Digital goods
Sweepstakes casinos and in-game currency bill as app purchases. The charge looks like any other game.
It bills as digital goods, game currency, and fantasy sports. Guardian reads the card your teenager spends from and tells you when a charge is really a bet.
More than 1 in 3 US boys ages 11 to 17 gambled in the past year. By 17, it is nearly half.
Why you have not seen it
It is on the statement.
It just is not called gambling.
Skill games
Daily fantasy and pick'em apps bill as games of skill, not wagering. Same money, different label.
Retail
A gift card bought at a store funds the same chance mechanics as one bought in the game. The store is what shows up.
Every gambling block a bank offers reads the label. Guardian reads the merchant.
Privacy, in plain language
What Guardian sees. What it never will.
A useful product should not need access to your teenager's phone. Guardian reads the transactions on accounts you connect, and nothing else.
What we see
- Charges on the accounts you connect
- The merchant, amount, and date your bank releases
- Money sent to a person
What we never see
- Messages, location, browsing, or photos
- Calls or app usage
- Your bank login
What we cannot see
- Cash
- Accounts you have not connected
- Money moved inside an app we cannot read
How Guardian works
Three steps.
Nothing hidden.
B
Connect your bank
Guardian receives transaction data with your permission.
Reviewing transactions
27 of 27
D
DK CROWNJul 22
-$50.00
Known operator
M
Money transferJul 20 · “parlay”
-$22.00
Wording match
C
Corner MarketJul 19
-$14.63
Reviewed
WEEK OF JUL 15
Your Guardian report
27
charges reviewed
No findings this week
We will check again as new charges arrive.
See what we checked →
What a finding looks like
What we know.
No more than that.
Guardian separates a recognized platform from a wording match. The report tells you why an item appeared, so confidence never gets mistaken for certainty.
Finding
$50 to DraftKings
$50 to DraftKings
on July 22.
We recognise this platform. Sportsbook.
GUARDIAN / FINDING
JUL 22 · 3:42 PM
$50.00
Bank textDK CROWN NJ
MatchKnown operator
CategorySportsbook
Recognized platform
Wording match
$22 to a person
$22 to a person
on July 20.
This did not match a platform on our list. It matched “parlay” in the text your bank sent us, and that is the whole of what this finding says.
GUARDIAN / FINDING
JUL 20 · 7:16 PM
$22.00
Bank textPAYMENT · “parlay”
PlatformNot identified
MatchStatement wording
Limited finding
The teenager question
“Is this spying?”
No. Guardian watches transactions, not your teenager.
It reads transactions from the accounts you connect. Nothing on their phone.
What Guardian adds
Context for charges that do not look like gambling on a statement.
What Guardian never reads
Messages, location, browsing, photos, calls, or app activity.
The limits
Finding nothing is not proof that nothing happened.
We see the accounts you connect and nothing else.
Banks decide how far back they release, and it varies.
A new platform can exist before we know about it.
These are not footnotes. They are part of how Guardian works.
A line we will not cross
What we refuse to do.
Read messages, location, or browsing.
Sell or share what we see about your family.
Tell you your teenager has a problem. We report charges, not diagnoses.
Make the app quieter to seem more reassuring.
Guardian field guide
Know what you are looking at.
Plain-language guides for the parts of online gambling that do not look like gambling.
Join the waitlist
See what the charge actually is.
Guardian opens to its first households soon. Join the waitlist for an invitation and for what we find along the way.