Before you install
How to Choose a Kids' Money App: A Parent's Checklist
We make one of these, so read this with that in mind. The checklist below is the one we would want a parent to hold us to, and it is written so you can apply it to any app, including ours.
What Kenyan law requires
Section 33 of the Data Protection Act 2019 says a child's personal data may be processed only with the consent of a parent or guardian, and in a way that protects and advances the child's best interests. It also requires the organisation to have a reasonable mechanism for verifying age and that the consent really came from a parent.
The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner issued a guidance note on processing children's data in 2025, which adds expectations around age assurance and defaults: children's accounts should start at the most privacy-protective settings rather than being opened up and left for a parent to close.
An app aimed at Kenyan families that cannot explain how it meets those two things has not thought about the problem, and that tells you most of what you need to know before you check anything else.
Questions about data
- What data does it collect about the child, specifically? A first name and an age is a very different product from full name, school, photographs and location.
- Who creates the child's account? It should be the parent, always, with the child joining an account that already exists.
- Does the privacy policy mention children at all? A generic policy copied from a business tool is a sign nobody looked at the specific obligations.
- Can you delete everything? There should be a clear route to delete the account and the child's data, and it should not require an email exchange that never gets answered.
- Where is the data stored, and who else sees it? Ask specifically about third-party analytics and advertising SDKs, which is where children's data usually leaks in apps that seem harmless.
Questions about money
- Does it hold real money? If yes, which licensed institution holds the funds, and what happens to the balance if the company closes? If no, say so plainly; tracking allowance as a ledger is a legitimate design, not a shortcoming.
- Does it connect to your mobile money or bank account? If it does, what permissions does it take, and can it move money without your explicit approval each time?
- Who approves what? A child should not be able to complete a transaction or claim a reward that a parent has not approved, unless you deliberately turned that on.
- What does it cost, and what happens at the end of a trial? Look for the renewal terms, not the headline price.
Questions about the child's experience
- Is there advertising in the child's view? This is the clearest line in the whole checklist. An app that monetises a child's attention is not on your side, whatever the marketing says.
- Can the child talk to anyone outside the family? Open chat or social features in a children's app introduce a category of risk that has nothing to do with money.
- Does it teach anything, or only track? Points and balances are easy. Look for savings goals, an approval flow, and a visible history, because those are the parts that build the habits described in our age-by-age guide.
Red flags
- Adverts, prize wheels or purchase prompts inside the child's screens.
- A child account that can be created without a parent.
- No privacy policy, or one that never mentions children.
- No account deletion route.
- Requests for a national ID number, precise location or contacts that the product does not obviously need.
- Vague answers about who holds any real money.
Applying it in five minutes
You do not need to read a legal document. Before installing anything, do this:
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Open the store listing's data safety section
It lists what the app says it collects and shares. Compare it against what the app actually needs to do its job.
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Search the privacy policy for the word "child"
If it appears nowhere, or only in a copied clause about another country's law, that is your answer.
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Look for the deletion page
It should be findable from the website without logging in.
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Create the account yourself and look at the child's view
Adverts, upsells and anything that pushes spending will be visible in the first minute.
How we answer these
In the interest of being held to our own checklist:
- A child's account is created by a parent, from the parent's account. A child cannot sign themselves up.
- The app does not connect to your M-Pesa or bank balance, and it cannot move your real money. Children earn and spend an in-app balance that you control.
- There is no advertising in the child's experience.
- Account and data deletion is available at tija.kids/delete-account without contacting support first.
- Our privacy policy sets out what we collect and why.
If you compare us against another app on this list and it wins, use that one. A parent running any consistent system beats a parent running none, and the guides on this site work regardless of which app is open on the phone.
Questions parents ask
Is an app better than cash and a notebook?
For children under about eight, cash wins, because physical coins are what make money real at that age. Older than that, the advantages are visibility and memory: the balance is always current and nobody has to remember what was agreed three weeks ago.
Does my child need their own phone?
Not necessarily. Many families run the child's side on a shared tablet or on a parent's phone. If a child does have their own device, the fraud drills in our scams guide matter more than any app setting.
What about apps built for other countries?
Check whether the amounts, currency and card features make sense here before anything else. An app built around a debit card for under-18s is solving a problem that a Kenyan household mostly does not have, since M-PESA GO covers the wallet.
How do I check an app is still maintained?
Look at the last update date on the store listing and whether recent reviews get replies. An abandoned app holding your child's data is a slower version of the same risk.
Hold us to the checklist
Parent-created accounts, no advertising to children, no access to your real balance, and deletion on request. Read the privacy policy first if you want to; that is the point of publishing it.