Terms of Use

Effective September 2026

These are the rules for using Chore Lock. We've written them in plain English on purpose; you shouldn't need a lawyer to understand a chore app. By creating a household or using Chore Lock, you agree to what's on this page and to our Privacy Policy. If you don't agree, please don't use Chore Lock.

What Chore Lock is

Chore Lock is an app for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, made by ACED LLC, a Missouri limited liability company at 1911 S National Ave, Suite 104, Springfield, MO 65804, United States. Kids earn screen time by completing chores and proving it with a photo taken in the app. A parent reviews and approves (or, on paid plans, an AI check can approve a clear photo automatically), and the kid's apps unlock. When time runs out, or whenever a parent chooses, apps on the kid's device lock again. Chore Lock uses Apple's official parental-control technology, the system behind Screen Time, and requires iOS 18 or newer.

"You" means the adult who agrees to these terms and runs the household. "We," "us," and "Chore Lock" mean ACED LLC.

Who can use it

• You must be an adult. You must be at least 18 years old, or the age of majority where you live if that's higher, to create a household. The app asks for your birth year during setup and won't continue otherwise.
• Parents run Chore Lock. A parent or legal guardian creates the household, adds kids, pairs devices, and controls every setting. You sign in with Apple; there's no separate Chore Lock password.
• You're responsible for your household, including keeping your device, your Apple Account, and your parent PIN to yourself, and for everything done by the adults you invite and on the devices you pair.
• Kids don't have accounts. A child uses Chore Lock only inside a household a parent set up, on a device a parent paired, under that parent's supervision. By adding a child, you confirm you're their parent or legal guardian, that you're allowed to set up parental controls on their device, and you consent on their behalf to the collection and use of the small amount of kid data described in our Privacy Policy, including the AI photo check on paid plans.
• Co-parents and guests. When you invite another adult, you're vouching for them. Parents have full control; guest caregivers can only view chores and approve or send back photos. You can remove either at any time.
• One household per family. Chore Lock isn't built for splitting one child across two separate households, and we don't promise it will work that way.

You decide how it's configured, and that's on you

Chore Lock is not a substitute for supervision, and it is not a safety device. Don't rely on it in an emergency. Emergency calling is protected by iOS itself and is not something Chore Lock can take away. Beyond that, you choose which apps are earnable and which stay always free, and because Apple hands apps to us as anonymous tokens, Chore Lock genuinely cannot tell which app is which. It asks you to keep at least three apps always free and points you at the ones that matter, but it can't verify your choices for you. Keeping a way to reach you is your call to make. The app also depends on Apple's operating system, a working device, and (for anything remote) an internet connection, so never treat it as a guarantee that a child can or can't reach anyone, or that a child can or can't reach a particular app.

Acceptable use

Use Chore Lock for what it's for: managing your own family's chores and screen time. Don't:

• try to reach another household's data, or probe, overload, scrape, or reverse-engineer our servers or the app;
• use Chore Lock to monitor or restrict an adult, or anyone who isn't a child in your legal care;
• upload anything unlawful, abusive, or sexual, or any photo of a person. Proof photos are meant to show a finished chore, and the app blocks people in frame on purpose;
• submit photos you didn't just take, try to trick the AI check, or otherwise game the chore system;
• share your parent PIN with a child, or let a child use an adult's sign-in;
• resell, sublicense, or rent the service, or use it to build a competing product.

If an account is abusing the service or other families, we can suspend or close it.

Subscriptions and billing

Chore Lock offers a free plan and two auto-renewing subscriptions, sold through Apple's App Store. All billing is handled by Apple, and we never see or store your payment details.

• Free. The full locking engine, photo proof, approvals, schedules, school hours, Sleep Time, and the Apple Watch app for one kid on one device, with up to 8 active chores. No card, no trial clock.
• Premium Solo: $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year. Everything for one kid: unlimited devices and chores, AI photo checks, Chore Bucks and the Market, school-calendar import, and rollover and streak bonuses.
• Premium Family: $11.99 per month or $119.99 per year. Everything in Premium Solo for up to 10 kids, plus pool chores, the Family Jackpot, the family leaderboard, guest caregivers, and unlimited co-parents.

