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Child Safety Standards

Last updated: 2026-10-16

NearbyLove is committed to preventing child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE) on our platform. We have zero tolerance for any content or behavior that exploits or endangers minors.

1. Our Commitment

We are dedicated to maintaining a safe environment free from child exploitation:

  • We comply with all applicable laws regarding child safety, including mandatory reporting requirements.
  • We actively monitor and remove any content that depicts, promotes, or facilitates child sexual abuse or exploitation.
  • We cooperate fully with law enforcement agencies investigating crimes against children.
  • We report identified child sexual abuse material to law enforcement or to the national body that receives such reports, as the applicable law provides. We keep the material and the records around it only for the period the authority or the applicable law requires or requests, isolated and not available through our normal administration tools, and delete it after that.

2. Age Requirements

  • NearbyLove is strictly for users aged 18 and older.
  • Users must confirm they are 18 or older during account registration.
  • We promptly remove accounts of any users found to be under 18.
  • We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18.

3. Prohibited Content and Behavior

The following is strictly prohibited on our platform:

  • Any content depicting minors in a sexual or exploitative manner.
  • Solicitation or grooming of minors.
  • Sharing or distributing child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
  • Any communication that seeks to exploit, harm, or endanger a child.

4. Automated Screening of Photos

Every photo uploaded to :app_name is checked before anyone can see it. This applies to profile photos and to photos sent in a chat.

  • An uploaded photo is written first to a private area that our web server cannot serve to anybody, and it is checked there. It is moved into place only after it passes. There is no moment where an unchecked photo has a working address.
  • A fingerprint of the photo is compared against the list of known child sexual abuse material maintained by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, through its Project Arachnid Shield service. Only the 32 byte fingerprint is sent. The photo itself never leaves our server.
  • A match stops the upload, and the material is not available through our normal administration tools. A match classified by Shield as known child sexual abuse material closes the account immediately, and we report it to the police or the national body that receives such reports and keep the material only for the period required or requested by that authority or by applicable law. A match classified as harmful-abusive material, which may not meet a criminal-law threshold, suspends the account while an authorized person reviews the match and the case; the suspension can be appealed, and if the review gives reasonable grounds to suspect child abuse, exploitation or another serious online harm to a child, we report it through the appropriate channel.
  • Photos are also checked automatically for sexual content. A photo the check is confident about is refused. A photo it is unsure about is held back and a person looks at it, rather than being published on a guess.
  • If the checking service cannot be reached, or answers something we do not understand, the photo is held back rather than published, and a person looks at it.

We are honest about what this does not do. Fingerprint matching finds material that has been catalogued before. It does not recognise newly produced imagery, and someone who knows how the fingerprint works can alter an image until it stops matching. The content check detects nudity, not age, so a clothed photo of a minor passes it. These checks catch the careless. The age requirements, the reporting route and the enforcement described below are what address the rest.

5. Reporting

  • Users can report suspected child exploitation through the in-app Report feature (select "Underage" as the reason).
  • Every report is read by a person. Reports that someone may be under 18 are dealt with before anything else.
  • Contact us directly at our support email for urgent child safety concerns.
  • If a child is in immediate danger, please contact your local emergency services (e.g., 911, 100, 112) immediately.

6. Enforcement

We take swift and decisive action against violations:

  • Immediate and permanent account termination for any CSAE-related violation.
  • Reporting to law enforcement or to the national body that receives such reports, as the applicable law provides.
  • Preservation of evidence for law enforcement investigations.
  • Child sexual abuse or exploitation ends the account at once, and it remains closed unless a review determines that the match, or its attribution to the account, was erroneous. Anyone who believes this happened by mistake, for example through a wrong match or a hacked account, can write to us, and a person will look into it; the account stays closed while that happens. A photo match on material marked harmful but not necessarily illegal only suspends the account while a person reviews it, and that suspension can be appealed in the app. A suspension for possibly being under 18 is a different case and can be appealed: from inside the app for six months, and by email after that, with a person deciding either way. An adult who looks young and is reported in good faith has to have a way back.

7. Contact Us

To report child safety concerns or for questions about our child safety policies, please contact us at support@nearbylove.app.

The video is in English, with captions.