Nursery advertising rules in the UAE, and the content AI reads

Rule two: every claim needs proof

KHDA asks for evidence behind any claim an advert makes, direct or implied, including awards, rankings, acknowledgements and partnerships, and wants those claims dated (items 11 and 12). Comparisons are allowed only if they are backed up and do not attack another centre (item 13).

Testimonials need proof the parent gave permission, and cannot be shown as absolute truth (items 14 and 15). No trust mark or claim of endorsement without authority (item 16), and no give-away, raffle or draw to win a registration (item 19). KHDA's logo may not appear in adverts. A centre that wants to mention its permit can use the sentence: This institution is approved and permitted by KHDA.

Two more items catch new centres. An advert may not feature the head of the centre unless KHDA has approved the appointment (item 22), and a centre whose building is not finished must say that opening and operations are subject to the completion of the building and final approval from KHDA (item 23).

Rule three: children's images and fees

In Abu Dhabi, children's pictures may be taken and used for marketing, social media and the website only with the parents' consent, on forms signed at registration, and staff photograph children only on the nursery's own devices (ADEK Early Education Institution Policy on Child Protection and Safeguarding, September 2024). Whatever the emirate, the same discipline is sensible, and a page that needs no child's face avoids the question entirely.

ADEK also controls how fees reach the website. The fee structure is published only after ADEK has approved it, the registration fee is capped at 5% of the tuition fee, and additional fees need approval before they are charged (ADEK fees policy for early education, September 2024). A nursery that offers a live-streaming camera service needs ADEK and MCC approval for it and must mention it on its website and marketing channels (ADEK surveillance policy, September 2024).

What this means page by page

Written to these rules, a nursery site has fewer photos and more plain sentences than the ones around it. For an AI answer that is an advantage.

• Age group pages

  Ages, routine, hours and fee. No claim about what a child will achieve, no superlative, nothing that needs a certificate you do not hold.

• Fees page

  The approved fees for the year, the period they cover, the registration fee and any extras, updated the day new fees are approved.

• Photos and video

  Rooms, garden and equipment without children, or children only where the signed consent is on file. Never a child's name with a photo.

• Reviews and testimonials

  Reviews on Google stay the parent's own words. A testimonial quoted on your site needs the parent's written permission on file first.

• Approval log

  A simple list of each page and post, the date it was approved and the date the approval runs out, so nothing stays live on an expired approval.

Why approved content and quoted content are the same content

An assistant builds its answer from sentences it can check against other sources. Which ages a nursery takes, where its branches are, what it charges, which curriculum it follows. Those are exactly the sentences a regulator approves without changes. The warm, unprovable copy a regulator questions is also copy a model cannot verify, so it drops it.

A nursery that writes to the rules gives nothing up. It is writing the kind of page that ends up quoted.

This is what we write to, not legal advice. Rules change and they change quickly, so check the current rules with your regulator.