Tennis Ladder takes junior safety seriously, and several protections are built in rather than optional.
Junior leagues are walled off. Players, results and match details in a junior league are only visible to approved members of that league and the club's organisers — never to the public, other adults at the club, or search engines.
Names are protected. Where junior names could appear in shared or public places, they're masked server-side — this isn't a setting anyone can switch off by accident.
Juniors playing in adult events. When an under-18 plays in an adult tournament, club night or One Point Slam, signed-in members of the club see their full name. Anyone else, including someone signed out, from another club or opening a shared link, sees their first name and initial (like "Ellis W."). The same goes for results, the Hall of Fame, the club TV screen and live scoreboards, and anything shared out of the app always uses the first name and initial. Junior members are recognised automatically. For a player typed in by name, the organiser ticks "Under 18" on the tournament's Organiser tab.
Partnering a junior in a tournament. A member can pick a junior as their doubles partner only if the junior's parent has allowed games with adults (More → Family), the same switch that covers adult/junior friendlies. Juniors aged 16 and over can allow it themselves. Organisers can place a junior in a pair for their own event. Either way, the junior is marked as under 18 automatically, and tournament emails go to their parent.
Age and gender eligibility is enforced when joining: a junior can't join an adult league (and vice versa) without meeting the league's rules.
Date of birth (juniors only). When a junior joins, their parent or guardian gives the player's date of birth. It's used for exactly three things: verifying age, applying the right protections for their age, and switching junior protections off automatically when they turn 16. It's never shown to anyone — not other members, not organisers — and it never appears in the app.
Growing up is automatic. On a junior's 16th birthday their account graduates to Adult: junior protections lift and emails start going to the player instead of their guardian. No one has to remember to do it. (Profiles without a date of birth on file are moved by the club organiser instead, who verifies age first.) About four weeks before, the parent or guardian gets a heads-up email (and Your family shows "turns 16 in "), so it's never a surprise. On the day they're told again: you stop playing for them, they leave Your family, and everything they've earned (badges, certificates, results) stays with them. If the player doesn't have their own email address on file yet, that email carries the player's personal sign-in link to pass on. When they open it, the app offers Make your account yours: they choose how to sign in from then on (Apple, Google, Microsoft or their email), and link that sign-in to their profile, even if it uses a different address. A parent's own sign-in can never take over their child's profile this way.
Contact details are never shown. No junior email or phone number is ever displayed to other members.
Messaging is guardian-controlled, with more independence from 16. An adult can never message a junior on Tennis Ladder — full stop, organisers included. Juniors can use match chat with other juniors when a match is on (a ladder challenge or a friendly between two juniors):
- Under 16: chat stays off until every player's parent or guardian has switched it on, and guardians receive a copy of every message by email.
- 16 and 17 (where we hold a date of birth): old enough to use match chat themselves — no guardian switch needed. Every other protection still applies.
- At every age: junior chat is juniors-only, phone numbers, links and social handles are blocked, chats are match-time only (no ongoing DMs), and anything can be reported to the club with one tap.
Junior friendlies stay private. Two juniors can arrange and log a friendly match, but the result is only visible to the players themselves, their junior group and the club's organisers — never in the club-wide results feed.
Friendlies with adults — the parent decides. A junior who plays up in an adult league can arrange friendly matches with adult members of that same league, but only after their parent or guardian switches it on (one tap in an email, or from More → Family in the app). What stays protected even then:
- No chat, ever — adults and juniors still can't message each other. Games are arranged by suggesting match times in the app.
- Match emails go to the parent, and the parent gets an email every time a game with an adult is arranged, with a one-tap link to switch the permission off again.
- These friendly results stay private, exactly like junior friendlies above.
GIFs and reactions across the whole platform run through a hard, G-rated content filter enforced on our servers — it can't be bypassed from a device. Anything that slips through can be reported with one tap and disappears immediately pending review.
Questions or concerns about a junior's account? Contact us and mark it urgent — safeguarding queries jump the queue.
Identity and guardian contact
A parent or guardian email is a contact route, not the child's sign-in identity. Two children may safely share the same guardian address: their player records, notifications and account deletion are kept separate. If a junior has their own email, it may be stored separately; otherwise the player email remains blank and messages route to the guardian.
A junior's own sign-in email is guardian-managed. A junior can be given their own email address purely so they can sign in themselves (to see their matches, send challenges and log results). That address is set by the parent or guardian — at sign-up, or later from More → Family in the guardian's own account — or by the club organiser. Juniors can't change their sign-in email themselves, and Tennis Ladder never sends email to a junior's own address: every email about a junior, including sign-in links and reminders, goes to the parent or guardian — even when the junior plays in an adult league.
