Proposed Terms of Use

1. Operator and agreement

MathNative is operated by Philani Academy, registration number K2025900793, at D1051 Hlokozi Road, Highflats, 3306, South Africa. These Terms govern use of the MathNative website, app, learning tools, profiles, groups, posts, and other features made available by Philani Academy.

The Privacy Notice explains how personal information is handled. School or educator rules may also govern classroom work and assessments; follow those rules where they apply.

A person whose signup date of birth indicates that they are under 18 cannot use the account until a parent or legal guardian completes the email approval. The adult must declare that they are authorised to approve the account and review these Terms and the Privacy Notice. The service records that declaration; it does not independently verify the date of birth or the adult’s relationship to the learner.

2. Accounts and authorised access

• Provide accurate account information and correct it when it changes. School and grade details entered at signup are user-reported unless MathNative separately identifies them as verified.
• Keep passwords, verification codes, guardian approval links, and recovery details private. Do not use another person’s account or let someone act as you.
• Use only classes, groups, files, and workspaces you are authorised to access. Do not bypass account, privacy, age-approval, or workspace controls.
• Tell support promptly if you believe someone has accessed your account. Never email a password or one-time code.

3. Community Rules and prohibited conduct

MathNative is exclusively an educational service. These rules apply to profiles, posts, replies, groups, learning work, uploads, and other interactions on MathNative. Every contribution must directly support learning, teaching, or operation of the service. Off-topic social banter is not permitted. Do not:

• Use MathNative only for education

  MathNative is exclusively an educational service. Posts, replies, profiles, groups, uploads, and messages must directly support learning, teaching, or the operation of the educational service. Do not use it for casual or off-topic banter, jokes, memes, flirting, entertainment, or unrelated social conversation. Non-educational content may be reported by users and may be flagged by automated safety systems for review where those systems are enabled.

• No sexual content or sexualised conduct

  Sexual content and sexualised conduct are prohibited in every form, explicit or implied, regardless of whether a minor is involved or whether the material is described as a joke, fictional, consensual, educational, or otherwise harmless. This includes sexual language or innuendo, propositions, role-play, suggestive images or links, and content that sexualises or targets any person. User reports and automated safety checks may flag suspected content for priority review; a flag is not itself a finding.

• Respect people and protect learners

  Do not bully, threaten, harass, stalk, discriminate against, groom, coerce, exploit, or deliberately target a learner or staff member. Sexual content is separately prohibited whether or not a minor is involved.

• Protect privacy and account access

  Do not publish another person’s home or school location, contact details, private messages, identity documents, account information, or identifying images without permission. Never request or share a password, verification code, or guardian approval link.

• Keep academic work honest

  Do not impersonate a learner, submit another person’s work as your own, falsify school or grade information, or bypass an assessment or collaboration rule set by an educator. Do not share non-public assessment material or answer keys unless the responsible educator has authorised it. Follow the educator’s instructions when collaboration is allowed.

• Share material lawfully

  Only upload or share material you created or are authorised to use. Do not use MathNative to distribute unlawful, infringing, deceptive, malicious, or unsafe material, or to send spam or scams.

• Use authorised access and tools

  Use only the account, class, group, and workspace access granted to you. Do not access another person’s account, evade a block or guardian-approval gate, bypass access controls, disrupt the service, or automate activity in a way that harms other users or MathNative.

These requirements supplement applicable law and any school or educator assessment instructions. A school rule does not authorise conduct that violates another person’s privacy, safety, or rights.

4. Content you submit

You keep the rights you already hold in your posts, answers, files, images, and other material. You are responsible for having permission to upload and share it, including permission for any material containing another person’s work or personal information.

To operate the features you choose, you grant Philani Academy a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce as technically necessary, transmit, display to the audience and workspace you select, back up, moderate, secure, and maintain that material within MathNative. Philani Academy may let service providers process it only to perform those service functions under the applicable provider arrangements. This licence does not transfer ownership.

