Safeguarding Policy

SquadLock helps adults organise five- and seven-a-side football, and its player marketplace can put people who have never met on the same pitch. That makes child safety a design constraint, not an afterthought. This page sets out the rules we enforce and the technical controls behind them, so parents, players and app-store reviewers can see exactly what we do — not just what we promise.

1. Age Requirements

• • You must be at least 13 to use SquadLock. Registration asks for a date of birth and refuses anyone under 13 — no account is created and no personal data is kept.
• • 13–15 year olds need a parent or guardian’s consent.Registration requires a guardian’s email address; we email them a confirmation link, and until they approve, the account cannot search for players, appear in results, or contact anyone.
• • Dates of birth are set once. A date of birth cannot be edited after the fact to escape an age restriction — corrections go through support, where a human reviews them.
• • Unknown age is treated as a minor.If an account has no confirmed date of birth (for example, one created before we introduced the age gate, or one created with Apple or Google sign-in, which don’t share birthdays), it is held to the same restrictions as an under-18 account until the age is confirmed. We fail safe, never open.

2. Under-18s and the Player Marketplace

The ringer marketplace exists so adult teams can find substitute players. Minors are not merchandise in a search index:

• • Under-18s never appear in player searchor any discovery surface, and cannot be invited to matches by people they don’t know.
• • Under-18s cannot cold-contact strangers through the marketplace either — the restriction applies in both directions.
• • 16–17 year olds can still use SquadLock to organise football with their own teams; the restriction is on discovery by strangers, not on playing with friends.

3. Location Privacy

Finding a nearby player requires knowing roughly where people are — and only roughly. Nobody’s exact position is ever shown or stored where search can reach it:

• • Search runs on a coarsened location.The point used for player search is snapped to a grid roughly 300 m across, so search results identify a neighbourhood, never an address.
• • Distances are shown in bands(“within 2 km”), not precise figures — precise distances can be used to calculate someone’s position; bands cannot.
• • Search never crosses a national border. Players in one country cannot see, or be seen by, players in another.

4. Blocking and Reporting

• • Anyone can block anyone. Blocking removes the other person from your search results and contact surfaces in both directions, and your list of blocked players can be managed from your profile.
• • Every profile can be reported from inside the app, with a reason. Reports go to a moderation queue reviewed by a human.
• • Child-safety reports are escalated immediately to a dedicated safety inbox, ahead of all other moderation work. Accounts can be suspended while a report is investigated.

5. What We Ask of Adults

If you organise games through SquadLock and under-18s play in them (for example, your own club’s youth players), safeguarding them on the pitch remains your responsibility as organiser, as it would for any game. SquadLock’s controls cover the platform: who can be found, who can be contacted, and what happens when something is reported. If you believe a child is at immediate risk, contact the police first — then report the account to us.

6. Reporting a Concern to Us

To report a safeguarding concern about an account or an interaction on SquadLock, use the in-app Reportbutton on the player’s profile, or contact us through the support page — the “Report a safety concern” category is routed straight to the safety inbox. You do not need a SquadLock account to use it, so parents and guardians can report directly. Reports are reviewed by a human, child-safety reports are prioritised ahead of everything else, and we will involve the relevant authorities where the law requires it.

7. Changes to This Policy

When we change how these protections work, we will update this page and its effective date. The controls described here are enforced in our systems — where this page and the product ever disagree, we treat that as a bug and fix it.

See also our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.