Prices are in U.S. dollars for the U.S. App Store. The price in your country, and any tax, is shown in the app before you buy, and the price Apple shows you at checkout always controls over this page.

Free trial. Premium Family, monthly or yearly, comes with a 14-day free trial for new subscribers. Apple grants it once per Apple Account, and only when Apple confirms you're eligible; the app shows the trial only if you are. If you don't cancel at least 24 hours before the trial ends, your subscription starts and Apple charges the price shown when you signed up. Any unused portion of a free trial is forfeited if you buy a subscription during the trial. Premium Solo has no trial.

Auto-renewal. Payment is charged to your Apple Account when you confirm the purchase, or when a free trial ends. Your subscription renews automatically for the same period (monthly or yearly) at the then-current price unless you turn off auto-renewal at least 24 hours before the current period ends. Apple charges your account for the renewal within 24 hours before the current period ends. You can manage your subscription and turn off auto-renewal any time in your device's Settings → your name → Subscriptions. Cancelling stops the next renewal; you keep access until the period you already paid for ends, and Apple doesn't refund the unused part of a period. Deleting your Chore Lock account does not cancel your subscription; do that in your Apple settings.

Refunds are handled by Apple under App Store policies. We can't issue them ourselves; ask Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com.

If a subscription lapses, your family keeps the free plan's locking engine and your data stays put. Premium features simply switch off until you resubscribe. Chores beyond the free plan's limit stay as they are; you just can't add more until you're back on Premium.

Prices can change. We'll tell you in advance, and Apple will ask for your consent before charging a higher renewal price. Apple Family Sharing is not enabled for Chore Lock subscriptions at this time.

Chore Bucks and the Market are not money

Chore Bucks are points inside your own family's app. They have no cash value, can't be exchanged for money, and can't be transferred outside your household. The Market is a list of rewards you write and you hand over in real life. Chore Lock never processes a payment for a reward, never ships anything, and takes no part in whether a promised reward actually arrives. That's between you and your kid.

The AI photo check

On paid plans, an AI check can approve a clearly completed chore automatically so the minutes land right away. It has two possible answers, "pass" or "unsure," and it can never reject a chore; anything it isn't sure about goes to you. It will sometimes be wrong, which is why you get 24 hours to overturn an automatic approval and send the chore back for a redo. Treat it as a helper, not a judge. You can turn it off in Household Settings. Our Privacy Policy explains exactly what the check sees and who processes it. The AI check is provided as is; we don't promise it will be accurate, consistent, or available, and if it's unavailable your photos simply go to a parent for review.

School calendars

If you connect a school calendar, we fetch a public feed the school publishes. Schools change, break, and move those feeds without telling anyone, so we can't promise a feed will keep working or that every day off will be caught. A connected calendar can only ever relax a school-hours lock, never add one, and you confirm the dates yourself. The final say on your kid's schedule is always yours.

What we don't promise

We're honest in our marketing, and we'll be honest here too:

Chore Lock is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We work hard to keep it reliable, but we can't guarantee it will always be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free. Among other things, it depends on Apple's operating system, Apple's parental-control framework, your devices, and an internet connection, none of which are ours to control. Some places don't allow these exclusions; if that's where you live, this section applies to you only as far as the law allows.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, ACED LLC's total liability for any claim connected to Chore Lock is limited to the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim, or $50 if you've paid nothing. We're not liable for indirect, incidental, special, punitive, or consequential damages, or for lost data, lost profits, or a child's access to or use of any app, content, or person; for example, a lock that didn't land, a chore that didn't unlock on time, a device failure, or a disagreement over screen time. Nothing in these terms takes away rights that consumer law gives you and doesn't let us exclude.

