Online Safety at ChatNow

1. Our status under the Online Safety Act 2023

ChatNow, provided by Skyline Online LLC at chat-now.uk, is a regulated user-to-user service within Part 3 of the Online Safety Act 2023: users share public and private messages, images, voice notes and live webcam with one another. We are not a categorised service, so the additional duties reserved for Category 1 services do not apply; the duties on this page apply to every regulated user-to-user service whatever its size, and Ofcom enforces them.

Under the Act our "terms of service" means the documents that make up our contract with you: the Terms of Service, the Community Rules and the Acceptable Use Policy. This page and the safety pages listed in section 13 describe how we apply the Terms of Service and the Community Rules; if they differ from the Terms, the Terms prevail. We apply our terms consistently, as section 10(8) requires.

2. Who is accountable

The person accountable to senior management for our illegal content safety duties and our reporting and complaints duties (measure ICU A2 of Ofcom's Illegal Content Codes of Practice) is Gérald A., Head of Trust & Safety, reachable at safety@chatnow.fr. The Head of Trust & Safety reports directly to the Managing Member of Skyline Online LLC, holds a written statement of responsibilities, approves every change to moderation policy and tooling, leads the 24/7 on-call rota, and presents the annual compliance review and each risk assessment to the Managing Member.

3. Our risk assessments

3.1 Illegal content risk assessment

We have completed the illegal content risk assessment required by section 9 of the Act. It covers each kind of priority illegal content in Ofcom's Register of Risks, including the priority offences added in December 2025 (encouraging or assisting serious self-harm, cyberflashing, and sharing or threatening to share intimate images), and assesses how our own features — anonymous guest access, private messaging, image and voice-note sharing, live webcam and rooms set aside for adult conversation — affect each risk. Its findings drive sections 4 to 7. It is kept in writing, reviewed at least once a year, and redone before any significant change to the design or operation of the service.

3.2 Children's access assessment

We have completed the children's access assessment required by section 36. Its conclusion is that children are not normally able to access ChatNow, because highly effective age assurance operated by AgeVerif is applied to every visitor, guest or member, before any room, private message, image or webcam can be reached (see the Age Assurance Policy). ChatNow is therefore not a service likely to be accessed by children. The assessment is repeated at least once a year, before any significant change, and as soon as we have evidence that the age assurance is less effective than expected. Our child-safety measures in section 4.2 apply regardless.

4. How we protect you from illegal content

Section 10 of the Act requires proportionate systems to prevent you encountering priority illegal content, to minimise the time it is present, and to take illegal content down swiftly once we are alerted to it. As section 10(5) requires, we address terrorism content, child sexual exploitation and abuse content and other priority illegal content separately. The measures below apply to public and private messages, profiles and images. Webcam and voice are live streams that we do not record or scan; they are covered by moderators present in rooms, the report button and your own controls (sections 7 and 8).

4.1 Terrorism content

• Banned-word lists and our AI text classifier flag content that encourages, glorifies or gives instruction for terrorism or that supports a proscribed organisation; flagged content is removed automatically and logged, and a human moderator reviews every flag.
• Accounts operated by or on behalf of a proscribed organisation are removed as soon as identified.
• Confirmed terrorism content leads to a permanent ban by account, IP address and device, preservation of the evidence, and referral to the police through our law-enforcement channel. You can report it with the "Terrorism" category of the report button.

4.2 Child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA)

• Every image uploaded to ChatNow — in a room, a private message, a profile or a gallery — is hash-matched at upload against known child sexual abuse material through Project Arachnid, operated by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.
• Our AI text classifier analyses public and private messages for grooming and sexual-communication patterns; human moderators review every flag.
• Confirmed CSEA content or conduct leads to an immediate permanent ban by account, IP address and device, preservation of the evidence, a mandatory report to the National Crime Agency through its CSEA Industry Reporting Portal under the Online Safety (CSEA Content Reporting by Regulated User-to-User Service Providers) Regulations 2026, in force since 7 April 2026, and, where relevant, a report to the Internet Watch Foundation.
• Any account found to belong to a person under 18 is deleted and its data erased. Child-safety reports are handled by a member of staff on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. See Child Safety & Safeguarding.

