There is exactly one text field in the entire app your child uses. It is on the screen where you pair their device, it takes the six-digit code, and it discards anything that is not a digit as you type. A letter cannot be entered into it, even by accident.
Everywhere else your child taps.
Where you would expect typing, and what happens instead
Their PIN is entered on a keypad. They tap the digits; there is no keyboard.
If something is broken and they want to say so, they pick one of a few faces. That is the whole feedback mechanism. No text box, no message to us, nothing to write.
Chores and rewards are named by you, in the parent app. Your child sees the words you chose and taps to say they have done it.
Impossible is a better guarantee than not intended.
I want to be precise about the difference, because most apps could claim the second one. "We do not ask children to type" describes an intention. "The only field in the app strips non-digits before the character reaches anything" describes the software. The first can change when someone adds a feature. The second is checkable.
Why, and it is not minimalism
The obvious reading is that this is about collecting less data. That is part of it. The bigger reason is duller and more practical.
The moment a child can type something, somebody has to read it.
Not in a sinister sense. If a nine-year-old can write a message, then a nine-year-old can write something upsetting, something that reveals more than they meant to, or something that needs an adult to see it quickly. That means moderation: a system for reviewing what children write, and a person to review it, and a plan for the day something serious arrives at two in the morning.
What this costs
It is not free, and I would rather name the cost than pretend the design is purely a gift.
Your child cannot leave you a note about why a chore took longer than usual. They cannot rename their own bee or write their own reward ideas. When they want to tell you something, they have to tell you, in the room, rather than through the app.
Some families will want the other thing. A kid asking for a reward in their own words is genuinely nice, and I have looked at it more than once.
Each time I get to the same place: the feature is small and the obligation it creates is not. A text box is a five-minute change and a permanent responsibility.
What that leaves
An app where the only thing a child can put in is which chore they did and which reward they want, both chosen from things you set up.
For a product built around children, having almost nothing to protect is a better position than protecting a lot of it carefully.