Acceptable Use Policy

This Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") governs the use of the MyLittleWorld childcare management platform (the "Service") by all users, including childcare organizations, administrators, staff members, and parents/guardians with platform access (collectively, "Users," "you"). This AUP is incorporated by reference into MyLittleWorld's Terms of Service. By accessing or using the Service, you agree to comply with this AUP. Violations may result in content removal, warnings, suspension, or immediate termination of your account, as described in Section 13 below.

MyLittleWorld exists to help childcare organizations operate safely and efficiently, and to give parents visibility into their children's care. Because the Service is used to store and share information about children — including photographs, daily reports, and incident reports — the standards in this AUP are correspondingly serious. Nothing in this document should be read as boilerplate; it reflects real obligations MyLittleWorld takes on to protect the children whose information passes through the platform.

1. Introduction and Scope

This policy applies to all Users of the Service. See the paragraphs above for its purpose and how it fits with the Terms of Service.

2. Child Safety: Zero Tolerance for Exploitation Material

This is the single most important section of this policy, and it applies without exception.

MyLittleWorld has absolute zero tolerance for child sexual abuse material ("CSAM") and for any content that sexualizes, exploits, endangers, or otherwise victimizes a minor. This prohibition covers, without limitation: any image, video, document, or message depicting a minor in a sexual manner or context; content that solicits, grooms, or facilitates the exploitation or trafficking of a minor; content that depicts or promotes physical or emotional abuse, neglect, or endangerment of a child; and any use of the Service to identify, locate, contact, or gain unsupervised access to a child outside the legitimate operation of a childcare program.

This prohibition applies regardless of intent, context, or whether the uploading party believes the content to be innocuous. MyLittleWorld does not evaluate borderline cases charitably where children's safety is concerned — content that appears to violate this section will be treated as a violation pending investigation.

Mandatory reporting. MyLittleWorld will report any suspected CSAM or child exploitation material to the appropriate authorities. In Canada, this includes reporting to the Canadian Centre for Child Protection via Cybertip.ca, Canada's national tipline for reporting the online sexual exploitation of children, and, where appropriate, to law enforcement. MyLittleWorld will preserve relevant evidence (including account information, uploaded content, and associated metadata) as required by law and will cooperate fully with law enforcement investigations and lawful requests. This may include disclosing account and content information without prior notice to the user where MyLittleWorld reasonably believes disclosure is necessary to protect a child or comply with legal obligations.

Immediate termination. Any account found to have uploaded, shared, or transmitted CSAM or other child exploitation material through the Service will be terminated immediately and without prior warning. This is the only category of violation under this AUP for which no warning, cure period, or opportunity to appeal precedes termination. MyLittleWorld reserves the right to permanently bar the responsible individual and, where applicable, the associated organization from future use of the Service.

If you become aware of any content on the Service that may violate this section, report it immediately to abuse@mylittleworld.ca. Do not attempt to investigate, forward, or further distribute the content yourself.

3. Illegal Content or Activity

You may not use the Service to store, transmit, or facilitate any content or activity that violates applicable federal, provincial, territorial, or local law, or the law of any jurisdiction in which you or your organization operates. This includes, without limitation, content or conduct that violates child protection laws, privacy and data protection laws, human rights and anti-discrimination laws, and laws governing the operation of licensed childcare facilities. MyLittleWorld may remove content or suspend accounts it reasonably believes are being used in furtherance of illegal activity, independent of any formal legal proceeding.

4. Copyright and Intellectual Property Infringement

You may only upload content you own or have the legal right to use — including organization logos and branding, photographs, and documents. Uploading content that infringes another party's copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property rights is prohibited. This includes using stock imagery, third-party branding, or documents without a valid license, and misrepresenting authorship or ownership of uploaded material. Copyright-specific obligations, notice procedures, and takedown mechanics are addressed in full in MyLittleWorld's standalone Copyright & Takedown Policy, which is incorporated into this AUP by reference.

