Frequently Asked Questions

Download VerseLab on iOS or Android and tap Sign Up. You'll set a username, enter your date of birth, and confirm your email — that's it, you're in.

Yes — VerseLab is free to download and free to use, including for clubs and VerseLab Campus. Season Pass and optional add-ons (frames, Creator Pack) are available for anyone who wants extra features, but they're never required to write, publish, or take part in the community.

Text poems in a wide range of styles (Haiku, Sonnet, Free Verse, and more), spoken-word pieces with video, Versify word-collage art, and VerseLibs fill-in-the-blank prompts. You can also collaborate with others through Slams and Relays.

When you sign up, we ask for your date of birth. On supported devices, we also offer to confirm your age through your Apple ID or Google Play account — this is called an "Age Signal." It uses Apple's or Google's own systems, so VerseLab never asks for or stores a government ID. If Age Signal isn't available on your device, we rely on the date of birth you entered.

You must be at least 13 to use VerseLab. If you're between 13 and 17, we automatically turn on extra protections for your account the moment you sign up — nothing to configure yourself.

• Private by default: only approved friends can see the profile and poems.
• Messages limited to mutual follows: someone can only send a DM if both accounts follow each other — this blocks messages from strangers.
• Hidden from public discovery: the profile is excluded from Suggested Users, public search, and Nearby.
• Content filtering locked on: the offensive-language filter is switched on and can't be turned off while under 18.

During sign-up, we ask for a parent or guardian's email address and send them a one-time link to confirm they're aware of the account. The status — Not set, Pending, or Verified — is visible anytime from Settings → Parental Controls in the app, and the email can be resent if needed. This is a notification and confirmation step: it doesn't restrict the account while it's pending, since the protections above are already active automatically regardless.

Click the confirmation link in the email we send you; that marks the account Verified. The protections listed above are already active as soon as the account was created — there's nothing further to set up on your end. If you have questions or concerns about your child's account or content they've encountered, email support@verselabapp.com with the subject line "Parental Inquiry" and our Safety Team will follow up.

You can also pair this with your device's own tools — Apple Screen Time or Google Family Link — for time limits alongside VerseLab's built-in protections.

No — these protections are tied to date of birth and can't be disabled by the account holder while they're under 18. Messaging restrictions and content filtering stay on regardless of any other privacy setting changes.

See our Child Safety Protection Policy for the complete, detailed standards, and our Privacy Policy for how we handle data generally.

You choose Public or Friends-only for each poem from the ••• menu. You can also switch your whole account to Private Account in Settings so only approved friends see your profile and posts.

Open the ••• menu on any piece of content or profile and choose Report or Block. Blocking hides that person's content from your feed immediately, and you can review or undo blocks anytime from Settings → Blocked Users.

Use the in-app report flow (••• → Report → "Child safety or exploitation"), our web report form, or email support@verselabapp.com. See the full Child Safety Protection Policy for details on how reports are handled.

A Slam is a head-to-head challenge decided by community voting. A Relay is collaborative, not competitive — two poets take turns building one shared piece, with no winner and no voting.

Clubs are spaces for groups who enjoy poetry together — public, public-with-approval, or private. Club admins can run Group Slams, host events, and manage membership. See our VerseLab Campus page for how clubs work in a classroom setting.

An ad-free experience, profile customization, Season Pass–exclusive competitions and Mastery Tracks, expanded portfolio tools, and chapbooks. Purchases are made through the iOS App Store or Google Play; manage or cancel from your device's store settings.

Receipts are issued by Apple or Google, and refunds are subject to their respective policies — VerseLab doesn't process payments directly.

Email support@verselabapp.com with a description of the issue and, if possible, a screenshot. For account-specific help, include your username so we can look things up quickly.