How We’re Making Stamplo Even Safer: Trust Signals and Parent Verification

Update (Nov 2025): As Stamplo grows across more than 30 countries, we’re strengthening the tools that give parents full clarity and control. Today, we’re introducing two major safety enhancements: Trust Signals on incoming pen-pal requests and optional Parent Identity Verification.

Pen pal friendships help children build empathy, curiosity, and confidence — but only when they take place in a trusted environment that puts parents in control. Many families told us they wanted more clarity before approving a match, so we built two new tools designed to give parents exactly that.

Why We Built Trust Signals

Before this update, parents only had a family's written introduction to base their decision on. Many told us they wished they could understand a little more about who was sending the request.

To support that, incoming pen-pal requests now include a clear, friendly Account Information panel that adds important context while keeping every family fully private.

What parents can now see:

• How long the family has been a member
• How many active pen pals they have
• Their acceptance rate (accepted vs. sent requests)
• Any recent declines (shown gently and without judgment)
• Their Trust Level (new, active, established)

These insights help parents quickly understand a family’s activity and reliability — without revealing any private details. It supports informed parental oversight and strengthens the Integrity element of the CIA triad.

Introducing Parent Identity Verification

We've also added Parent Identity Verification — a quick, optional identity check that confirms a real adult parent or guardian is behind the account. As Stamplo has grown, we identified this as an important way to further reduce risk and strengthen trust between families on the platform.

Parent Identity Verification helps us:

• Confirm that an adult parent or guardian is managing the family account
• Reduce the risk of impersonation or fake parent profiles
• Give families greater confidence when accepting new pen-pal requests
• Align more closely with ICO Children's Code guidance on assurance
• Improve overall safeguarding across the Stamplo community

The process is encrypted, privacy-conscious, and designed with data minimisation in mind. Only a simple verification status is retained — no identity documents are stored on our servers.

Built With (and For) Parents

Every improvement on Stamplo comes from listening to families. Our mission remains the same: to give children a joyful, global pen-pal experience while keeping parents fully informed, fully involved, and fully empowered.

Trust Signals and Parent Verification are the next steps toward an even safer, more transparent Stamplo for everyone.