FAQs
What is Voop?
Voop is Therapeutic Digital Safeguarding for looked-after children. With Voop, children are safer, go missing less, and feel more independent. Placements are more stable, and care outcomes improve.
How does Voop work?
Each child gets a Voop phone: a modern Android smartphone with protections built in. Carers then manage every child's phone remotely from the Voop app, agreeing protections with each child, turning on Bedtime, and getting alerts if something's wrong. Any carer on the team can do this, from anywhere, on any shift.
What is Therapeutic Digital Safeguarding?
Therapeutic Digital Safeguarding is Voop’s approach to keeping children in care safe online without surveillance, and without putting carers in conflict with them. Protections are agreed with each child and their care team, children can see their settings on their own phone, and Voop never reads their messages or records their calls. It’s safeguarding built on trust: in workshops before launch, all but one of 19 children in care agreed they would be happy to use a Voop phone (Kids Industries, 2025).
How does Voop help with missing incidents?
Voop helps carers step in early and find a missing child faster. If a child chooses to share their location, carers can get an alert when they leave a safe place. Carers also get an alert when a blocked caller tries to get in touch. If a child is reported missing, one tap switches on temporary location sharing, alerts everyone on the team, and lets the child know you want them to get in touch. The child can see when location sharing is on.
How is emergency location sharing agreed in advance?
A child’s location is only shared without their say if they’re reported missing, so agree in advance how that will work, in the child’s care plan or placement plan and your missing-from-care procedure. Voop’s consent form explains this to the child before their phone is set up. When a carer reports the child missing, location sharing switches on until they’re reported found, and everyone linked to the child in Voop is alerted, from their carers to any social worker who’s been added. That way everyone can help, and no one handles it alone. The child sees a message telling them they aren’t in any trouble, and the incident is recorded in a report you can download as a PDF.
How does Voop make homes calmer?
With Bedtime, phones automatically reduce distractions, so carers never have to confiscate them. That removes a common source of daily carer-child conflict, and everyone sleeps better.
Will Voop work across our teams and shifts?
Yes. Voop is built for care teams, not families. Any carer on the team can manage a child's phone remotely, so children get the same protections from every carer, on every shift. Every change is recorded in a shared audit log.
How do we control staff access, and remove it when someone leaves?
Voop uses roles to control who can do what. Admins manage people and homes across your account. In each home, home managers manage the team and guardians manage the children’s phones. When someone leaves, an admin removes them, and their access to your account and every home ends straight away. The changes they made stay in each child’s change history in the Voop app, with when and why each one was made.
Do young people like Voop?
Yes. Voop was co-designed in the UK with young people at Compass Community, who now use it. Before launch, the children’s research agency Kids Industries ran workshops for Voop with 19 children in foster and residential care, aged 8 to 16. All but one agreed they would be happy to use a Voop phone. Older children worried about losing their independence, so location sharing is the child’s choice unless they’re reported missing. (Kids Industries, Voop Research Debrief, August 2025) Young people using Voop now say much the same. In a July 2026 survey completed with staff, 3 of the 4 young people in children’s homes who answered said the adult controls on their phone were fair, and all 4 rated their phone 8 out of 10 or higher.
How quickly can we get started?
Most care organisations are up and running within days. Once your account is set up, you invite your team and add your children, and our Customer Success team guides you through the rest.
Isn’t Voop just surveillance?
No. Voop is child-first. It never reads messages, records calls or screens, or tracks where a child goes. A child’s location is theirs, and it’s only shared if they choose to share it. Protections are agreed with each child before their phone is set up, and they can see them on their own phone at any time. That only changes when there’s a legitimate safeguarding need. Location can only be switched on without the child’s say if they’re reported missing, and then only temporarily, to help find them. The child can see when it’s on, and the change is recorded with a reason. In a children’s home, agree how it will work as part of the child’s care plan. In foster care, agree how it will work with the child’s social worker, and record it in their placement plan.
Can blocking a number clash with a child’s family contact?
It can, so Voop makes every block a recorded decision. An admin, home manager or guardian can block a number, and they have to give a written reason that the rest of the team can see in the child’s change history. Before blocking a family member, check the child’s care plan or placement plan and any contact arrangements ordered by a court, and agree it with the child’s social worker. Emergency numbers always work.
Can't children just get around it?
Children in care often know how to remove parental control apps. Voop's protections are built into the phone and its connection, so they can't be deleted or switched off, on wifi or mobile data. No technology can stop a child finding another phone, but because young people are involved in agreeing their protections, they have less reason to look for one.
What happens if a child tries to factory reset their Voop phone?
Factory resets are blocked on every supported Voop phone, and carers get an alert if a child tries one. If a phone is wiped another way, it can’t be set up again without Voop’s recovery account, so the protections stay. The Voop app can’t be deleted or switched off, and carers are also alerted if the eSIM is removed, or the phone goes offline or is switched off.
How is Voop different from parental control apps?
Parental control apps are built for families. Children in care have a whole team around them, and more complex safeguarding needs. Voop is built for that: protections that can’t be switched off, the same care from every carer on every shift, a shared record of every change, temporary location sharing if a child is reported missing, and no surveillance. Voop never reads messages or records calls.
Do we need a Deprivation of Liberty order, or a change to the care order?
No. Voop works within existing consent frameworks and doesn't need a Deprivation of Liberty order or a change to a care order. Independent legal opinion supports this. Protections are proportionate to each child's needs and agreed with the child and their care team, rather than imposed.
Why only Android?
Voop is built to support selected Android phones because they allow baseline protections that can't be switched off. Other OS providers don’t offer the same level of protection.
How is children's data protected?
Voop complies with UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, is Cyber Essentials certified, and is SOC 2 Type II audited. A child's data is only accessed by the people directly involved in their care, and is never shared beyond that team without explicit consent. A child’s location is only shared if they choose to share it, or temporarily if they’re reported missing. It’s only shared with the carers and social workers on their team, and it’s never used commercially. Privacy is built into every part of Voop. Visit trust.voop.com for more information.
How does Voop prevent coercive control from carers?
All changes made to a child’s phone by a carer are stored on a shared audit log visible to other carers and require text-based justification. This helps ensure that coercive carers can’t secretly coerce children by means of phone settings management.
Is Voop available in the United States?
Yes. In the US, Voop is provided by Voop Inc, based in Charlotte, North Carolina. It’s already live with care providers in the Southeast, including Florida, and is available across the US, for foster care agencies, group homes, residential treatment providers, state and county child welfare agencies, and foster and kinship parents. US customers’ data is stored in the US. Standard is $100 a month per young person, and Enterprise is priced on application. Support is available 24 hours a day, and onboarding can be done in person. Call +1-518-676-8667 or book a demo.
Can foster carers use Voop?
Yes. Foster carers, kinship carers and special guardians can buy Voop directly from Voop. If you’re a foster carer, agree it with your fostering service and your foster child’s social worker first, because decisions about their phone belong in their placement plan. Some foster carers have recharged the cost to their foster child’s local authority, so it’s worth asking, though we can’t guarantee it.
How do we buy Voop?
Local authorities can buy Voop through the Spark DPS (RM6094) or directly. Care providers can buy directly. Either way, contact us at hello@voop.com or book an appointment with the team from the Contact us page.
