Back the safe way for young people to be paid for their work.
TYVM is a free page where anyone 13 and up can share what they make or do and be thanked for it. On a young person’s page, a grown-up is in charge of the money. This page is for grantmakers, companies, credit unions, schools, libraries and youth programs thinking about helping.
We built the safety first.
Most tools for getting paid online are for adults only. So a young maker is either shut out, or using a grown-up’s tool with no protection at all. TYVM was built the other way round.
A grown-up approves where it goes
On a 13 to 17 year old’s page, nothing that takes money or invites contact works until a grown-up joins as their guardian. The grown-up approves the exact payment link before it goes live, and again after any change.
Nobody under 13, and a pause button
TYVM starts at 13, with no page for anyone younger on any account. A young person’s grown-up sees the whole page, drafts included, and can pause it any time.
A person decides what comes down
Every page has a report link, no account needed, and a person, not a bot, decides what comes down. On a young person’s page, no picture goes up until a person has looked at it.
Nobody is followed here
No ads, no trackers and no third-party scripts. The view counts we keep have nobody in them.
All of this is in the code and the database today, not in a policy. TYVM is not open to the public yet, so it opens with these rules already in place.
People can work through their own assistant, under the same rules.
Families and schools are starting to ask what a young person’s AI is allowed to do. TYVM has an answer, built into the database before the feature.
The same rules as the screen
A person can connect the AI assistant they already use, and with their yes it can help build their page. It goes through the same checks as the editor, so anything the editor would refuse, the assistant is refused too.
A grown-up says yes first
An assistant works only on a page its owner connected it to. On a 13 to 17 year old’s page, it waits for their grown-up to say yes, and the young person cannot say yes for them.
Some things stay the person’s own
An assistant can never touch money or messages, change the @ or who can find the page, or put a page live. Going live is still the person’s own button.
Every change visible, and undoable
The person, and on a young person’s page their grown-up, can see everything an assistant changed and undo any of it for 30 days.
Ready when the app opens on November 1. One thing we tell people before they agree: the assistant learns the email address on the account.
Doors we shut on purpose.
Your money can’t open any of them, and nobody else’s can either.
What we can show you, and what we can’t yet.
What it costs
- ✳ We publish what TYVM costs to run, line by line, on a cost page that opens with the app.
- ✳ That bill is the machines. It leaves out the people: moderation, legal advice and the founder’s time, which cost more. Any proposal we send you says which of these it covers.
- ✳ Where the bill is published →
What it did
- ✳ TYVM is not open to the public yet, so there are no usage numbers to show.
- ✳ When there are, we will publish totals only, like pages live and grown-up approvals, and leave out any count small enough to point to a person.
- ✳ We will never report on a single young person, to anyone. A funder who asks gets the same no, and the reason why.
Four ways to help.
Put your name on a plain line
One line of text with your name, in our footers and emails, from $1 a month, public-radio style. The same for everyone, with no tracking, and never on a creator’s page.
How underwriting works →Shrink the bill
Credits or services for what we run on: hosting, the database, email, error tracking and AI models. We take nothing that adds a logo to a creator’s page, shares data, or adds a request to a public page.
Run it with a group
A school, library, makerspace or youth program can try TYVM with a group. Each young person’s own grown-up stays in charge of their page, and a school can’t say yes in place of a parent. There are no group tools yet, so the first pilots will be small.
Said plainly
TYVM is a for-profit company for now, so we can’t yet receive grants meant only for nonprofits. We’re working out whether that can change, and we won’t promise it until it’s settled. Grants open to small businesses are welcome.
A small company, and its founder.
TYVM is a small for-profit company. Todd Belcher, founder.
Right now TYVM is funded by its founder. Money given to TYVM is support, not a tax-deductible donation. More about us →
Let’s talk.
A funders’ inbox is on its way. If an email from us brought you here, just reply to it. We use what you send to reply to you and nothing else. No list, no newsletter, no sharing it on.