Lighthouse

Lighthouse Child is the companion app that runs on a child's phone. It works together with the Lighthouse parent app: a parent pairs this device once, and Lighthouse quietly helps keep the child safe online — without reading over their shoulder.

HOW IT WORKS

Lighthouse looks at what's on the phone's screen — posts, messages, searches — right here on the device, to spot genuinely unsafe content (explicit material, grooming, bullying, self-harm). When something crosses the line, it can gently pause it with a calm, kid-friendly screen, and a plain-language alert reaches the paired parent.

USES THE ACCESSIBILITY SERVICE

Lighthouse Child uses Android's Accessibility Service to read on-screen text in the apps it watches, which is how it detects unsafe content in real time and shows a protective screen. This is core to the app's parental-control purpose. The text is analyzed entirely on the device and is never saved, never sent, and never seen by the parent — only a safety category is recorded. The app shows a clear disclosure and asks for consent before this is enabled.

PRIVATE BY DESIGN — AND HONEST ABOUT IT

The check runs entirely on this phone. The child's messages are never saved and never sent, and the parent never sees the actual words or images — only that something happened and how serious it was. Lighthouse is transparent to the child, too: the app plainly shows when it's active, which apps it watches, and exactly what it never does. Healthy safety is a conversation, not a one-way mirror.

WHAT'S ON THIS PHONE

• A clear "this phone is protected" status the child can always see

• The list of apps Lighthouse watches

• A plain explanation: signals, not content — only a category is ever recorded

REQUIRES THE PARENT APP

This app does nothing on its own — it must be paired to a Lighthouse parent/guardian account. Install the Lighthouse parent app first, then pair this device.

Private. On-device. Transparent.