How can I make an account for my child who is under 13 years of age?

Modified on Thu, 31 Jul at 11:13 AM

Visitors 12 years of age and younger must obtain an adult's permission before submitting any personal information to iNaturalist (see our Privacy Policy).  


The only way for iNaturalist to obtain legal permission from the child's parent or guardian is for that parent or guardian to make a child account at this page: https://www.inaturalist.org/user_parents/new


The process should only take a few minutes but does require a US$1 donation via a credit or debit card to confirm you are an adult. 


If we find that an account is owned by someone 12 years of age or younger and we are not able to obtain their parent or guardian's permission withon a resonable time frame, the account will be indefinitely suspended.


Before making an iNaturalist account for your child, consider having them try Seek by iNaturalist instead, which is designed for young people and does not share any data by default. If you do make an iNaturalist account for your child, please remember that all iNaturalist observations are public records of where someone was at a certain time and place. You may want to use our geoprivacy options for observations made near your home or any place the child regularly visits.


If you are an educator, please read the iNaturalist Educator's Guide before using iNaturalist with your students.

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