Child Safety Standards

1. 18+ access and suspected minors

People under 18 must not create user or expert accounts, join audio/video calls, use chat, or bypass age restrictions. Experts and users must not invite, assist, or exploit minors on the service. A profile, self-declared age, or verification label is not a guarantee that every participant is aged 18 or older.

If a participant discloses they are a minor or credible information indicates underage access, end the interaction and report the account to Hearside Support. Review should restrict access appropriately and handle information lawfully, preserving relevant evidence when required rather than destroying it indiscriminately.

2. Child abuse and exploitation are prohibited

These standards prohibit all child abuse and exploitation, including CSAE: grooming, solicitation for intimate acts or explicit material, portraying children in intimate or explicit contexts, coercion, trafficking, blackmail involving intimate content, arranging abuse, and attempts to obtain or facilitate exploitative contact or material. Explicit abuse material involving children, commonly referred to as CSAM, includes real, manipulated, or synthetic depictions and must not be created, requested, uploaded, stored for an unlawful purpose, transmitted, promoted, distributed, or linked through Hearside.

These restrictions cover images, live video, audio, text, recordings, and manipulated or synthetic material, as well as indirect links and attempts to move a child to another service. A joke, fantasy, roleplay, private call, payment, or asserted consent does not excuse exploitation.

Good-faith non-graphic reporting, a request for protection, or a survivor’s disclosure is not itself a prohibited act. Do not treat a child seeking help as responsible for abuse committed against them.

3. How to report a child-safety concern

Contact hearsidesupport@gmail.com, using a subject such as “Urgent child safety concern”. Include the account/conversation identifier, approximate date and time with timezone, and a brief description. Use an available report or block control as appropriate, but do not assume blocking alone submits a reviewed complaint.

Do not download, forward, save new copies of, or attach suspected CSAM. Do not ask another person to send it. Identify the relevant account or location and let authorised reviewers and authorities handle evidence through an appropriate restricted process.

For immediate danger, contact local emergency services or appropriate police/child-protection authorities. Hearside is not an emergency response service. Do not investigate independently, confront a suspected offender, publish a child’s identity, or pressure a child for further details.

4. Protection, review, and required reporting

Child-safety review must prioritise protection, appropriate restriction of harmful access or content, limited evidence access, and preservation where law requires. Suspected underage use and indications of abuse or exploitation require assessment according to the circumstances.

Where POCSO or another applicable law triggers mandatory reporting, qualifying knowledge or apprehension must be reported to the appropriate authority, including the Special Juvenile Police Unit or local police as applicable. This duty is not merely discretionary and is not removed by an age-restricted policy.

Enforcement may include ending an interaction, disabling content, suspending or terminating accounts and expert privileges, restricting replacement accounts, and cooperating with lawful investigation. Reporter and child information should be disclosed only as needed for protection, lawful review, or required reporting.

A normal 30-day recording-retention period does not override a relevant statutory preservation duty or valid lawful hold. No requirement to report abuse should be used as a pretext to record every conversation or expose evidence to unrelated staff.

5. Responsibilities of experts and users

Do not continue an interaction with a known minor, encourage secrecy from parents, guardians, or trusted caregivers, arrange external contact, offer money or gifts for intimate acts or explicit material, or use emotional pressure to obtain intimate details. Experts must reject prohibited requests even when a user offers payment.

Report concerns promptly and cooperate with proportionate, lawful review. Never circulate suspected abuse material in team groups, social media, or private conversations. Participant privacy and protective reporting both matter; neither permits retaliating against a good-faith reporter.

6. Contact and accountability

The child-safety and complaint contact is Hearside Support at hearsidesupport@gmail.com. Use an urgent child-safety subject and identify the relevant account or conversation without attaching suspected abuse material.

Hearside does not guarantee detection of every violation or provide emergency intervention. Participants must report concerns promptly through the published contact route and contact appropriate authorities for immediate danger.

These standards may be updated as the service and applicable requirements change. The published last-updated date identifies the current version.