Terms & Conditions

1. About these Terms

These Terms & Conditions (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of PEN Play - a product of BigBrave - including the Whartels game (“the Game”) and the PEN Play web portal (“the Portal”), together “the Services”. They form a legally binding agreement between you and the entity operating PEN Play (“PEN Play”, “we”, “us”, “our”).

Please read these Terms carefully. By creating an account, accessing or using the Services, or allowing a child in your care to use the Services, you agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, you must not use the Services.

2. Definitions

• “Account holder” means the adult who registers for and controls an account.
• “Child” or “learner” means a person under 18 whose profile is added to an account by a competent person.
• “Competent person” means a parent, legal guardian, or a professional lawfully authorised to consent to and act in respect of a child's participation.
• “Content” means all software, text, graphics, question templates, recommendations, reports and other materials made available through the Services.
• “Subscription” means a paid plan that unlocks features of the Services.

3. Eligibility & accounts

You must be at least 18 years old and have full legal capacity to enter into a contract to create an account. Children do not create or control their own accounts - an account holder adds and manages a child's profile on their behalf.

By adding a child, you warrant that you are a competent person entitled to do so, or that you are authorised by a competent person. Teachers, therapists and institution administrators further warrant that they have the necessary authority and consents to link the children they add and to process their information for educational, therapeutic or wellbeing purposes.

Account security

You are responsible for keeping your login details confidential and for all activity under your account. You must give accurate information, keep it up to date, and notify us promptly of any unauthorised use or security concern. We use measures such as one-time passcodes, trusted-device recognition and suspicious-sign-in alerts to help protect your account, but you remain responsible for its security.

4. What the Services provide

PEN Play is a play-based, psycho-educational platform. The Game presents learning activities to children, and the Portal gives account holders and authorised professionals recommendations, progress and wellbeing feedback to support a child's learning, cognitive development and emotional wellbeing.

We may add, change, or remove features, and may offer some features on a trial, preview or “beta” basis. Beta features are provided “as is”, may be unstable, and may change or be withdrawn at any time.

5. Not medical, psychological or professional advice

The recommendations, scores, mood indicators, reports and other outputs of the Services are intended to support learning and wellbeing. They are not a medical, psychological, psychiatric, therapeutic or educational diagnosis, assessment or treatment, and must not be relied on as such.

The Services do not create a professional, therapeutic, or practitioner-client relationship between you (or a child) and PEN Play. Always seek the advice of a qualified professional - such as a doctor, psychologist, educational psychologist, or therapist - regarding any developmental, learning, behavioural, emotional or health concern, and never disregard or delay seeking professional advice because of something in the Services. In an emergency, contact your local emergency services or a qualified professional immediately.

6. Subscriptions, fees & payments

Some features require a paid Subscription. The price, billing cycle and what is included are shown before you subscribe. By subscribing, you authorise us (and our payment provider) to charge the applicable fees to your chosen payment method.

• Payments are processed securely by our third-party payment provider (currently Paystack). We do not store your full card details.
• Unless stated otherwise, Subscriptions renew automatically for successive billing periods until cancelled. You can cancel through the Portal or by contacting us; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid period.
• Prices may change. We will give you reasonable notice of any change to recurring fees before it takes effect, and you may cancel if you do not accept the new price.
• Fees are payable in the currency shown and may include applicable taxes.

Refunds & cooling-off

Refunds are handled in accordance with applicable law, including any cooling-off and consumer rights under the CPA and ECTA. Except where the law requires otherwise, fees already paid for a billing period are non-refundable once that period has begun. If you believe you have been charged in error, contact us and we will investigate.

7. Acceptable use

You agree to use the Services lawfully and responsibly, and you must not:

• Use the Services in any way that is unlawful, fraudulent, or harmful, or that infringes the rights of others.
• Access another person's account, or add a child you are not authorised to add.
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to, disrupt, overload, or reverse-engineer the Services or their underlying systems, except to the limited extent the law does not allow this to be prohibited.
• Copy, resell, sublicense, or commercially exploit the Services or their Content without our written permission.
• Upload malicious code, or use automated means (scraping, bots) to access the Services without permission.
• Misrepresent your identity, authority, or relationship to a child.

