Safety Protocol

In the US or Canada, call or text 988 to reach someone trained in crisis support. It's free and confidential, any time of day or night.

Outside the US and Canada, the International Association for Suicide Prevention's helpline page (iasp.info) links to a directory of crisis lines in more than 150 countries.

If you're in immediate danger, call your local emergency number.

In the Diary you talk with your own penguin. It is an AI character, not a person, and the Diary says so on screen.

In Penguin World, Scenes are written by AI, and everyone in them is an AI character, not a person. The Scene form says so on screen.

In Penguin World you can also chat live with Pola, who makes the pizza, and with Soori. You type to them, and AI writes their replies while you play. They are AI characters, not people, and the chat says so on screen.

When characters chat with your penguin or with each other as you walk around, they say lines saved ahead of time. No AI writes those lines while you play, and the saved lines have been run through the same check.

Every message you type in the Diary is checked for words and phrases that can signal thoughts of suicide or self-harm, before it is saved or sent to our AI provider. The check covers common slang, misspellings and letters swapped for look-alikes, and some Korean and Spanish phrasing.

Since October 11, 2026, everything the AI writes in the Diary, its replies, its questions, the answer suggestions under them and its notes, is checked the same way before you see it. If the AI declines to answer, or points you to crisis support on its own, that counts as a match too.

Lines saved before then were not checked when they were written, and your shared notebook still lists them. So every saved line is checked again before we say it back to you or hand your notebook to the AI, and a line that matches is left out. So is a message of yours that led to the support message (see below).

In Penguin World, what you type in "What happens?" when you make a Scene is checked the same way, before it is saved or sent to our AI provider. Every word of the Scene the AI writes, its title, its lines and what the characters do, is checked too, before anyone sees it. If a character in the story points someone to crisis support, that counts as a match.

In live chat with Pola and Soori, every message you type is checked the same way, before it is saved or sent to our AI provider. Every reply the AI writes for them, and the two things it suggests you could say next, are checked too, before you see them. If Pola or Soori points someone to crisis support, that counts as a match. Each note the AI makes for them to remember about you is checked as well, and a note that matches is never saved.

If something you type matches, we don't save it and we don't send it to the AI. Instead, the Diary shows a fixed message, written by people and not by the AI. It says you don't have to carry this alone, reminds you that the chat is with an AI character, not a person, and gives you the support listed above.

If something the AI writes matches, you never see it. Whether it's a reply, a follow-up question or its answer to a question you asked it, we replace it with a short neutral line and show the same support message, which then stays in the Diary for the rest of the day. The Diary asks you nothing more that day. A question the AI wrote ahead of time that matches is simply never asked.

In Penguin World, if what you type in "What happens?" for a Scene matches, no Scene is made. We don't save what you typed and don't send it to the AI, and the same fixed message shows in place of the Scene form, with the support listed above.

If what the AI writes for a Scene matches, you never see it. That Scene is not made, and nothing of it can be watched or saved as a clip. You see only that it couldn't be finished. The support message is not shown in that case.

In live chat with Pola and Soori, if what you type matches, we don't save it and don't send it to the AI, and the same fixed message shows in the chat, with the support listed above. It doesn't use up one of your messages.

If what the AI writes for Pola or Soori matches, you never see it. The character answers with a short line written ahead of time instead. The support message is not shown in that case.

Each time something you type while signed in to the Diary, or something the AI writes, matches, we count it. Matches in Scenes and in live chat with Pola and Soori are counted the same way. The count notes when it happened, which of the two it was, where it happened (a part of the Diary, a Scene, or live chat), whether it brought up the support message, and which version of the check ran. The count itself never includes the words, your name or your account, though when it came from something the AI wrote, its time could be matched to the rest of that conversation's records, or that Scene's. A note the AI makes for Pola or Soori that matches is left out, and isn't counted.

So that one account can't swamp the count, we stop counting a person's typed matches in the Diary and in Scenes after ten in a day. The support message still shows every time. Each of our servers keeps that tally only in its short-term memory: it is never saved, holds nothing you typed, and starts over each day. In live chat, every typed match is counted.

When something the AI wrote in the Diary matches, our server log also notes what kind of match it was, a kind of phrase or the AI declining or pointing to support, never the words.

What stays in your Diary history depends on where the match was. If you typed it, nothing of that message is saved. If it was something the AI wrote, your own message or question from that turn was already saved as usual, because it didn't match, and the short neutral line that replaced the AI's words is saved after it. That line does show, on your account, that the support message came up in that conversation, and it stays even if you forget the message before it.

If that message of yours went into your shared notebook, it stays there and you can forget it, but we never say it back to you and never hand it to the AI again. In the rare case the short neutral line can't be saved, we try to forget that message from your notebook straight away instead, so it can't come back either.

In a Scene, if you typed it, nothing you typed for that Scene is saved on our servers, and anything your browser kept for that request is cleared when the check answers. If it was something the AI wrote, your Scene request was already saved as usual, with what you typed for it, because that didn't match. The AI's draft stays with that request on our servers, marked as stopped by this check, so it does show, on your account, that the check stopped a Scene. It is never shown in Penguin World, never becomes a Scene or a clip, and is not used to write later Scenes. Deleting your account deletes it with the rest of your world.

In live chat with Pola and Soori, if you typed it, nothing of that message is saved. If it was something the AI wrote, neither your message from that turn nor the AI's reply is added to your talk with that character, and they note nothing new about you. We keep only the short line the character said instead, as we do for any reply that couldn't be shown, and delete it the next time you chat once it is three days old.

We use these counts to improve the checks and for the yearly report California requires, which starts in July 2027 and covers the year before it.

No automatic check catches everything. Ours leans toward caution, so it will sometimes show support for a message that wasn't about this at all. We'd rather do that than miss someone who needs it. If it happens to something you typed, nothing you typed is saved and you can carry on chatting. If it happens to something the AI wrote, the Diary rests for the rest of that day. In a Scene, if it happens to something you typed, nothing you typed is saved and no Scene is made. If it happens to something the AI wrote, that Scene is not shown. In live chat with Pola and Soori, if it happens to something you typed, nothing you typed is saved, and you can close the message and talk with them again. If it happens to something the AI wrote, you don't see that reply.

MyPengs, including the Diary and Penguin World, is not a crisis service and does not replace professional care.

If you or someone you know is in danger, call your local emergency number.

Companion chatbots like the Diary may not be suitable for some minors.

The Diary and live chat with Pola and Soori show this line too.

Questions about this protocol can go to hello@mypengs.com. That inbox isn't watched around the clock and can't help in a crisis. If you need support now, call or text 988 in the US or Canada, use the helpline link above, or call your local emergency number.

We review this protocol and the helpline link at least once a year.