5. Malware and Disruptive Code

You may not upload, transmit, or attempt to introduce any virus, worm, trojan horse, ransomware, spyware, or other malicious code, script, or file to the Service. You may not use the Service to damage, disable, overburden, or impair MyLittleWorld's infrastructure, or to damage, disable, or impair the devices, accounts, or data of other Users. This includes disguising malicious files as legitimate documents or images (e.g., daily reports, incident reports) in an attempt to evade detection.

6. Harassment, Abuse, and Discrimination

The Service connects childcare staff and parents in a context that requires trust and professionalism. You may not use the Service — including its messaging features — to harass, threaten, intimidate, bully, or abuse another User, whether that User is childcare staff, a parent or guardian, or MyLittleWorld personnel. This includes discriminatory conduct or language directed at another person on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, or any other protected characteristic. Messaging features exist to support communication about children's care and organizational logistics; they may not be used to demean, threaten, or intimidate.

7. Spam and Unsolicited Bulk Messaging

You may not use the Service's messaging features to send spam, unsolicited bulk messages, or repeated unwanted communications to other Users. Messaging functionality is provided to facilitate legitimate communication between childcare staff and parents about a child's care, enrollment, billing, or related organizational matters, and must not be repurposed for marketing, solicitation, or mass distribution unrelated to these purposes without the recipient's consent.

8. Phishing, Impersonation, and Deception

You may not impersonate another person, organization, or MyLittleWorld itself, or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity. You may not use the Service to phish for credentials, personal information, or payment details, or to deceive other Users into taking an action they would not otherwise take (for example, by impersonating a staff member or administrator to obtain information about a child).

9. Account and Credential Misuse; Unauthorized Access

Each User must access the Service only through their own account credentials. You may not share your login credentials in a manner that undermines access controls, including allowing a former employee, terminated staff member, or any individual without authorization to continue accessing the Service through another person's account. Organizations are responsible for promptly deactivating access for staff who leave or whose authorization is revoked. You may not attempt to access accounts, data, or systems you are not authorized to access, and you may not conduct penetration testing, vulnerability scanning, or other security testing against the Service without MyLittleWorld's prior written permission.

10. Scraping and Circumvention

You may not use automated means (bots, scrapers, crawlers, or similar tools) to extract data from the Service, nor attempt to reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble any part of the Service. You may not attempt to circumvent rate limits, authentication mechanisms, access controls, or other security features of the Service.

11. Misuse of Children's and Families' Information

The Service exists to support legitimate childcare operations. You may not use the Service to collect, retain, or process information about children or families beyond what is reasonably necessary to operate a childcare program, and you may not use information obtained through the Service — including child photographs, daily reports, incident reports, or contact details — for any purpose unrelated to providing childcare services, such as marketing unrelated to the organization's childcare program, resale or transfer of data to third parties, or personal purposes unconnected to a User's professional role.

12. Reporting Violations

If you become aware of a violation of this AUP — including suspected child exploitation material, harassment, security issues, or misuse of children's information — report it to abuse@mylittleworld.ca. For general questions about this policy, contact privacy@mylittleworld.ca.

13. Enforcement

MyLittleWorld investigates reported and detected violations of this AUP. Depending on the nature and severity of the violation, MyLittleWorld may take any of the following actions, at its discretion: removal of the offending content; a warning to the User or organization; temporary suspension of account access; or permanent termination of the account. Repeated or severe violations will generally result in suspension or termination. As set out in Section 2, any violation involving child sexual abuse material or child exploitation content results in immediate termination without prior warning, and will be reported to the appropriate authorities. MyLittleWorld reserves the right to take these actions without prior notice where it believes doing so is necessary to protect the safety of a child, another User, or the integrity of the Service.

14. Changes to This Policy

MyLittleWorld may update this AUP from time to time. Material changes will be communicated to organization administrators. Continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated AUP.