Project KirkFeatures
A small number of things, each stated with its limits.
Every feature below is in both plans. What a feature can do depends on the child's phone.
Need Help
What it does
- The child opens Kirk, taps Need Help, and confirms. Every adult in the family is alerted immediately.
- The child reads the exact wording that will be sent before it is sent.
- Location is attached at the moment of the press, and only then, with a true-to-scale accuracy circle on the map.
- Retries automatically up to four times if the connection drops.
- Repeated taps during one emergency are treated as one alert.
- Delivery states are honest: Sending, Retrying, Sent, Seen. If nothing is Seen within four minutes, the child is told to call an adult they trust.
What it deliberately does not do
- Does not contact emergency services or 911.
- Does not send anything without the child confirming first.
- Does not treat Sent as proof that a person knows.
Child device support
Child on iPhone
Child on Android
Alert history and maps
What it does
- Every Need Help alert is kept, grouped by day.
- Filterable by child.
- Shows the location map where one was captured.
What it deliberately does not do
- Does not build a location timeline — there is only the point captured at each press.
Child device support
Child on iPhone
Child on Android
Screen time and app limits
What it does
- Daily screen time summaries.
- App time limits.
- Built on Apple Screen Time.
What it deliberately does not do
- Does not show what was typed, read, or watched inside an app.
- Does not show zeros where the data does not exist — the section is hidden instead.
Child device support
Child on iPhone
Not available when the child is on Android
Risk levels
What it does
- Three levels: Low, Medium, High. Plain words a parent can act on.
What it deliberately does not do
- Never a numeric score.
- Never a percentage.
- Never a five-point scale.
Child device support
Child on iPhone
Child on Android
Family roles and invites
What it does
- Main parent (owner): Controls billing, rules, and who has access to the family.
- Guardian: View-only. Sees alerts and activity, changes nothing.
- Emergency contact: Receives Need Help alerts and nothing else. No screen time, no activity, no history.
- Invited adults receive an email, install Kirk, and sign up with the invited address to join the family.
What it deliberately does not do
- A guardian cannot change anything.
- An emergency contact sees no screen time, no activity and no history — only Need Help alerts.
Child device support
Child on iPhone
Child on Android
Unlink alerts
What it does
- If a child's phone is unlinked from the family, every adult is told.
What it deliberately does not do
- Does not prevent a phone from being unlinked.
Child device support
Child on iPhone
Child on Android
Languages
What it does
- The entire interface — not just the marketing — is available in English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese.
What it deliberately does not do
- Does not translate the content of anything a child writes.
Child device support
Child on iPhone
Child on Android
Deliberately not included
Kirk does not read messages. That is a design decision, not a gap.
A child who knows they are being read stops talking. They move the conversation somewhere you cannot see, and you learn less than you did before. Reading messages tends to buy a short-lived sense of control at the cost of the thing that actually keeps a child safe: being willing to tell you.
So Kirk is built the other way around. The child can see what is shared. Nothing is sent without them pressing the button. There is no hidden mode and no covert install. What you get instead is one clear signal at the moment it matters, and the honesty to tell you whether it arrived.
If reading your child's messages is what you want, Kirk is the wrong app, and we would rather say so here than after you have paid.