Your responsibility to us

If someone brings a claim against ACED LLC because of how you used Chore Lock, because you broke these terms, or because you set up parental controls on a device you had no right to control, you agree to cover our reasonable costs of dealing with that claim, including attorney's fees. We'll tell you promptly and let you take the lead in defending it if you'd like.

Your content and our app

Your family's photos, chores, and lists are yours. You give us only the permission we need to run the service for you: to store your content, show it to the people in your household, and process it as the app requires, including sending a proof photo for the AI check when that feature is on. We don't claim ownership, and we don't use your content to promote Chore Lock without asking you first.

The Chore Lock app, its design, and the Chore Lock name and logo belong to ACED LLC. We grant you a personal, non-transferable license to use the app on Apple devices you own or control, under these terms and Apple's App Store terms. Don't copy, modify, or distribute the app, and don't remove any notices in it.

Ending things

You can stop using Chore Lock and delete your household and account in the app at any time (Settings → Account & PIN → Delete household & account). That's a real, permanent delete, described in the Privacy Policy. We can suspend or close accounts that break these terms or abuse the service. If we ever discontinue Chore Lock entirely, we'll give you reasonable notice so your family isn't caught by surprise. The sections on liability, disclaimers, your content, disputes, and the fine print survive if these terms end.

Apple

Chore Lock is downloaded from Apple's App Store, and a few things follow from that. This agreement is between you and ACED LLC, not Apple. Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for Chore Lock. If Chore Lock fails to conform to any warranty, you may tell Apple and Apple may refund the purchase price; beyond that, Apple has no other warranty obligation. Apple is not responsible for addressing any claim about the app, including product-liability claims, claims that the app fails to conform to a legal or regulatory requirement, consumer-protection claims, or claims that the app infringes someone's intellectual property. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and may enforce them against you. You confirm you're not located in a country subject to a U.S. government embargo or designated as a "terrorist supporting" country, and you aren't on any U.S. government list of prohibited or restricted parties. You must also comply with any third-party terms that apply when you use the app, such as your wireless carrier's.

Changes to these terms

If we change these terms in a way that matters, we'll update this page, change the date at the top, and tell you in the app before the change takes effect. Continuing to use Chore Lock after that means you accept the updated terms. If you don't, delete your household before the change takes effect.

Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Missouri, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules, and by U.S. federal law where it applies.

Talk to us first. If you have a problem, email support@getchorelock.com. Most things can be fixed with an email. Before either of us starts a formal dispute, we agree to try to work it out informally for at least 30 days after one side writes to the other describing the problem.

Arbitration. If we can't work it out, you and ACED LLC agree that any dispute connected to Chore Lock or these terms will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, rather than in court, except that either of us may bring an individual claim in small-claims court, and either of us may seek an injunction in court to stop infringement or misuse of intellectual property. The arbitration will take place in Greene County, Missouri, or by video or phone if you prefer, and the Federal Arbitration Act governs this section. We'll pay the arbitration filing and arbitrator fees for any claim you bring in good faith seeking $10,000 or less. You and ACED LLC each waive the right to a jury trial and to participate in a class action, class arbitration, or representative proceeding. If the class-action waiver is found unenforceable for a particular claim, that claim goes to court, and the rest of this section still applies to everything else. You can opt out of this arbitration section by emailing support@getchorelock.com with "arbitration opt-out," your name, and the email on your account within 30 days of first agreeing to these terms; opting out doesn't affect anything else in these terms.

The rest of the fine print

These terms, together with the Privacy Policy, are the whole agreement between us about Chore Lock. If a court or arbitrator finds one part unenforceable, the rest still stands. If we don't enforce something right away, we haven't given up the right to enforce it later. You can't transfer this agreement to someone else; we can transfer it if Chore Lock is sold or merged, and we'll tell you if that happens. Notices to you may be sent to the email on your account or shown in the app.

Contact

Questions about these terms: support@getchorelock.com, or write to ACED LLC, 1911 S National Ave, Suite 104, Springfield, MO 65804, United States.