Age Protection: minor-safety compliance built into your native apps

Written by Sergio Miranda Carvalho on Monday 8 June 2026

Protecting underage users is no longer optional. A growing number of laws now require apps to adapt their behavior to a user's age — and getting it wrong can mean removal from the stores. Age Protection builds that compliance straight into your native GoodBarber apps, with no code on your side. Here's how to turn it on, and what changes for your users.

The problem: staying compliant without building it yourself

Over the past few years, several countries — starting with the United States — have tightened the rules around protecting minors on digital platforms. These laws require apps to account for a user's age when deciding which features they can access. Any app that collects data, serves ads, or enables social interaction now has to apply specific restrictions whenever the user is a minor (under 16).

On a custom-built app, that's real work: age detection, conditional logic on every sensitive feature, and ongoing maintenance every time the law changes. With GoodBarber, age verification is built natively into your iOS and Android apps. You flip one switch; the rest follows.

How it works

Activation driven by local law

Age Protection only kicks in within territories where a law protecting minors is in force. In practice, Apple's and Google's SDKs only return an age range when the app is launched from one of those territories — Brazil or Texas, for example. Anywhere else, the operating system returns no information: the feature stays dormant and the user is treated as an adult, with no restrictions.

This logic is handled by the platforms themselves. The list of covered territories changes with the legislation, with no action required on your part.

Detecting the age range

In a covered territory, every time the app launches (when the feature is enabled), it automatically asks the operating system for the user's age range:

On iOS, this comes from Apple, via the user's App Store account.
On Android, it comes from Google Play.

If the check succeeds, the result is cached for future launches. If the user is in a covered territory but the platform can't return the information (no age on file, an outdated OS version, and so on), the app defaults to the restrictions for users aged 15 or under — so minors stay protected in every case.

Note: If Age Protection is disabled or absent from your build, the user is treated as an adult by default.

What happens for a minor (15 or under)?

Once a user is identified as a minor, the app automatically adjusts its behavior on several fronts:

No tracking, no third-party ads

Analytics, geolocation, and third-party ad services are switched off. The consent pop-up no longer appears, because there's nothing left to consent to.

Restricted access to comments

Comment buttons are greyed out and inactive. Minors can neither read nor post comments in the app.

Chat and user list locked

If your app includes a chat space or a user directory, an "Access restricted" screen takes its place. This keeps minors from exposing personal data in spaces designed for adults.

Parental approval for in-app purchases

If a minor tries to start an in-app subscription, parental approval is required before the purchase can go through.

Sign-up disabled

To protect personal data, minors can't create an account or log in. The sign-up button is disabled, and social login is hidden.

How to enable Age Protection on your app

You turn it on directly from your GoodBarber back office, in the Privacy Center section, under Age Verification.

Just flip the "Enable age verification" toggle and save. The module is automatically included in your next iOS and Android build.

Important: Any change to this setting triggers a build update. Remember to regenerate your mobile certificate if needed.

At a glance

Feature	Adult user (16+)	Minor (15 and under)
Tracking & analytics	✅ Active	❌ Disabled
Third-party ads	✅ Active	❌ Disabled
Geolocation	✅ Available	❌ Disabled
Consent pop-up	✅ Shown	❌ Hidden
Comments	✅ Available	❌ Greyed out
Chat & user list	✅ Available	🔒 Restricted screen
In-app purchases	✅ Direct	🔐 Parental approval
Sign-up / Login	✅ Available	❌ Disabled

Our part and yours

As a platform, GoodBarber has done the work to make its features compatible with Age Protection: tracking, ads, comments, chat, in-app purchases — each of these building blocks behaves correctly according to the detected age range.

What we don't control is the content published inside your app. The articles, media, sections, and services you offer are entirely your editorial responsibility. It's up to you, as the app's publisher, to make sure what you distribute suits your target audience — and to set your app's age rating correctly when you submit it to the App Store and Google Play Store.

Turning on Age Protection doesn't remove that responsibility: it's a technical safeguard, not a substitute for a sound content policy.

Age Protection is available right now for every native GoodBarber app. Turn it on in seconds from your back office, under Privacy Center → Age Verification, then regenerate your build — your app is compliant from its next update onward.