Is Boddle Safe, and Who's Behind It?

Yes, Boddle is safe for students. It's a K-6 learning game for math, ELA, and science, built by a company called Boddle Learning, and it's designed so that the people who can reach a student inside it are the student's own teacher and classmates, with no open chat and no strangers. Boddle is COPPA, FERPA, and SOPPA compliant and holds the kidSAFE Seal, the independent child-safety certification. It's free for teachers and students. It was founded by Edna Martinson and Clarence Tan, a husband-and-wife team, and it's built in close partnership with teachers, several of whom are on the team. This page covers the two questions people ask most before they hand Boddle to a class: is it safe, and who made it.

Is Boddle safe for students?

Yes. The most important safety fact is what students can't do: they can't free-chat with anyone. Boddle has no open messaging and no free-text input. Peer interaction is limited to preset emotes and a set of canned, pre-written messages, so there's no way for a student to type something to another student, and no way for a stranger to type something to a student. That's the honest answer to the question parents and teachers actually ask: no, another kid can't message your child, and no, a stranger can't reach them inside the game.

Safe-by-design means that safety isn't a setting you have to find and switch on. It's the way the game is built. A student can play, earn characters, and practice without ever encountering a free-text field- and with it a way to share personal information. For a teacher assigning Boddle to twenty students, that removes a whole category of things to worry about.

What privacy laws and safety certifications does Boddle meet?

Boddle meets the main US student-data-privacy standards and carries an independent safety certification. In plain terms:

• COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act): the US federal law governing data collection from children under 13. Boddle is COPPA compliant.
• FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act): the US federal law protecting student education records. Boddle is FERPA compliant.
• SOPPA (Student Online Personal Protection Act): Illinois's state student-data-privacy law, one of the strictest in the country. Boddle is SOPPA compliant.
• kidSAFE Seal: an independent, third-party certification for child-directed sites and apps. Boddle is kidSAFE Seal certified.
• Common Sense Privacy Seal: a trusted verification mark awarded to digital products—especially EdTech and consumer apps—that demonstrate exceptional data protection.

On data: Boddle's handling of student information is governed by those compliance standards, including never selling, trading, or leasing student data. The specifics live in Boddle's privacy policy.

Who made Boddle?

Boddle is made by Boddle Learning. It was founded by Edna Martinson and Clarence Tan, a husband-and-wife team. 

Edna and Clarence are not themselves teachers, but Boddle is built in close collaboration with teachers. The product was built in constant conversation with teachers across the country, and many members of the team are former teachers. 

What does Boddle teach, and who is it for?

Boddle is a K-6 learning game covering three subjects: math, ELA (English Language Arts), and science. It started as a math game and grew, which is why some older descriptions still call it "math only." That's out of date, the product spans all three subjects today, and you can read more on our Boddle Science page.

I's built for the full K-6 range, not just the youngest grades. A 4th or 5th grader gets adaptive, standards-aligned practice scaled to their level, the same as a 1st grader does at theirs. Math is standards-aligned to every state’s individual standards across the grade range.

The thing Boddle is built around is the balance of two things that usually pull apart: engagement and rigor. Students love playing the game; they learn from it because the practice underneath is real and adaptive. And it's fair by design, every character is earnable through play rather than payment, and all subjects are free to access without a paywall.

Boddle's Take

Trust is a set of decisions guiding your overall journey as a product. Boddle's position is consistent: no open chat, because a learning game shouldn't be a place strangers can reach a child. Compliance with the strict privacy laws, because student data isn't ours to be loose with. Characters earnable without paying, because a classroom tool shouldn't sort students by who paid. And a product shaped by teachers, because the people doing the hardest job in the building should have a say in the tools they're handed.

We try to be honest about what we are and aren't. We're a learning game built to be safe, fair, and genuinely useful in a real classroom, made by a team that keeps asking teachers what they need.

Frequently asked questions

Is Boddle safe for kids? Yes. Boddle is built so students can't free-chat with anyone: there's no open messaging and no free-text input, only preset emotes and canned messages. That means another student can't send your child a typed message, and a stranger can't reach them inside the game. Boddle is also COPPA, FERPA, and SOPPA compliant and holds the independent kidSAFE Seal certification.

Can students chat with strangers on Boddle? No. Boddle has no open chat and no free-text messaging. Students can interact only through preset emotes and pre-written canned messages, with no way to type custom text or share personal information. There is no mechanism for someone outside a student's class, or a stranger, to send them a message. Safe social interaction is part of how the game is built, not an optional setting.

Is Boddle COPPA compliant? Yes. Boddle is compliant with COPPA, the US federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act that governs how online services collect data from children under 13. Boddle is also compliant with FERPA (student education records) and SOPPA (Illinois's student-data-privacy law), and it holds the kidSAFE Seal. Specifics on data handling are in Boddle's privacy policy.

Who made Boddle, and who owns it? Boddle is made by Boddle Learning. It was founded by Edna Martinson and Clarence Tan, a husband-and-wife team. The product is built in close partnership with teachers, several of whom are on the team, though the founders themselves are not classroom teachers.

Is Boddle free? Boddle is free for teachers and students, across all three subjects: math, ELA, and science. Premium upgrades exist as an optional parent purchase, but they sit apart from classroom use, and the learning itself isn't paywalled. 

The short version

If you're vetting Boddle before handing it to a class: it's safe by design (no open chat, no strangers), it meets the main student-privacy laws (COPPA, FERPA, SOPPA) and carries the kidSAFE Seal, it's free for teachers and students, and it's made by Boddle Learning, a small team that builds in close partnership with the teachers who use it. It teaches math, ELA, and science across K-6. The best way to judge any of that is to see it with your own class, which you can do for free.