Reading and age
Reading is open without an account. We do not offer accounts to children under 13. If we learn that such an account exists, we stop participation and arrange a proportionate review, closure and deletion where required. Ages 13–17 require a parent or legal guardian’s authorization reviewed by our team before participation, in every country under our current operating policy.
What the representative authorizes
The representative must personally contact us through Private requests, select the guardian option and review Privacy Notice and Data Processing Policy, Terms of Use and Contribution Terms and Content Rights. We consider the adolescent’s opinion according to maturity and the child’s best interests. A checkbox, email address or assertion of parenthood alone does not prove legal authority. A reviewer verifies the relationship by a proportionate process, records the method and connects approval to one account and one policy version. Do not send identity documents through the public form. There is no instant automated parental approval.
Privacy by default
Use a non-identifying alias. Adolescent profiles, portraits, location and biography are not exposed through our public profile interface. Do not put a full name, school, address, routine, personal contact details or another child’s image in an alias or contribution. Comments are reviewed before publication; proposals need editorial admission. Signed-in accounts, including known adolescent accounts, receive no ad units, and we do not use account or contribution data for ad targeting. Public pages can show ads to anonymous readers whose age is unknown. Account registration never authorizes promotional use of an adolescent’s image. Optional marketing and identifier-based analytics on signed-in pages are disabled. GA4 counts anonymous public visits with first-party _ga cookies by default outside the EEA, United Kingdom and Switzerland. In those regions, or when the region cannot be verified, analytics cookies require your explicit choice. A saved rejection is respected everywhere. See Privacy Notice and Data Processing Policy.
Limits and ongoing review
Authorization permits only the described account processing and moderated contributions; it cannot validate an unlawful processing purpose or waive a child’s rights. Accounts identified as adolescent cannot switch themselves to an adult declaration. Request a review when age or representation changes. Material changes to participation policies need renewed approval. Representatives and adolescents may ask for access, correction, withdrawal or erasure through the same private channel. Removing a profile link does not remove previously copied or independently hosted material; specific URLs help us investigate.
Safety reports
Report harassment, grooming, threats, sexual exploitation, intimate images or exposure of a child’s personal details using the urgent option in Private requests. Do not upload or redistribute the images as evidence. Supply their location and minimum necessary explanation. Use the appropriate emergency service for immediate danger. We prioritize safety reports and apply required reporting and evidence-preservation rules.
Effective date: 2026-10-01.