DD (10) set up a Duolingo child account without telling me. She put my email in, so I got one message saying “Your child has created an account.” No consent, no verification, nothing. Just an opt‑out link if I didn’t want her to have it.
For the past week I've been receiving messages from Duolingo, clearly aimed at a child, saying things like:
- “I’m not that upset! It’s allergies 😢 You haven’t done a lesson today.”
- “Do a lesson. That’s all I ask. I’ll ask again tomorrow though.”
- “Nobody ignores me… for long.”
- “I’m not above begging 🙏 I’ll do anything to get you to practise.”
These were obviously generated because it was a child account. If DD had used her own email (which she could also easily set up tbf), these guilt‑trippy, begging messages would have gone straight to a 10‑year‑old.
AIBU to think this is a really dodgy way for a huge company to behave?