Safeguarding Statement — physmat.org

This Safeguarding Statement explains how we approach the safety and welfare of the children who use physmat.org. It is about our duty of care to children — keeping them safe from harm — which is distinct from how we handle personal data (that is covered in our Privacy Policy). It is written to be read alongside our AI Tutor Notice (see §6) and our Children's Privacy Notice.

This service is offered in the United Kingdom. It is not offered in the United States at this time.

1. Our commitment

physmat.org is used by children. We take the safety and welfare of every child who uses the platform seriously. Our commitment is simple: where a child using the platform shows a sign that they may be at risk of harm, we do not silently ignore it — there is a route for a responsible person to be told, so that the right action can be taken.

This statement sets out what we mean by a safeguarding concern, what we commit to do, and how we are building it. We will not claim a protection is running before it is.

2. Who this covers

This statement covers all child users of the platform, whether they were enrolled by a parent (the consumer flow) or by a school (the school flow).

It applies with particular force to the optional AI tutor, because the tutor is the one place where a child types free text in their own words. That is the place where a child might — deliberately or not — disclose that they are not safe. The rest of the platform (the problem bank, practice, grading) takes structured answers to maths problems, not open free-text disclosure.

3. What a safeguarding concern is, in plain terms

A safeguarding concern is anything that suggests a child may be at risk of harm. In plain terms, that includes a child indicating that:

• someone is hurting them or has hurt them (physical, emotional or sexual abuse);
• they are being neglected or are not being cared for safely;
• they want to hurt themselves or are thinking about ending their life (self-harm, suicidal thoughts);
• they are afraid, in danger, or being made to do something against their will.

This is not an exhaustive list, and a child does not have to use any particular words. If something a child types reasonably suggests they may be at risk, it is a concern and should be treated as one.

4. The AI tutor — what we commit to do

The AI tutor is an optional, paid, opt-in feature; a child can use the whole platform without it (see the AI Tutor Notice). Where it is turned on and a child types something suggesting they may be at risk:

• Our commitment: the message is not silently ignored. There is a route for a responsible person to be alerted and to act on the concern.
• What we are building: we are building a system to detect such a disclosure in a tutor message and escalate it to a responsible person who can act.
• We are building this capability — the detection of a concerning message, who is alerted, by what channel, and how quickly it reaches a responsible person.

We will update this section to describe the live mechanism only once it is built and tested, and never before.

5. What the tutor route is and is not — visibility

It is important to be clear about what a safeguarding alert would and would not mean for a child's privacy:

• Tutor conversations are saved in the child's own account and are visible to the child. They are not shown to the child's parent or teacher — there is no feature that lets a parent or teacher read a child's tutor conversations.
• A safeguarding escalation is a separate human path to a responsible person acting under this statement — it is not transcript-sharing, and it would not turn a child's tutor conversations into something parents or teachers can browse. (for the exact mechanism and exactly what minimum information is passed to act on a concern.)

6. Designated Safeguarding Lead

We will name a Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) — a responsible person accountable for how safeguarding concerns are received and acted on.

• Designated Safeguarding Lead: to be confirmed — contact: mail@physmat.org

7. Schools — shared responsibility

Where a child is enrolled by a school (the school flow), safeguarding responsibility is shared with the school. The school knows the child, has its own safeguarding policy and its own Designated Safeguarding Lead, and is the body able to act on the ground. Where a concern arises about a school-enrolled child, our commitment is to cooperate with the school's DSL and the school's safeguarding processes.

8. What we are not — limits and signposting

We are a maths learning platform, not an emergency service and not a counselling or crisis service. We cannot monitor children in real time and we cannot respond instantly.

If a child is in immediate danger, do not rely on this platform. Contact the emergency services or a dedicated helpline straight away:

• In an emergency, call 999. For confidential support, a child can contact Childline on 0800 1111. Concerns about a child's safety can be reported to the NSPCC.

9. How to raise a concern

If a parent, teacher or child wants to raise a safeguarding concern about a child using the platform, they can contact us at:

• mail@physmat.org · 0775 1 2 3 5 8 13

We will treat such contacts seriously and act on them in line with this statement. (Note: this is a human contact route; it is separate from, and does not depend on, the in-tutor detection described in §4 that we are building.)

10. Related documents

• AI Tutor Notice — the optional tutor, what is sent to the AI, and §6 on what we do if a child is not safe.
• Privacy Policy — how we handle personal data, including tutor conversations and visibility (§8).
• Children's Privacy Notice — a shorter, child-readable version.

11. Changes to this statement

We may update this statement. In particular, as we build the safeguarding detection and escalation described in §4, we will update §4 and §5 to describe the mechanism. The "last updated" date at the top shows the current version.