We may investigate and take appropriate action - including suspending or terminating access - where we reasonably believe these Terms have been breached.

8. Your content & feedback

You retain ownership of the information and content you provide (for example child profile details and inputs). You grant us a limited, non-exclusive licence to host, process and use that content solely to provide, secure and improve the Services and to generate the feedback and reports you request, in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

If you send us feedback, suggestions or ideas about the Services, you agree we may use them without restriction or obligation to you.

9. Intellectual property

The Services, the Game, the Portal, and all Content - including software, question templates, methodology, designs, text, graphics, logos and trade marks (including “PEN Play”, “Whartels” and related brands, and the trademarked play-based methodology of Dr Petro Erasmus) - are owned by or licensed to PEN Play and are protected by intellectual-property laws.

Subject to these Terms and any active Subscription, we grant you a limited, personal, non-transferable, non-exclusive and revocable right to access and use the Services for their intended, non-commercial purpose. No other rights are granted. You may not use our brands or Content without our prior written permission.

10. Third-party services & app stores

The Services rely on third parties (for example cloud, authentication and payment providers) and are distributed through app stores such as the Apple App Store and Google Play. Your use of those third-party services and stores is also governed by their own terms and policies. We are not responsible for third-party services, and their availability may affect the Services.

11. Availability & changes to the Services

We work to keep the Services available and reliable, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free operation. We may perform maintenance, and may modify, suspend or discontinue all or part of the Services, with reasonable notice where practicable. We are not liable for any unavailability caused by factors beyond our reasonable control.

12. Disclaimers & warranties

Except for warranties that cannot lawfully be excluded (including under the CPA), the Services are provided “as is” and “as available”, and we do not warrant that they will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or that any particular educational, developmental or wellbeing outcome will be achieved. Any implied warranties are excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law, including your rights as a consumer under the CPA.

13. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, and subject to the clause above and to any non-excludable rights you have under the CPA, PEN Play, its directors, employees and operators will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, or for loss of profits, data, goodwill or opportunity, arising out of or in connection with your use of (or inability to use) the Services.

Where our liability cannot lawfully be excluded but can be limited, our total liability to you for all claims relating to the Services in any 12-month period is limited to the amount you paid us for the Services in that period (or, if you paid nothing, is limited to the maximum extent permitted by law).

14. Indemnity

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify and hold PEN Play harmless against reasonable claims, losses and costs arising from your breach of these Terms, your misuse of the Services, or your processing of a child's information without the necessary authority or consent.

15. Suspension & termination

You may stop using the Services and close your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access - with notice where practicable - if you materially breach these Terms, if required by law, or to protect the Services or other users. On termination, your right to use the Services ends, but clauses that by their nature should survive (such as intellectual property, disclaimers, liability, and governing law) will continue to apply. We handle your information after termination in accordance with our Privacy Policy and data-retention practices.

16. Privacy

Our collection and use of personal information is governed by our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Terms and explains how we comply with POPIA and protect the information of account holders and children. Please read it carefully.

17. Electronic communications

You consent to receiving communications from us electronically (for example by email and in-app messages), and you agree that electronic communications, agreements and records satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing, in accordance with ECTA. We will always send essential service and security messages needed to operate your account; marketing messages are subject to your preferences as described in our Privacy Policy.

18. Governing law & disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. If a dispute arises, please contact us first so we can try to resolve it informally and in good faith. If it cannot be resolved, the dispute is subject to the jurisdiction of the South African courts, without affecting any right you may have to approach a consumer tribunal, ombud, or the Information Regulator, or any other right you have under applicable law.

19. General

• Changes to these Terms: We may update these Terms from time to time. We will update the “Last updated” date and, where changes are material, notify you. Continued use after an update means you accept the revised Terms.
• Entire agreement: These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Services.
• Severability: If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest remains in force.
• No waiver: If we do not enforce a right, that is not a waiver of it.
• Assignment: You may not transfer your rights or obligations without our consent; we may assign ours as part of a business transfer, subject to your rights.
• Force majeure: We are not liable for failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control.

20. Contact us

If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us:

• Entity: BigBrave (Pty) Ltd, trading as PEN Play
• Email: info@penplay.com
• Support: support@penplay.com
• Telephone: +27 (0) 82 853 2320