Child safety
Heartbeat is for families — grandkids, cousins, the people you'd hate to lose touch with. Children are meant to be here. This page is for the parents setting that up.
Keeping kids safe here is part of the deal everyone agrees to when they join (see the Code of Conduct). It isn't only something the site does for you — it's something the people on Heartbeat keep doing for each other.
How a child's account works
An account for a child under 16 is created by a parent or guardian from Settings › Family, using their own Heartbeat account. As the guardian you:
- approve every connection before it happens — nobody connects with your child without your OK;
- can see everything your child posts, and everything in their feed;
- can remove any connection at any time;
- can close the account instantly — they're signed out at once and everything is deleted within a day.
A child's posts don't take comments, their account has no location and no public reach, they can't create shareable invite links, and they never see ads. When they turn 16 the account becomes their own; a few limits stay until they're 18.
Someone 16 or 17
A 16- or 17-year-old signs up on their own. Their account still has no ads, no location, and no invite links, and their posts default to comments-off.
What Heartbeat does not do
There is no directory, no search by name, and no “people you may know.” The only way to reach anyone — child or adult — is with contact info you already have, or an invite link an adult chose to share. There is no behavioural profiling and no engagement-maximizing design.
Reporting a concern
Every post and comment has a quiet Report link. Choose “A child-safety concern” and it jumps to the top of the review queue. If you come across material that appears to sexually exploit a child, report it — Heartbeat preserves it and reports it to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), as United States law requires. You can also email the site owner directly.
Where Heartbeat is available
Sign-ups are limited to the United States for now, which keeps the rules Heartbeat has to follow clear and focused.