Last updated: 8 October 2026

Safety & Responsible Use

Gulino can help simplify a child's phone experience, but no app replaces appropriate supervision, preparation and an emergency plan. This page is written to be useful, not just to disclaim.

1. SOS is assistance, not an emergency service

Gulino does not operate a monitored emergency centre. Nobody at Gulino is alerted when a child presses SOS.

What SOS attempts to do:

• send an assistance message to the trusted contacts you configured
• include the phone's most recent location in that message, when one is available
• call your SOS contacts in the order you chose: the primary contact first, then the next one shortly after each call ends, until the list is finished or further SOS calls are stopped
• continue sending location updates as the child moves, for up to the time the parent chose (two hours unless changed, at most 24 hours) or until a parent stops it

SOS depends on the phone, its permissions, its battery, network coverage and the contact details you configured, so delivery, a call or a location may occasionally be delayed or unavailable. SOS messages and location updates are sent only while Gulino is the phone's default SMS app; the SOS calls do not need that. It does not depend on your Gulino subscription: if a trial or subscription ends while Child Mode is on, SOS keeps working and you can still exit Child Mode from Parent Mode.

2. Teach another emergency plan

Gulino should never be a child's only plan. Teach your child:

• how to reach a trusted adult without a phone
• how to call local emergency services — 112 is the common emergency number across the EU
• what to do if the phone is lost, flat or has no signal
• where to go nearby for help from an adult

3. Test SOS

• Add your SOS contacts and check every number character by character.
• Test SOS after setup, and tell your contacts first, so everyone knows what to expect.
• Confirm calls and SMS work from that SIM and that plan.
• Test again after a change of phone, SIM or carrier, or after a long period without use.

4. Location has limits

Location is produced by the phone, not by Gulino, and can be approximate, out of date, delayed or unavailable — indoors, in dense areas, or depending on the phone's settings and battery.

Use a position in a message as supporting information; it may not reflect exactly where the phone is now.

Gulino does not keep a location history.

5. Calls and messages need the mobile network

Gulino is not a mobile carrier. Calls and SMS need a working SIM or eSIM, an active plan and coverage. Your carrier's charges apply — including for the messages SOS sends, which can be several if a child is moving.

6. Approved does not mean Gulino-controlled

When you approve a third-party app, Gulino makes it reachable from the child's Home. That app remains an independent app. It keeps its own content, privacy practices, notifications, advertising, accounts, purchases and network access.

So an app you approve may show advertising. What Gulino gives you is the choice of whether it appears on the child's Home at all — and it is worth looking at an app yourself before approving it.

7. Standard Protection

Gulino uses Standard Protection: Gulino changes the child-facing experience on an ordinary phone, and the phone's own system still controls parts of the device, so some system screens may remain reachable.

Standard Protection is always removable through the phone's normal settings. Clearing Gulino's app data (Settings → Apps → Gulino → Storage) removes the Gulino setup on that phone, including the Parent PIN and Child Mode; uninstalling it does the same, and installing it again means setting the phone up again. The phone's other apps and data are not affected. This works even if the Parent PIN and the Parent Account cannot be recovered — see Can't recover your Parent Account?

How much protection is in place depends on the phone, its software version, the permissions granted and how it was set up. No setup can rule out every possible way around it.

8. Using a parent's existing phone

Handing over a family phone for a few hours is what Gulino is for, and it does not change your apps, accounts or data. Reusing a spare phone is genuinely convenient — for a trip, a sleepover or a first phone — and Gulino is designed to make that easy.

If the phone holds information that needs especially strict separation, you have two good options:

• use a spare or dedicated phone instead; or
• sign out of, or move, that information before handing the phone over.

9. Keep the device ready

• Keep the phone charged — SOS cannot work on a phone that is flat.
• Keep the SIM and plan active if calls and messages matter.
• Check now and then that the permissions Gulino needs are still switched on; a phone can turn them off after a long period without use.
• Keep Gulino and the phone's software up to date, and re-check the setup after a major system update.

10. Parent PIN and access

• Keep the Parent PIN and your account details to yourself; the Parent PIN is what unlocks Parent Mode and its settings.
• Do not use a PIN your child can guess, and do not let them watch you type it.
• Make configuration changes in Parent Mode rather than working around Gulino.
• When taking a family phone back, exit Child Mode from Parent Mode with your Parent PIN. The phone then asks you to pick your usual Home screen again; if Gulino was the messaging app, choose your usual messaging app in the phone's default-apps settings too (Parent Mode opens that screen).

Forgot the PIN? Choose Forgot PIN and prove it is you with your Parent account password, then set a new PIN. The old PIN is not shown, because the phone does not keep it in a readable form.

Deleting the Parent account from Account & Security returns Gulino on that phone to its first-run state: the Parent PIN, the child profile and the approved people are cleared.

11. Responsible use

Gulino should be configured only by a parent, legal guardian or another adult with the appropriate authority over that device and that child's use of it.

Talk to your child about what the phone does. A child who knows that pressing SOS shares where they are — and for how long — can make a real decision about pressing it.

Questions or concerns: contact@gulino.app.