Junior teams: what we publish about under-18s and what we never do
Players on a junior team are shown publicly as a first name and an initial, like Leo S., their photos are kept out of search engines with their location removed, and no child ever gets a player page or an account. A club marks a team as junior on its Squad tab, and a scorer can mark any match with Players are under 18.
What a stranger can find, and what they cannot.
The real before and after slider, over two drawings of one ground.
In short
- Names are shortenedOn a junior side, public pages show a first name and an initial. The club still sees names in full.
- Photos stay out of searchJunior photos are kept out of search engines, and no child's name is in their description.
- No location in any photoEvery photo is re-encoded before anyone sees it, which strips the location stored inside it.
- No child pages or accountsA child is a name on a squad, never a player page, and accounts are for adults.
- Unknown means juniorA side nobody has marked as adult is treated as junior, because that is the safer mistake.
- Two switches mark itThis is a junior team on a team's Squad tab, or Players are under 18 on a match's Line-up tab.
What a stranger can find
Match pages are public on purpose: that is what makes a link work in a group chat. The risk with children is not a parent following the score. It is a stranger searching for one particular child and finding a name, a face and a place together. Every rule below is there to break that search, while keeping the page useful for the people it is for.
What we publish, and what we never do
- Names are shortened. On a junior side, every public page shows a first name and an initial, like Leo S.. A parent still knows who that is; a stranger cannot search for them. The scorer and the club still see the names as typed.
- Photos stay out of search. A junior team's photos are served with a rule that tells search engines not to index them, and no child's name is ever written into a photo's description.
- No location in any photo. Every photo is re-encoded before anybody can see it, which removes the location a phone stores inside it. A ground's pin is rounded to the block, never a house.
- No player pages, no accounts. A child is a name on a squad. They never get a page of their own, and an account is for adults only.
- No vote on a child, nothing on the image. Player of the match is never asked on a junior side, and a junior match's share image leaves out its kickoff and ground.
- Nothing to browse. There is no search for players or matches, so nobody can list every match a child played in.
- Removal comes first. Report a photo and it is taken down first and discussed after, whatever the club's plan.
When nobody has said, we assume junior. A side the club has not marked as adult is treated as junior. Getting that wrong costs a search result; getting it the other way costs a child's name in a search engine.
Mark a team or a match
A club marks a team on the team's Squad tab with This is a junior team. Everybody in the squad is marked, and anybody added later.
A match no club has kept is marked by its scorer: on the Line-up tab, turn on Players are under 18. Viewers then see first names and an initial.
Questions people ask
About junior teams and under-18s.
Who counts as junior?
Anybody on a team the club has marked as junior, and anybody on a side the club has not said is adult. When it is not known, the safer answer is used.
Can a child have an account?
No. Accounts are for adults. A child is a name on a squad and nothing more.
Are junior photos shown at all?
Yes, on the match page for the people following it. They are kept out of search engines, carry no location and never have a child’s name in their description.
How do I get a photo taken down?
Use Report a photo on it. Removal is honoured first, whatever the club’s plan.
Is a junior match hidden?
No. The score and the page are public like any other match. What changes is how names and photos are published.
What else it does for you
- Live scoringFreeScore from your phone with big buttons, ball by ball or goal by goal, and undo any tap.
- One live linkFreeSend one read-only link to the group. It updates live, and nobody needs an app or an account.
- Result and fixture cardsFreeA picture of the fixture or the result, sized for a WhatsApp Status, Instagram or Facebook.