YanMateYanMate is open from 13, and we assume young people are here rather than pretending they are not. This page is what that assumption actually changes — what a 13-to-17 account cannot reach, what is switched off for it, and what we do not collect.
It is written for two readers at once: a young person who wants to know what is different for them, and a parent or regulator who wants to know whether the answer is real. Both should be able to check it against the product.
The line we draw, and why it is that one
No relational or romantic companions under 18. Not a softened version, not a "clean" version — the persona itself is the boundary.
That is the whole safety model, and it is a deliberate rejection of the alternative. A romance written without explicit content is still a romance, and a thirteen-year-old forming an attachment to one is the harm, not the vocabulary it uses. So the split is by what a character is for, and it runs in the database rather than as a filter over the results: an account that has not declared an adult age does not receive those characters from any surface that returns characters.
Everything else is open. Mentors, coaches, practice partners, fictional archetypes, study and language companions, characters to think out loud with — a 15-year-old is a legitimate user of this product who simply never meets a romance in it.
What is different for a 13-to-17 account
| Under 18 | 18 and over | |
|---|---|---|
| Relational and romantic companions | Not reachable, anywhere | Reachable |
| The rest of the catalogue | Everything | Everything |
| Personalised advertising, if ads ever launch | Off, and cannot be turned on | Off unless you turn it on |
| Distress protocol | Active | Active |
| Content screening | Identical | Identical |
| Export and delete | Identical | Identical |
What we ask, and what we keep
We ask for a birth year at sign-up. Not a full date of birth — we never need the day, so we do not collect it.
- If the year puts you below the minimum where you live, the account is refused. We then delete the year and keep only the fact that somebody was turned away.
- We do not ask for an identity document, a selfie, or a face scan, and we hold no biometric data on anybody.
- This is a declared age, not a verified one, and we will not describe it as more than it is. What backs it up is the catalogue split above and a classifier that watches the conversation.
If a conversation reads as under-age
If something in a conversation reads as though the account holder is below the minimum age, the session ends and the account goes on hold rather than continuing. Nothing is deleted, export keeps working, and a person settles it — the detail is in how old you have to be.
We would rather stop a conversation we were wrong about than continue one we were right about.
What is designed in, not bolted on
Several things that a code of practice for children asks for are here because of what the product is, not because a rule required them:
- No engagement design. No streaks, no guilt at leaving, no notifications manufactured to pull you back. Companions are written against a banned-phrase list that refuses "don't go", "you never talk to me" and everything in that family — and it applies to characters other people publish too.
- A companion is never a rival to your real life. Persona rules require them to be supportive of friends, family and plans outside the app.
- High privacy by default. Nothing is public unless you publish it, we sell nothing, and we train on nothing you write.
- Crisis handling. If something you write reads as distress, the companion drops the scene and offers real resources rather than playing on.
- The AI says it is an AI, and keeps saying so.
Parents and carers
If you believe an account belongs to a child below the minimum age for your country, email support@yanmate.com and we will act on it — the account is refused and its data deleted, not just suspended.
If you want to know what your child's account holds, the export is the honest answer and it belongs to the account holder. We are not going to build a surveillance channel into a product whose whole subject is a private conversation; what we will do is act on an under-age report, and answer a parent's question about how the service works.
Incomplete — pending. Whether a formal children's risk assessment must be published, and in which markets, is decided with the launch markets. The assessment itself exists as an internal working document.