Child Safety & Safeguarding

1. Zero tolerance

ChatNow does not tolerate, in any form, the sexual exploitation or abuse of children: images or videos of child sexual abuse, sexualised depictions of anyone under 18 including drawn or AI-generated material, grooming, sexual communication with a child, arranging or facilitating abuse, sexual extortion of a child, and any attempt to bring a child into a room, a private conversation or a webcam session. There are no warnings and no second chances: a confirmed breach ends the person's access permanently and is reported to the authorities. No user under 18 may appear on webcam or in an image on ChatNow, and any adult who attempts to involve a child is banned and reported.

2. What we mean

• Child: anyone under 18.
• Child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA): the offences listed in Schedule 6 to the Online Safety Act 2023 — sexual images of children, grooming, sexual communication with a child, causing or inciting sexual activity and related conduct — whether or not the child is real, identifiable or a ChatNow user.
• Child sexual abuse material (CSAM): any image, video, drawing or generated content depicting a child in a sexual way. Possessing, making or sending it is a criminal offence in the UK, including forwarding it to us "as evidence".
• Grooming: building trust with a child, or with someone the person believes to be a child, in order to sexually abuse or exploit them — asking for images, moving the conversation to another platform, arranging to meet.

3. How children are kept off the service

ChatNow is for adults only and the rule is enforced, not merely stated. Every visitor, guest or member, completes a highly effective age check operated by the independent provider AgeVerif before any room, private message, image or webcam is reachable — facial age estimation with a challenge age of 25, photo-ID match, credit card or digital identity wallet — repeated every session. Self-declared ages and tick-boxes unlock nothing. This is what allows our children's access assessment under the Online Safety Act 2023 to conclude that children are not normally able to access ChatNow; the full policy is on the Age Assurance Policy page. Any account nonetheless found to belong to a child is closed and its data erased, and anyone who lent their credentials to a child is banned.

4. How we detect abuse

• Hash-matching on every image. Every image uploaded anywhere on ChatNow — rooms, private messages, profile galleries — is fingerprinted at upload and compared with known child sexual abuse material through Project Arachnid, operated by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection. A match blocks the image.
• AI classifiers on messages. Public and private messages are analysed asynchronously by our text classifier for grooming patterns and sexual communication with someone presented as a child — age disclosures, requests for images, attempts to move a child to another platform. Only the message text is analysed.
• Human moderators. Moderators and administrators are present in the rooms every day, review every classifier and hash flag, and act on reports; a member of staff is on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for child-safety reports. Webcam streams are relayed live and not recorded, so a moderator acts on a webcam report in real time by ending the stream and sanctioning the user.
• Your reports. The report button on every message and profile has a dedicated "Child sexual exploitation and abuse" category, and anyone can report by email (section 10).

5. What happens when we detect it

• The content is removed at once and blocked from re-upload.
• The account is permanently banned by account, IP address and device; the on-call member of staff confirms every CSEA action, so none is automated-only.
• The evidence — content, account details, connection logs and the surrounding conversation — is preserved securely, with access restricted to the safeguarding team.
• A report is made to the National Crime Agency (section 6) and, for images, to the Internet Watch Foundation. Where a child appears to be at immediate risk, we contact the police directly without waiting for a request.

6. Mandatory reporting to the National Crime Agency

Under section 66 of the Online Safety Act 2023 and the Online Safety (CSEA Content Reporting by Regulated User-to-User Service Providers) Regulations 2026, in force since 7 April 2026, we report all detected CSEA content on ChatNow to the National Crime Agency. ChatNow is registered with the NCA's CSEA Industry Reporting Portal and reports through it however the content was detected — hash match, classifier, moderator or user report. The report contains the content, the information we hold about the account and the connection, and the context investigators need. In line with the 2026 Regulations and our Privacy Policy, we keep the NCA report reference for 5 years and the reported content and its associated data for 12 months, in a secure store separate from the live service, then delete them unless a law-enforcement preservation request or court order requires longer.

7. Cooperation with the IWF, CEOP and the police

We report child sexual abuse images to the Internet Watch Foundation so that they join the hash lists protecting other services. We cooperate with CEOP, the NCA's child protection command, and with UK police forces: we preserve evidence on request, answer lawful requests for data through our Law Enforcement & Authorities Guidelines, and prioritise any request marked as concerning a child. We answer Ofcom information requests about child safety within the deadline set.

8. What you must do if you see something

• Report it immediately with the "Child sexual exploitation and abuse" category on the message or profile, or by email to safety@chatnow.fr, giving the username, the room or conversation and the time.
• Do not download, save, screenshot, forward or share the content, including to us or to the police. Possessing or sending it is an offence, and we already have what we need once you report.
• Do not confront or investigate the person yourself; it can tip them off and destroy evidence.
• If a child is in immediate danger, call 999. You can also report directly to CEOP or, for images, to the IWF.

Reports are confidential, never disclosed to the person reported, and never count against you when made in good faith. See Report content or a user for what happens next.

9. If you are under 18

ChatNow is not for you, and if you are here, please leave — but first read this, because you are not in trouble and help exists.

• If someone has asked you for sexual images, sent you sexual content or wants to meet you, report them to CEOP; it is confidential and a child protection adviser will contact you.
• If a nude or sexual image or video of you has been shared, or someone is threatening to share one, Report Remove, run by Childline and the Internet Watch Foundation, can get it taken down without anyone else finding out. Do not pay anyone who is threatening you.
• You can talk to Childline free, any time, on 0800 1111 or online.
• You can also tell us at safety@chatnow.fr. We close the account, erase your data and act against the adult involved. You will not be punished for telling us.

10. Who to contact

Our safeguarding route is safety@chatnow.fr, monitored by a member of staff on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Child-safety reports are acknowledged within 24 hours and acted on immediately. The route is overseen by our Head of Trust & Safety, Gérald A., the named person accountable for our online safety compliance. Police and other authorities should use legal@chatnow.fr, marking child-safety matters as such for priority handling.

11. Our staff and moderators

Everyone who moderates ChatNow or handles safety reports is vetted before appointment, is bound by a written code of conduct, and is trained on this policy before taking up the role and at least annually thereafter: recognising grooming and sexual communication with a child, distinguishing adult content in permitted rooms from CSEA, the reporting procedure to the NCA and IWF, evidence preservation, and their own wellbeing when exposed to distressing material. Access to moderation tools and preserved evidence is restricted by role and logged. Any member of staff who fails to report suspected CSEA, or who accesses evidence without need, is removed.

12. Review

This policy, the detection tools behind it and our reporting arrangements are reviewed by the Head of Trust & Safety at least once a year, after every CSEA report, before any significant change to the service, and whenever the NCA, Ofcom or the IWF change their requirements. Aggregate figures on CSEA detections and reports appear in our Transparency Report. The "Last reviewed" date above shows the most recent review. Related pages: Online Safety at ChatNow · Report content or a user · Complaints & Appeals · Staying Safe on ChatNow.