What is child mode?

In a family circle, a guardian can designate a member as a child. Their account stays a normal Fenzly account, with its own keys and its own data, but the app applies guardrails:

• the child communicates and shares only with the members of their family circles, plus the contacts a guardian explicitly allowed;
• they cannot create a circle, invite anyone, add a contact, or leave by themselves the circle they are a child in;
• an invitation or a message from anyone else is blocked before it even reaches them, and the guardian sees those attempts;
• in each circle, a guardian chooses which position sharing modes the child can use;
• the child keeps the SOS button, which alerts their guardians.

Child mode does not lock sharing. The child can always stop sharing their position, their guardians can choose to be told when that happens, and nothing a guardian does turns a child’s sharing on remotely: a guardian can only ask them to resume. Three questions cover this in detail: What can a guardian decide about a child’s position sharing?, Can a child stop sharing their position? and My child stopped sharing their position: how am I told, and what can I do?.

Designating a child requires parental consent: a code sent by SMS to the guardian’s verified number. Fenzly keeps only a receipt of that consent (identifiers, method, date) so it can be demonstrated, never the names or the composition of the family. The child’s positions stay end-to-end encrypted like everyone else’s.

Fenzly does not know the members’ ages: child mode ends when a guardian removes the designation, and not before. The guide Turning on child mode details the steps.