Philani Academy will not use submitted content for unrelated advertising or to train its own general-purpose AI models without separate permission. If you request AI-generated quiz feedback, the prompt and your written work are sent to Google’s Gemini API as described in the draft Privacy Notice. The provider’s retention and use settings must be verified before that notice is published.

This permission lasts only while the material is stored or used for the service purposes above, including a limited period needed to complete deletion, restore backups, meet a legal duty, or resolve a safety or legal dispute. It does not create a right to keep using deleted material for unrelated purposes.

Content may be copied by people who can view it. Audience controls reduce or limit access but cannot prevent a recipient from saving or sharing a copy. Remove personal details from a question, screenshot, or file before sharing it.

5. Reports, moderation, and appeals

Use the post’s Post options → Report post control and choose the closest reason. Sexual content and sexualised conduct are prohibited whether explicit or implied, whether or not a minor is involved, and even if described as a joke, fictional, consensual, or educational. Reports are stored for administrator review; automated safety checks may also flag suspected sexual or off-topic content for review where enabled. A report or automated flag is an allegation or signal, not a finding. Content may be hidden while a concern is assessed, and that temporary step is not itself a decision that a rule was broken.

Where reasonably practicable and lawful, Philani Academy will tell an affected account the reason for a content restriction or account suspension. It may delay notice where necessary to protect a learner, preserve an investigation, prevent further harm, or comply with law. Available measures include removing content, restricting a feature, suspending an account, or permanently terminating an account. Sexual content or sexualised conduct may result in permanent account termination, including for a first incident and without a prior warning, where Philani Academy considers that necessary to protect learners, users, or the integrity of the educational service. The measure depends on seriousness, repetition, risk, and the information available.

An affected user may appeal by emailing support@philaniacademy.org with the account email, the action being challenged, and relevant facts. Do not send passwords, one-time codes, or another person’s unnecessary personal information. Appeals are reviewed as capacity permits; no response time is promised in this draft. Moderation access and report outcomes are recorded. Philani Academy may refer a matter to an authority where law requires or permits it.

Blocking is a user-controlled feed feature, not a substitute for reporting a serious safety concern. Reporting does not guarantee that content will be removed or that a particular account action will be taken.

6. Learning tools and AI feedback

MathNative provides educational support. It does not replace a teacher, classroom instruction, an official curriculum, or school assessment requirements. Check important explanations and assessment decisions with the responsible educator.

AI-generated feedback may be incomplete or wrong. It is not an official grade, professional advice, or a guarantee of a learning outcome. Do not put names, contact details, or other identifying information into an AI prompt. The current feedback feature sends the selected grade, question prompt, written mathematical work/LaTeX, and typed answer to Google’s Gemini API.

7. Paid features

Paid subscriptions are not currently implemented in MathNative. This draft creates no current charge, subscription, or payment obligation. Before a paid feature is offered, the purchase screen must disclose the actual price and currency, billing interval, renewal and cancellation method, refund rules, taxes, payment provider, and any trial or access conditions. Applicable consumer rights are not waived by this paragraph.

8. Service availability and changes

Features may change or be unavailable during maintenance, safety response, or technical incidents. Philani Academy will take reasonable steps to protect learning records and restore service, but does not promise uninterrupted or error-free operation.

A revised version must show its version and effective date. Material changes will be brought to users’ attention and, where required, affirmative acceptance will be obtained before the changed Terms are applied. Merely continuing to use MathNative will not be treated as acceptance where the law requires a clearer form of agreement.

9. Law and preserved rights

This draft is prepared on a South African-law baseline. It does not remove any mandatory consumer, privacy, child-protection, or other right that applies to a user in another country. No exclusive court or dispute forum is set in this draft; that choice requires legal review.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits a right or liability that applicable law does not allow the parties to exclude or limit. Any additional warranty or liability wording must be reviewed against the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 and the laws that apply to the particular user and transaction.