When you add a young athlete, Planner.coach asks for verifiable parental or guardian consent before the profile can be saved. The age threshold and the rules around revoking consent vary by country -- the platform handles the regional differences for you, so you don't have to memorise them.
Which rules apply to you
A few examples of what the platform is doing in the background:
- United States -- COPPA. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act requires verifiable parental consent for children under 13. If an athlete is US-based and under 13, Planner.coach also treats a guardian-revoked consent as an instruction to wipe the record immediately (see Revoking consent below).
- United Kingdom & EU -- GDPR-K and the ICO Age Appropriate Design Code. The UK and EU child-data rules expect parental involvement for younger children and "data protection by default" for everyone under 18. Planner.coach follows this with a 30-day nudge and 90-day flag on guardian-revoked records (see Revoking consent).
- Other countries. If no specific regulation applies in your country, treat parental consent as best practice for any athlete under 13. The platform's defaults give you the audit trail you'll want either way.
How age gating works
When you enter a date of birth during athlete creation, the platform works out the athlete's age. If they're under the consent threshold (13 by default), a parental consent section appears in the form before you can save.
You don't need to remember the rules -- the check fires automatically whenever you enter a date of birth.
Two consent paths
You can collect parental consent in whichever way suits your club's workflow.
Email the guardian
- Enter the guardian's name and email address.
- Save the athlete profile -- Planner.coach sends a secure consent request email automatically.
- The guardian opens the email, reviews the consent details, and grants consent on a secure page.
- You'll see the consent status update on the athlete's profile once the guardian responds.
When you're working in a team workspace, the consent email is attributed to the team name rather than your personal coaching account.
Record offline consent
If you already have consent on paper or collected it in person, choose the offline path instead:
- Select the method used -- printed form, in-person signature, existing club registration, or other.
- Enter the guardian's name, phone number, and the date consent was obtained.
- Optionally upload a scan of the signed document (PDF or image, up to 10 MB).
- Save -- the consent is recorded immediately with no email required.
This is useful for clubs that already collect paper forms at registration days, tryouts, or camps.
Consent statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Required | Athlete is under age and no consent has been requested yet |
| Pending | Email sent to guardian, awaiting response |
| Granted | Guardian accepted; the athlete profile is fully active |
| Expired | The consent request expired without a response |
| Revoked | Consent was withdrawn, either by the coach or by the guardian from their completion receipt |
Managing consent after creation
Once an athlete profile exists, you can manage their consent status from the athlete's profile page. The Parental Consent card shows the current status along with the guardian's details.
Actions by status
- Pending -- Resend the email reminder or cancel the request.
- Granted -- Download a PDF record of the consent or revoke it if circumstances change.
- Revoked or Expired -- Record new consent using either the email or offline path.
Revoking consent
Consent can be withdrawn from either side -- by you on the consent card, or by the guardian themselves from the receipt link they keep after they grant consent. Once revoked, the consent itself can't be undone; if you need it back, you collect fresh consent.
What happens to the athlete record after a revoke depends on who revoked it and where the athlete is.
You revoke from the consent card. Click Revoke, give a reason, and the consent flips to revoked. The athlete record stays in your roster -- a guardian withdrawing permission to process doesn't always mean the data has to be deleted that minute. Take a look at whether you have a separate basis for keeping it (a continuing safeguarding concern, an outstanding bill, a season already in progress) and either keep the record or use Delete athlete to scrub it. See Removing an athlete profile for the destructive path.
The guardian self-revokes from their receipt link. The guardian gets a confirmation page and you get an email letting you know. What happens next depends on where the athlete is:
- United States, athlete under 13 (COPPA). The athlete's personal data is wiped immediately, in the same request. This is a US legal obligation that falls on Planner.coach as the operator -- it isn't optional, and it isn't something you have to do yourself. The email you receive will tell you the record was already deleted; there's nothing further to action.
- Everywhere else. The record stays in place and the email asks you to open the athlete profile and either delete it or document why you're keeping it. The decision is yours, but it's yours to make -- it doesn't go away on its own.
The 30-day nudge (UK ICO best practice). If a guardian-revoked record sits with no action for 30 days, Planner.coach emails you and the team owner once as a reminder. This is the "data protection by default" fallback that the UK Information Commissioner's Office Age Appropriate Design Code expects -- it's not a punishment, it's a tripwire so things don't quietly drift. We apply it globally, since it's a sensible safety net everywhere.
The 90-day flag. If nothing has happened by 90 days, the record is flagged for review by Planner.coach staff and we'll get in touch directly. Outside the US-under-13 case above, we don't delete it for you -- we just want to understand why the consent gap is open and help you unblock it.
The audit trail records every step of this -- the revoke itself, the reminder email if it fires, and the eventual delete (whoever performs it).
Bundling consent into an onboarding pack
If you're registering a new athlete and need parental consent alongside other paperwork -- a photo/video release, medical release, or code of conduct -- you can send it all in one go with an onboarding pack. The guardian receives a single email with a step-by-step wizard that includes parental consent as step 1.
Parental consent collected through a pack writes the same audit record as the standalone flow documented on this page, so there's no duplication or second set of records to manage. The standalone email and offline paths above still work for anyone who'd rather collect consent one athlete at a time.
Onboarding packs are available on Pro and Club plans.
Media consent
During athlete creation, you can also record photo and video consent preferences:
- Photo consent -- Whether the guardian has granted, denied, or not yet responded to photo usage.
- Video consent -- Whether the guardian has granted, denied, or not yet responded to video usage.
These fields appear in the athlete form regardless of age, but they're especially relevant when parental consent is required. The guardian's preferences are recorded alongside the parental consent for your records.
What gets recorded
Every consent action creates an audit trail. When a guardian accepts via email, Planner.coach captures:
- Guardian name and email
- The date and time of acceptance
- IP address and browser information
- The full consent text as presented
For offline consent, the record includes the guardian's name, phone number, the method of collection, the date obtained, and any uploaded scan.
Emergency contacts
The athlete form also supports up to five emergency contacts per athlete. Each contact includes a name, phone number, optional email, and relationship to the athlete (parent, guardian, sibling, or other). Emergency contacts are stored on the athlete profile and appear on registration forms and reports.
Emergency contact details, along with the athlete's date of birth, medical notes, email, and phone, are kept secure at rest. The guardian's name, email, and phone on every parental-consent record (email path or offline) are protected the same way. See Data Security and Retention for the full picture.
Related
- Managing Athlete Profiles -- Core profile fields, metrics, and groups.
- Onboarding Packs -- Bundle parental consent with other forms into a single guardian flow.
- Athlete Forms -- Digital consent and compliance forms for older athletes.
- Athlete Accounts -- Independent athlete and parent accounts.
- Data Security and Retention -- Encryption, the six-year retention sweep, and how to permanently remove an athlete record on guardian request.
- Data Processing Agreement -- The Article 28 contract club owners accept on first sign-in, covering controller/processor roles and sub-processors.