Yes, an age restriction that prohibits users under 16 from using Unibuddy can be put in place.

PLEASE NOTE: If you would like to turn on the age verification feature, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager who can then facilitate this on your behalf.

This feature was created through a direct integration with Kids Web Services (KWS).

To see what the Prospect sign up flow will look like once the age verification/restriction feature has been turned by your CSM, see below:

When a user tries to initiate a chat with a Student or Staff Ambassador or they try to sign up, they would then be prompted by an age verification page:

When the user inputs their date of birth (DOB), that data along with their location based on the IP address will be sent to KWS.

KWS then sends a response based on the age laws of that location and whether the access should be denied or not.

If KWS determines that the age laws don't permit the user from accessing the Unibuddy platform, the user will see an "Access Denied" screen:

If access is granted, the user will then follow the normal sign up flow.

Or, the user will see the Email Verification screen if this has been enabled by the University:

PLEASE NOTE: Age of consent varies by country. Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Slovakia, and The Netherlands are expected to maintain the GDPR age of consent at 16 years of age. Austria has officially adopted its GDPR implementation and the age of consent is 14 years old. The United Kingdom, Spain, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ireland, Latvia, Poland, and Sweden are expected to have an age of consent at the minimum: 13 years old. Finland and France are still uncertain: Finland will likely end up between 13 and 15 and France will be either 15 or 16.