Age policy and under-13s

What each age policy does, why a race can't be released without one, and how under-13s' medals are kept private.

Every race has an age policy, set under Who takes part in the race's settings. It tells Breaktape whether children might be taking part, so it knows which medals must stay private. Children's safety comes first: under-13s never get a public medal page.

The four policies

Policy	Choose it when	What happens to medals
Adults only	Everyone taking part is 18 or over.	Everyone is treated as an adult. Medals can be public.
Mixed ages	Under-18s may take part, such as a family 5k.	Breaktape reads each runner's age from their category. Adults' medals can be public. Under-18s' medals start private. Under-13s' medals are always private and kept by a guardian.
Junior race	The race is for young people.	Every medal starts private. Under-13s' medals are kept by a guardian.
Not decided yet	You don't know yet.	You can save the race and import results, but no medals can be released until you choose.

Why "Not decided yet" blocks release

Breaktape won't guess. If a race's policy isn't set, the race card on the event's page shows Can't release medals yet, and the race's medals page says "Set the age policy for this race first." Your Overview page also lists it under Needs you in the run-up to race day.

To fix it, open Race settings, choose a policy under Who takes part and select Save changes. The medals are then ready to check and release.

How ages are read

In a Mixed ages race, Breaktape reads age from the category column in your file:

Categories like U11 or U13 mean under 13.
Categories like U15, U17 or U18 mean 13 to 17.
Senior and veteran categories, like SEN, V40 or F35, mean adult.

Anything unclear, such as "Junior" or a blank category, is treated as unknown, and that medal starts private. It's always safer to be private by mistake than public by mistake.

Under-13s

The medal is always private. It has no public page, and it can't be shared or made public by anyone.
A guardian keeps it. The medal email goes to the address in your entry list, usually a parent's. Whoever keeps the medal from that email holds it for the child in their own trophy cabinet.
Children never get an account. The guardian manages the medal and its privacy.
The medal still verifies. Anyone checking it sees that it's genuine, without the child's details.

Finishers aged 13 to 17 get a medal that starts private. Once they've kept it, they can choose to make it public themselves.

Good to know

Only choose Adults only if you're sure. In an Adults only race, everyone is treated as an adult whatever their category says, so medals can be public.
Ask your timing company to include age categories in the results file for mixed-age races. Without them, every medal in that race starts private.
Changing the policy after medals are issued only affects medals made from then on.
Any finisher can make their own medal more private at any time.

Still stuck?

Email support@breaktape.com and tell us which guide you were reading.