For parents

Our promises for our own games

• No ads in play mode, ever. Not banners, not video, not "sponsored" anything. The play screen belongs to the child.
• No accounts and no personal information. We do not ask for names, emails or ages, and our games set no cookies. That is also how we stay on the right side of children's privacy laws such as COPPA in the United States and PIPEDA here in Canada.
• No tracking inside games. Our games load no analytics and no third-party scripts. The directory pages may count page views with a cookie-less counter; see the privacy page.
• Made to be locked down. Fullscreen and a hold-to-exit parent gate are on the list for every game we ship, and we say plainly on each page which ones have it today.

What we check on other people's sites

Every listing in the directory has the same eight checks, marked with a tick when we verified it, a cross when we verified it is missing, and a question mark when we could not tell. We would rather show a question mark than guess.

• Fullscreen: does it hide the browser, tabs and address bar?
• Parent lock: does leaving take a deliberate action a toddler will not stumble on?
• No ads in play: is the play screen free of advertising?
• Touch: does tapping work on a phone or tablet?
• Sounds, letters and numbers: nice to have, and worth knowing before the volume is up.
• Works offline, no sign-up: useful on a plane, and a red flag if a baby toy wants an account.

We also note who runs analytics or ads on the surrounding pages. Analytics on its own is normal; ads on a page meant for a one-year-old is not, and we say so.

A few things only a parent can do

• Stay in the room. A smash game is a shared moment, not a babysitter. Ten minutes is plenty at one and two years old.
• Turn the volume down before the first key. Most sites play a sound on every press.
• Keep the hardware safe. Keycaps can pop off some keyboards; a silicone cover fixes both the crumbs and the choking risk.
• Check the site yourself the first time. Sites change. Our weekly check catches most of it, but not all.

How this site pays for itself

Nothing here is paid placement. Sites cannot buy a listing or a better review. The plan is small and boring: promote our own free games first, accept donations if people feel like it, and use a handful of affiliate links to parent-safe gear such as keyboard covers and tablet stands. Any affiliate link is labelled, and none of it ever appears inside a game.

Questions or a site we should look at? Email hello@kidsmashgames.com.