under-13 profiles requires parent/guardian authentication.
  • No Tracking:We don't track users across apps or websites.
  • Secure Storage: All data is encrypted in transit and at rest.
  • Data Deletion:Account holders can request deletion of their (or their child's) data at any time.

For more information, please see our Privacy Policy.

In-App Purchases

Inky uses a credit-based system for story creation:

  • Parental Control: All purchases require authentication and can be protected with a PIN.
  • Transparent Pricing: Clear pricing for story credits ($7.99 for 5 credits, $19.99 for 15 credits).
  • No Subscriptions: The app uses one-time consumable purchases only; no recurring subscriptions.
  • Free Credits: New accounts receive 3 free story credits to get started.

Contact Us

Questions about age suitability, content appropriateness, or safety features:

Summary

Inky is rated 4+at the App Store level and serves readers across six age-tuned profile bands from 0–2 (board books) through 16+ (upper YA). Content is filtered to the profile's band before a story is generated, and a post-publish classifier auto-unpublishes any story whose mature flag contradicts its target band. We're COPPA-compliant for under-13 profiles, never collect personal information from children, and prioritize safety, privacy, and creative integrity at every band.