The rules, in plain words

Read this bit even if you read nothing else.

This is your space. What you write here is yours.

Teri cannot see your private writing. Not some of it. None of it. She only ever sees something if you press the button that sends it to her.

Your parent cannot see any of it. Not your writing, not what you send Teri, not what she writes back, not what you post in the Village. They can see that your account is switched on and when it ends. That is all. If you ever want to show them something, that is your choice and nobody will push you.

There is one exception and we are telling you now, not later. If Teri really thinks you or someone else is in danger, she has to tell somebody who can help. She will tell you first, and tell you who and why, unless telling you would make things more dangerous. She will not do it behind your back. She will not do it because you said something dark. Section 8 explains it properly.

If something is happening right now, this is not the fastest way to get help. Call 999. Or Childline on 0800 1111, free, any time of day or night, and it does not show up on the phone bill.

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1. Who we are

This space is run by Teri Potter, who works under the name The True Self. She is one person, not a company.

Teri has trained in something called Compassionate Inquiry, and she is a member of the IPHM. She is not a therapist or a counsellor and she will not pretend to be. What she does is read what you write, properly, and write back to you like a person.

You can reach us at hello@thetrueself.me.

2. This agreement is with you

Your parent or carer probably paid for this. That does not make it theirs.

This agreement is between you and us. You accept it yourself when you tick the box, and if you do not want to accept it, do not make an account. Nobody can accept it for you.

You need to be 13 or over to be here.

3. What this is

A private place to write. You can write whenever you want, about anything. Nobody reads it.

When you are ready, you can send a piece of your writing to Teri. She reads it and writes back to you, in her own words. Not a bot. Not a template. Her.

There is also the Village, which is a place where you can post things and other people your age can read them and reply. That one is not private, and section 9 explains it.

4. What this is not

• It is not therapy or counselling. Nobody here is diagnosing you or treating you.
• It is not an emergency service. Nobody is watching this at three in the morning. There might be a couple of days between you writing something and Teri reading it.
• It is not a replacement for a doctor, CAMHS, a therapist or a teacher. If you need one of those, please get one, and Teri will help you work out how if you ask her.
• It is not school. Nothing you write here goes to your school, and nothing goes on any record about you.

5. Who can see what

This matters, so here it is as a list.

About your parent. They can see that your membership is active and when it runs out, because they are paying for it. They cannot see anything you write. There is no parent version of this app. There is no button they can press. It was not built that way, on purpose.

If your parent ever tells you they can read this, they are wrong, and you can show them this page.

If that ever changes we would tell you first, clearly, and you would see a sign inside the app whenever anyone could see anything of yours. That is a rule we have to follow, and we would follow it anyway.

6. When Teri writes back

• She reads and replies on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, before six in the evening.
• If you send something on a Saturday, you will probably hear back on Monday.
• She is a real person with her own family, so sometimes she is ill or away. When she is, you will see a note saying so, with the dates, before you send anything.
• She cannot promise to reply within a certain number of hours, and there is nobody here at night. If something is urgent, use the numbers at the bottom.

7. Is a computer writing to you?

No. And we would rather explain this properly than leave you wondering.

Every word Teri sends you, she wrote. She reads what you sent, she thinks about it, and she writes the reply herself. There is no chatbot here.

Sometimes, when she is working out how to answer something hard, she uses a writing tool to help her think, the way you might write three versions of a message before you send it. Then she puts that aside and writes to you in her own words. It helps her think. It does not do the answering.

Some other things in the app do use a computer to help: the writing prompts you sometimes see are generated, and they are the same for everybody and are not about you. And if you leave a voice note and ask for it to be turned into writing, a computer does that bit.

What never happens: nothing you write is scored, rated, graded or analysed. No computer decides anything about you. Nobody is measuring how sad you seem. And nothing you write is ever used to train an AI.

8. The one exception to privacy

Everything above is true almost all of the time. Here is the bit that is not.

If Teri reads something you have sent her and really believes you, or someone else, is in serious danger, she has to tell someone who can help. She cannot keep that to herself, and she would not want to.

What that means in practice:

• She will talk to you first. She will tell you what has worried her, ask what you think, and tell you who she wants to contact and why. The only time she would not is if telling you first would make you less safe.
• She will not do it because you wrote something dark. Writing that you feel hopeless, or angry, or that you hate everything, is not the same as being in danger. That is what this place is for and you will not get in trouble for it.
• She will not always tell your parent. If the problem involves them, or if telling them would make things worse for you, she will tell someone else instead, like children's services or your GP. She will tell you which.
• What you say about it matters. She will ask what you want to happen and she will write it down, even if she ends up doing something different.
• She writes it down. What happened, what she did, and why. That record is kept, and it is not deleted if you close your account. That is on purpose, because a record that disappears is no use to the person it was meant to protect.

