For parents & guardians

Short version: we collect as little as possible, we don’t sell data, and we don’t put kids in front of an AI — support comes from real people. The Idea Challenge is a program of Exponential Scholars (Exponential Foundation, Inc.), a North Carolina nonprofit. The full details are in our privacy policy and the parental privacy notice below.

What we don’t do

No ads, ever — and no selling of personal information.
Analytics only with your OK: we use Google Analytics with every advertising feature, ad personalization, and Google Signals turned off, and it runs only if a visitor accepts our cookie notice. The site works fully without it.
No precise location or phone numbers.

Safety

We don’t put kids in front of an AI. If your child books a coaching call, it’s with a vetted volunteer adult. If anything a child shares with us suggests they may be unsafe — self-harm, bullying, or abuse — we respond with care and point them toward a trusted adult and, in the US, 988.

Prize fulfillment

Finalists will be contacted via the email collected at submission. A parent or guardian consents before any prize is disbursed. To send a payment, we’ll ask winners for a full name, date of birth, and mailing address — kept private and used only to send the prize. See the Terms for award and tax details.

Parental Privacy Notice

This notice explains our practices regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information provided by children under the age of 18, and how you can provide consent as their parent or guardian. Exponential Foundation, Inc. may collect personal information from children when they use our website to submit an idea to the NC Idea Challenge. This notice applies when we collect information from your child when they use our online services, such as our website. For more information about our privacy practices, please review our Privacy Policy available at ideachallengenc.org/privacy.

Personal information we collect from children

Direct identifiers like a name or nickname associated with their age or grade.
User-generated content, including messages they send through the site about their idea or videos they upload, which may depict their likeness.
Persistent identifiers, including information held in cookies, an Internet Protocol (IP) address, a processor or device serial number, or a unique device identifier.

How we use personal information collected from children

To support participation in the NC Idea Challenge and our contest, including administration of prizes.
To provide, maintain, and improve the site, including to enable participation in its features.
To help kids with their submission if they contact us or otherwise respond to inquiries.
To communicate with you about your child’s information or submission, or to respond to your inquiries.
To conduct internal research and development.
To analyze traffic and user activities on the site, such as to change features, optimize the site, or personalize it.
To debug the site by identifying or repairing errors.
To protect the rights and property of Exponential Foundation, Inc. and others and comply with our legal obligations, including to detect, investigate, and prevent fraud and other illegal activities, protect the security and integrity of the site, and to enforce our agreements and policies.

How we disclose personal information collected from children

To operate the site, administer the NC Idea Challenge, and run our business, such as to our service providers who perform a support function for us.
In connection with a corporate transaction, such as a merger, acquisition, or sale of our assets.
To protect the rights and property of Exponential Foundation, Inc., to comply with our legal obligations, including responding to legal process or law enforcement requests or comply with mandatory reporting requirements; to detect, investigate and prevent fraud and other illegal activities; to protect the security and integrity of the site; and to enforce our agreements and policies.

We do not disclose children’s personal information for marketing or other non-integral purposes.

Providing your consent

Exponential Foundation, Inc. will not collect, use, or disclose your child’s personal information without your consent except in limited circumstances permitted by applicable law. For example, if your child provides us with a name and online contact information and we have not already obtained your consent, then we would retain and use the information provided by your child to contact you, deliver this notice, and request your consent. If you do not consent within a reasonable time, then we will delete the information your child provided.

You can consent to our collection, use and disclosure of your child’s personal information by completing the consent form we provided to you. You may withdraw your consent by emailing us at hello@ideachallengenc.org. If you have questions about this notice, please email us at hello@ideachallengenc.org.

Delete request

Email hello@ideachallengenc.org at any time to request your kid’s entry be deleted.