SocialSession
Age Eligibility
SocialSession is designed only for adults age 18 and older.
The platform minimum is 18 and applies everywhere, to everyone. Some Meetups carry a higher minimum: anything centred on alcohol is limited to members 21 and older, and a venue may impose its own requirement on top of that. This page explains how we apply both, what we do and do not claim about them, and what happens when someone under 18 is found.
Why 18 for the platform, and 21 for some Meetups
SocialSession puts adults in a room with strangers they met on the internet. The platform minimum is legal adulthood: 18. Below that we are not the right product, and the account is removed.
A single platform-wide number could not stay honest, though, because the venues members meet at differ. Many public places where adults gather are themselves 21+, and a Meetup built around alcohol cannot lawfully include someone who is 19. So the age rule has two levels rather than one.
Alcohol-centred Meetups are limited to members 21 and older. That is decided by our server from what the Meetup actually describes, not by a host ticking a box: a host cannot label a brewery tour as something else and open it to 19-year-olds, and a host who is under 21 cannot create one at all. A restricted Meetup is filtered out of discovery for members who are not eligible, so it is not merely hidden in the app.
This is a boundary line, not a theme: see what SocialSession is not below. A venue may also enforce its own rules, which are always the venue’s to set.
How age is checked, precisely
We want to be exact about this, because the difference matters.
| What we do | What we do not do |
|---|---|
| Require a date of birth at sign-up and compute whether it shows age 18 or older. A date below 18 cannot create an account. The same date decides eligibility for 21+ Meetups. | We do not check a government ID. |
| Require a verified email address — you must open the link we send before the account is usable. | We do not use biometrics, face estimation, or any age-assurance vendor. |
| Record your 18+ self-attestation together with the version of the policies you accepted, and the time you accepted them. | We do not run background or criminal checks. |
| Act on member reports of suspected underage accounts. | We do not describe any member as "verified", "ID checked", or "background checked", and we never will unless a real, tested and contracted verification provider is live. |
So: a SocialSession account proves that someone controls an email address and declared an adult date of birth. It does not prove who they are. Treat every member as the stranger they are, meet in public, and use the safety controls.
What happens if someone under 18 is found
- The account is removed, along with its profile, photos, listings, chat, Nearby presence and push registrations. We do not "downgrade" or restrict it and we do not wait for an appeal.
- Meetups it was hosting are cancelled, and its presence is removed from discovery immediately.
- We keep only the minimum record needed to stop the account being recreated and to meet legal obligations.
- Anything suggesting a minor has been sexualised, solicited, or endangered is treated as the highest-severity case on the queue and escalated ahead of everything else, including to law enforcement where appropriate.
To report a suspected underage account: use Report on their profile in the app, or email info@socialsessionapp.com. Do not confront the person, investigate them, contact them off-platform, or publish anything about them. If a child is in immediate danger, call 911.
What SocialSession is — and is not
It is a way for adults to plan small meetups at named public venues around conversation, hobbies, friendship, activity partners, shared interests, and optional mutually disclosed dating interest.
It is not a swipe-based dating or hookup app, an anonymous chat app, a marketplace, or a place to buy, sell, source, deliver, arrange pickup of, advertise or promote tobacco, cannabis, vaping products, alcohol, or any other regulated product. Those are prohibited by the Community Standards and enforced against.
SocialSession does not sell, serve, depict, reference favourably, or reward the use of any regulated product. It does not encourage drinking or smoking, it carries no tobacco or alcohol branding or advertising, and it makes no health, treatment or cessation claim of any kind. The age rules exist because of who the community is for and where it meets, not because of anything the app promotes.
App Store age rating
SocialSession contains user-generated content and member-to-member messaging. In the App Store Connect questionnaire we answer yes to both, and we apply a developer age-rating override to 17+ (18+ under Apple's newer rating scale) so the store rating cannot land below the audience the product is actually built for.
The store rating is Apple's rating of the app's content. It is not our eligibility rule. Our platform rule is 18+, enforced at sign-up and in the Terms of Service, and alcohol-centred Meetups are further limited to 21+, enforced by the server on discovery, joining, invitations and hosting.
Being eligible is not the same as being permitted
Meeting the SocialSession age requirement does not mean any particular activity is lawful, permitted at a venue, or a good idea. Venues set their own rules, hours, accessibility and admission policies, and local law applies regardless of what any listing says. Confirm with the venue, and follow the law.
Questions
Email info@socialsessionapp.com. Support cannot bypass the age requirement, change a recorded date of birth to create eligibility, or reinstate an account removed for being underage.