The [Safeguarding Policy] is the long version, written for adults. You are welcome to read it. Section 8 of it is about you.

9. The Village

The Village is a place to post things and read what other people your age have posted. There is a separate one for parents and they cannot see yours.

Nothing in the Village is private. Everyone in it can read what you post, and so can Teri. Post accordingly.

The rules, which are short:

• Be kind. You do not know what kind of day someone is having.
• Do not tell anyone your full name, your school, where you live, your phone number or your socials. Not in a post, not in a comment.
• Do not post anything that encourages anyone to hurt themselves, including methods, images, or anything that makes it sound like a good idea. This one is not a house rule, it is the law, and it is the one thing that will get a post removed instantly.
• Do not post anything cruel, threatening, racist, or designed to upset someone.
• Do not share screenshots of the Village anywhere else.
• Do not try to arrange to meet anyone from here.
• If someone posts something that worries you, use the report button. It is on every post and comment. Somebody looks at every report within one working day and you will be told what happened.

Teri moderates it. She can hide or delete anything, and she can stop someone posting while keeping their private space open. She does not read it in real time, so please do use the report button rather than assuming she has seen it.

If someone in the Village worries you and you would rather not report it publicly, write to Teri directly or email hello@thetrueself.me.

10. Voice notes

You can record a voice note instead of typing. You choose whether to keep it as sound, have it turned into writing, or both.

A voice note is treated exactly like writing. If it is in your private space, nobody can hear it. If you send it to Teri, only she can. If you post it in the Village, everyone there can.

The app takes writing and voice notes only. You cannot upload photos, videos or files, and that is deliberate.

11. Please do not

• Break the law, or write something that would make us break the law by keeping it
• Threaten or abuse anyone, including Teri
• Encourage anyone, including yourself, to seriously hurt themselves
• Get into anyone else's account, or try to break the app
• Share your password with anyone
• Copy Teri's replies or someone else's post and put them somewhere else
• Pretend to be someone you are not, or to be older or younger than you are

Everything else is fine. Writing about being angry, hating everything, feeling like nobody understands, or thoughts that scare you, is not breaking a rule. It is the reason this exists.

12. Your account

• Use a password you do not use anywhere else, at least 12 characters.
• If you think someone has got into your account, tell us straight away at hello@thetrueself.me.
• You will be signed out after 14 days of not using it, and will need to sign in again. That is just security, and it has nothing to do with how long your membership lasts.
• Use an email address you can actually get into privately.

13. Stopping

You can close your account whenever you want, from your settings. You do not have to explain and nobody will try to talk you out of it.

If you close it, we will tell whoever is paying that the account has been closed. We will not tell them why, because that is yours.

Whoever is paying can also stop paying, and then the membership ends when the period they paid for runs out. If that happens, we will tell you it has ended and that it was not your fault. We are not going to just disappear on you.

What happens to your writing when you close it is explained in the [In My Room Privacy Notice], and the short version is that it is put somewhere safe and locked rather than deleted immediately, and Teri still cannot read the private parts. You can ask us to delete things, and section 6 of that notice explains what we can and cannot do.

14. If we have to close your account

We might, if:

• the rules in sections 9 and 11 get badly or repeatedly broken
• someone is being abused or threatened
• we have to by law
• what you need is more than this space can safely give you, in which case we will tell you kindly and help you find something better rather than just cutting you off

We will tell you why, and give you a chance to put it right where that is possible.

15. If you are unhappy with us

Tell us. Honestly, we would rather know.

Email hello@thetrueself.me or use the form at thetrueself.me/complaint. A person will read it and reply. We will say we have got it within 5 working days and give you a proper answer within 21 days.

If it is about something in the Village, use the report button instead, because that gets looked at much faster.

If it is about how we have handled information about you, you can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. You do not need our permission and you do not have to come to us first.

16. The boring legal bits

• These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales.
• If a court decides one bit of this does not work, the rest still does.
• We might update these terms. If it is something that matters to you, we will tell you at least 30 days before, in words you can actually read, and you can close your account if you do not like it.
• Everything Teri writes, and everything on the site, belongs to her. Please do not copy it and put it somewhere else.
• We cannot be responsible for what another person posts in the Village. We moderate it and we take reports seriously, but we do not control what other people say.

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If you need help now

This app is not an emergency service. Nobody is watching it right now. If something is happening, please use one of these instead.

If you are not in the UK, findahelpline.com will find the right number where you are.

You are not in trouble for needing any of these.

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In My Room · Terms · Version 1.0 · [DATE] Also read: [In My Room Privacy Notice] · [Safeguarding Policy]