See our ‘How To’ page here.

Parenting today is hard. Many of us live far away from our extended families, in places where our children can’t roam free. We have to work hard to pay the bills. The result is that we let our kids passively watch cartoons more than we’d like, just to give ourselves a break – even when we know that lots of ‘TV’ isn’t great for our children.

The team at yarn believed there had to be a better solution to the challenges of being a busy parent. Now, with the extraordinary possibilities that generative artificial intelligence (AI) presents, we think we’ve found one.

Yarn is currently in open beta and remains in development – which means we’re still figuring out how to make the product really shine. We currently have a web app that works in the browser, but are building a native app (and more).

We’d love your thoughts about what’s working and what isn’t, so feel free to write to us at hello@yarn.family.

Watching too much video content is associated with children displaying reduced imagination and less use of mental imagery, which is the basis of creative play. Meanwhile, most apps aimed at children are of low educational value. Even when they’re trying to ‘teach’ kids something, they tend to tap into rapid-fire dopamine reward cycles in the brain that hack – rather than help kids to cultivate – their focus and concentration.

At yarn, we wanted to design a product that could engage children but also nourish their natural creativity and unique cognitive abilities. As parents, we’d observed how much our children loved hearing, directing and participating in stories of their own devising. We’d seen first-hand how interaction, storytelling, being read to and turn-taking conversation were all profoundly beneficial for our children’s development.

But when we looked, there was nothing out there that addressed this need. What we knew of involved expensive hardware, predefined scripts and minimal involvement of children in the creative process.

As a result, yarn was born: something that would approach the experience of co-creating a story in conversation with a trusted caregiver. Currently in beta, yarn is enlivening but also soothing for kids; a calm environment that gives their imagination free reign instead of crowding it out with frantic animations or flashing icons; and somewhere children’s voices are heard, their views taken seriously, and their ideas spun into enticing, original stories.

From our experience, children aged 4 and above get the most out of yarn, and can use it autonomously. Younger children can also enjoy yarn with the help of a caregiver.

The World Health Organization recommends that babies below the age of 2 years have no screentime, so we don’t advise using yarn before your child is 2.

Yarn uses AI to spin stories. When a child talks to yarn, what they say is incorporated into highly tailored instructions that we provide to a number of language and image models. In turn, these models generate parts of the story and accompanying pictures.

Your child’s name is never shared with these models, nor is any information we hold about you. The models only receive a transcription of what your child said, and nothing else.

There are multiple safeguards to ensure that children are NOT at risk of being served content on yarn that is inappropriate, sexual, violent or distressing. The models we use have multiple in-built blocks that prevent such content being generated, and we have developed additional mechanisms to ensure that the text and images that are served up to our users don’t contain inappropriate material.

Our extensive testing gives us confidence that yarn is safe for kids to use on their own. However, if anything gives you cause for concern, you can always report it in the app or send us an email at hello@yarn.family

Nothing, besides keeping it private and secure.

We will never sell your personal data or use it to serve ads. The information and inputs associated with your account are used to create your stories and tailor your experience – nothing else, ever.

You can read more in our privacy policy.

At the moment we aren’t charging for yarn because we want as many people as possible to be able to enjoy it and help us improve the experience. In the future, we will likely move towards an affordable subscription service. But we expect that part of yarn will always be available for free.