Children and safety

Thy Lantern is for people aged 13 and over. It is not directed to children under 13, and they should not create an account.

If you are 13 to 17, please use Thy Lantern with the knowledge and permission of a parent or guardian. In some countries the law sets a higher age, often 16, before a young person can agree to their data being processed on their own. If that applies where you live, a parent or guardian needs to agree for you.

Parents and guardians: you can talk with your teenager about which communities they join, and remember that private items such as their journal and mood check-ins are encrypted and not visible to other members. If you want your teenager's account closed, write to support@thylantern.com.

Being straightforward: the app does not currently ask for or verify your age at sign up. We are telling you that rather than implying a check that is not there. If you believe a child under 13 has an account, write to support@thylantern.com and we will close it and delete their information.

• Private to you: your journal, your personal prayer requests, your mood check-in, and your reflections. These are encrypted, and they are not readable by other members.
• Shared with a community: posts, comments, chat messages, prayer wall entries, and events, visible to the members of that community.
• Shared with the team you asked: a pastoral request goes to the chaplains or mentors you addressed it to, and once one of them replies, only to that person.

Anyone can report a message, post, or quiz question. Reports go to a queue that community leaders and the platform team work through, and the decisions are recorded.

Content is also screened automatically before it is shared. Something the screen refuses is not posted.

We may remove content, restrict an account, or close a community that breaks the Terms of Service.

You can block another member. A blocked member's posts stop reaching you, and they stop being able to notify you.

Announcements from a community itself, such as an event or a plan reminder, still reach you while you are a member, because missing those is how people miss what their circle is doing. If you want a quieter community, set its notification level, or leave it.

You can leave a community at any time.

Some prayer requests are urgent. The app looks for signs that someone may be in danger and moves that request to the front of the queue for the pastoral team. It never blocks the request, and it never hides it from the person who wrote it.

Access to that queue is limited to supervisors, chaplains and mentors, and every access is recorded.

Thy Lantern is not an emergency service. If you are in crisis or may be a danger to yourself or someone else, contact your local emergency services or a qualified professional immediately.

Write to support@thylantern.com. Tell us what you saw and where, and we will look into it.

If a child under 13, or a young person without the consent their local law requires, has given us information, say so in the message and we will remove it.