Playing for your child
Most juniors don't have an email of their own, so the app lets a parent act for them. Sign in with the email you gave as guardian and you'll see your child's leagues alongside yours, with a note at the top saying you're acting as them. From your own login you can challenge, accept, set a time and log or confirm results for your child. Chat and profiles stay the child's own; every message and notification still comes to you as guardian.
It's on automatically until your child signs in with a login of their own (adding their email isn't enough to hand over: they have to actually sign in). Under More → Family you can switch it off per child, or connect the child's own sign-in email if they're old enough to run things themselves.
Where to find your child: tap your own picture (top right). Your profile has a Your family card. With one child you see their leagues straight away; with more, tap a child to see their leagues, badges and settings. Add a child at the bottom of the card signs another child up: the form starts on Junior with your details already filled in as their parent. Tap the league and it opens with you acting for them: who to play next, their challenges, logging results. The same card is under More → Family. You never sign out and back in as your child; you stay you. Buttons in emails about your child sign you in (not your child), straight to the right screen.
Your child's character. Children choose a cartoon character for their avatar (never a photo). Tap their face under Your family, or More → Family → Character, pick a style and a character, and save. Great fun to do together.
Family settings live under More → Family: each child's leagues, badges, character, parents and permissions (Play as, match chat, adult friendlies) as simple switches.
Two parents? Under More → Family, tap your child and use Parents → Invite with the other parent's email. Once they accept, they manage your child from their own login and get their match emails too. Either of you can remove the second parent there at any time.
Just managing, not playing yourself? That works too. A strip under the top bar says Acting for on every screen, and your picture stays yours. Tap it to see your family. Want to play as well? Join a league myself is on the same card.
Your child's badges and certificates
Everything your child earns — match badges like First win, milestones, new levels and monthly honours such as Junior Player of the Month, Junior Most Active and Junior Hot Streak — belongs to your child, not to you, even when you manage them from your own login.
Where to find them: tap your picture (or open More → Family), then Badges & certificates under your child's name. Their profile opens on Achievements, with every badge they hold and a certificates card underneath: any monthly honour or milestone comes with a printable certificate (print it, or save it as a PDF). The badge count on that row shows how many they have.
You'll hear about it: when your child earns a new badge we email you (and, if you're a member yourself, send a notification to your phone — never late at night). The button in the email goes straight to their Achievements. Monthly honours for juniors are emailed to the parent or guardian only — no club-wide announcement ever names a child, and when two juniors tie for an honour it's shared between them without naming the other child.
Junior certificates are for the fridge, not for social media: the app doesn't offer a public share card for a child's award.
Badges for trying, not just winning. Some badges reward playing well, so a tough loss still earns something: First match, Fighter (won a set in a match they lost), Close call, Tiebreak hero and more. You'll hear about these too.
Ball levels: red, orange, green, yellow
Young players learn with slower, lower-bouncing balls on smaller courts, moving up a colour as they grow: red (usually 8 and under, small court), orange (9 and under, ¾ court), green (10 and under, full court) and then the normal yellow ball. A junior league can be set to the ball it's played with. You'll see it on the league ("Orange ball") and on your child's profile.
Each colour comes with a badge: your child earns Red ball, Orange ball or Green ball the first time they play a match at that level, and Yellow ball when they've come up through the colours to the full ball. They're on their profile under Ball levels.
Leagues with a hidden table
Some junior leagues, often the youngest groups, keep the table hidden until finals day. Your child just plays: there are no positions, no win–loss record and no ups and downs on show to anyone.
- Open the league and you'll see Who to play next: three children your child can play, starting with ones they haven't met yet. Tap Challenge to arrange a match, or Log a result after you've played.
- You see your own child's results. Other parents don't, and you don't see theirs.
- Every match still counts, and earns badges, win or lose.
- On finals day (the date shows on your screen) the organiser reveals the final table, and we email you to come and look. Then they crown the winner. The next season starts hidden again.
- The monthly recap email counts matches played and badges, not wins.
Organisers and the league's coaches can always see the full table.
From the coach
Your child's coach (the club's organisers, such as the people who run the junior groups) can:
- Give a badge they choose: Coach's Star, Fair Play, Most Improved or Great Partner, often with a few words ("Great attitude today!").
- Leave a note on a match: what went well, and one thing to work on.
Who can read them: your child, you, and the club's organisers. Nobody else. Other members can see that your child has a badge, but never the coach's words or notes. You'll get an email when the coach gives a badge or leaves a note. The badges are on your child's Achievements, and notes sit under the match on their Results. A coach can take a badge back if it was given by mistake.