Terms of Service

These terms are the agreement between you and PenPalConnect. We have tried to write them the way we would explain them out loud, because terms nobody reads protect nobody. By creating an account you accept them.

1. Who we are

PenPalConnect is operated from Waterpas 19, 8253 LH Dronten, The Netherlands. Chamber of Commerce (KvK) 86255584, VAT ID NL004216201B82. You can reach us at [email protected].

2. Who may join

• You must be at least 13 years old.
• If you are between 13 and 17, you are placed in the under-18 community and will only ever see and write with other members under 18. You should have your parent or guardian's permission to be here.
• If you are 18 or over, you will only see and write with other adults.
• Students taking part through a school sign in with a class code and PIN issued by their teacher, and use a walled-garden version of the site.
• One person, one account. Accounts are personal and may not be shared, sold or transferred.
• If we have previously disabled your account, you may not create a new one.

3. Your account

Keep your password to yourself and tell us if you think someone else has got into your account. The information on your profile should be true — particularly your age and your country, because both decide who you are matched with. Pretending to be a different age is the one piece of dishonesty we treat as serious every single time, because it puts young members at risk.

4. What PenPalConnect is for

Friendship, language exchange, cultural discovery, travel talk, classroom exchanges and the plain pleasure of writing letters. That is the whole list.

PenPalConnect is not a dating site. There is deliberately no dating category, no romantic matching, and no "looking for a relationship" option. Members who use it that way are removed.

5. Community rules

While you are here, do not:

• harass, bully, threaten, stalk or intimidate anyone;
• send sexual content, or ask anyone for it — and never, under any circumstances, anything involving a minor;
• write to anyone in a sexual or romantic way, at all, if either of you is under 18;
• post hate speech, or attack people for their race, nationality, religion, disability, gender or sexuality;
• ask members for money, gifts, gift cards, cryptocurrency or bank details, or run any kind of scam, phishing or "emergency" story;
• advertise, recruit, spam, or promote a business, cause or other platform;
• impersonate someone else, or use photos that are not of you;
• share another member's letters, photos, address or identity outside PenPalConnect without their permission;
• post anything illegal, or anything encouraging self-harm or violence;
• scrape, automate, reverse-engineer or overload the service, or try to break its security.

Our Safety Centre explains how we enforce this and what to do if something happens to you.

6. Your content

Your letters, photos and profile text remain yours. You give us a limited licence to store them, process them technically (resizing a photo, for instance) and show them to the people you intend them for — your pen pals, and, for public parts of your profile, visitors to the site. That licence exists only to run the service, ends when you delete the content, and never allows us to sell your letters or use them in advertising.

You are responsible for what you upload, and you confirm you have the right to upload it.

7. Moderation and enforcement

Every profile photo is reviewed. Reports go to a human moderator. Depending on what we find, we may hide content, restrict features, flag an account for re-verification, or disable it entirely. Serious cases — anything involving a minor above all — are actioned immediately and, where appropriate, reported to the authorities.

If your account is disabled you will be told why, and you can appeal by email. We read every appeal, and we do reverse decisions when we get them wrong.

8. Blocking

Blocking is mutual and total: a blocked member cannot find your profile, cannot see you in discovery, and cannot write to you — and you no longer see them either. You never need a reason, and we never tell the other person.

9. Advertising

PenPalConnect is free, with no subscriptions or premium tiers. Public pages carry advertising through Google AdSense, which is how the service pays for itself. The signed-in app carries no advertising, and the classroom program is completely ad-free. See our Privacy Policy for how advertising cookies work and how to opt out.

10. Meeting in person, and sending post

Some of the best pen pal stories end with a visit. If you decide to exchange postal addresses or meet, that is entirely your decision and your risk to assess — we cannot vouch for anyone. Please read the Safety Centre first, tell someone you trust, and never send money.

11. Availability

We do our best to keep the site up, but it is offered as-is. We do not promise it will be uninterrupted or error-free, and we may change or discontinue features. If we ever shut the service down, we will give you notice and a way to export your letters.

12. Liability

To the extent permitted by Dutch law, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, for what other members write or do, or for anything that happens between you and another member offline. Nothing in these terms limits liability for intent, gross negligence, or anything else that cannot be limited by law — including your statutory rights as a consumer under EU law.

13. Ending your membership

You can delete your account at any time from your settings; it takes effect straight away. We may end your membership if you break these terms, or if the account has been dormant for a very long time — with notice, in that case.

14. Changes

We may update these terms. If a change is significant we will tell you by email or in the app before it takes effect, and continuing to use PenPalConnect afterwards means you accept it.

15. Law and disputes

Dutch law applies, and disputes go to the competent court in the Netherlands — without taking away the protection of the mandatory consumer law of the country you live in. Before it comes to that, please email us: nearly everything is solvable that way. EU consumers can also use the European Commission's online dispute resolution platform.