4.3 Other priority illegal content

This covers intimate images shared or threatened to be shared without consent (including altered or AI-generated images), cyberflashing, threats, harassment and stalking, controlling or coercive behaviour, hate offences, fraud, the sale of drugs, psychoactive substances or weapons, extreme pornography, sexual exploitation of adults, human trafficking, and encouraging or assisting suicide or serious self-harm. Our measures:

• the AI text classifier and banned-word lists on every public and private message, with automatic removal and logging of flagged content, and pre-moderation of every profile bio;
• anti-spam and anti-fraud controls: duplicate and flood detection, cross-room spam detection, rate limiting, VPN and proxy detection, one session per account;
• human moderators and administrators present in the rooms every day, a report button on every message and profile with categories matching these harms, and an email route for non-users;
• graduated sanctions — removal, temporary mute, reduced visibility for a limited time, temporary or permanent ban by account, IP address and device, account termination;
• the expedited 48-hour route for intimate images in section 6, backed by hash-matching against StopNCII.org hashes to prevent re-upload, and signposting to the Samaritans whenever suicide or self-harm content is reported or removed.

5. Proactive technology we use

Section 10(6) of the Act requires us to state the kind of proactive technology we use, when it is used and how it works. This table is complete: we use no other automated tool to detect or act on content.

When an automated tool removes your content or restricts your account, the notification says so, and you can ask for human review on the Complaints & Appeals page.

6. Intimate images: the 48-hour process

Since 29 June 2026, section 10(3A) of the Act requires us to remove intimate image content as soon as reasonably practicable and no later than 48 hours after a report from the person shown or someone entitled to act for them.

• Report through the "Intimate images" category of the report button or by email to safety@chatnow.fr; no account is needed. The report reaches the on-call member of staff immediately and is acknowledged within 24 hours.
• The content is removed within 48 hours of the report unless we reasonably believe it is not intimate image content or that the reporter is neither the person shown nor entitled to act for them; in that case we tell you why and how to escalate.
• The removed image is hashed so that it cannot be re-uploaded, and the account that shared it is sanctioned up to a permanent ban. Complaints about this process follow the expedited procedure on the Complaints & Appeals page.

7. Webcam and private messages

Webcam. Live webcam, in rooms and in private conversations, is only reachable after age assurance. Streams are relayed in real time through ChatNow's own media servers and are never recorded or stored. Moderators are present in the rooms and can end a stream and sanction the person streaming; anyone streaming can be reported at any time from their profile, and blocking a user cuts them off from you immediately. Because streams are not recorded, webcam reports are acted on live by the moderator on duty, so report while the stream is in progress where you safely can.

Private messages. Private messages go through the same text classifier as public messages, every private message carries a report button, and images sent privately go through the same hash-matching. Moderators do not read private conversations except where a message has been flagged or reported. A guest's private messages are deleted 24 hours after the guest leaves.

8. Your controls

• Block a user to stop them messaging you, opening a private conversation or reaching your webcam.
• Mute a user to hide their messages from your view without notifying them.
• Report any message or profile with the report button (see Report content or a user).
• Leave a room at any time; rooms set aside for adult conversation are entered only by a deliberate step. You can also manage your friends list and delete your account from your settings.

9. Freedom of expression and privacy

Section 22 of the Act requires us to have particular regard to your right to freedom of expression within the law and to protecting you from breaches of privacy law when we decide on and apply safety measures. In practice:

• We act against content only where we have reasonable grounds to believe it is illegal or breaks the Community Rules, and we apply the least restrictive sanction that deals with the harm. Lawful content you find unwelcome is for your block and mute controls, not for removal.
• No permanent ban is applied without human review. Every decision is notified with the reason, the rule or law relied on, whether automation was involved and how to appeal; appeals are decided within 14 days by a different human reviewer.
• We carry out no general monitoring beyond what section 5 describes: the classifier receives message text only, webcam and voice streams are never recorded, and moderators read private messages only when flagged or reported.
• If we take your content down, restrict it, or suspend or ban you in breach of our own terms, you have the right to bring a claim for breach of contract, as section 72(1) of the Act requires us to tell you.

10. Record-keeping and review

As section 23 requires, we keep written records of every risk assessment, of the Code measures adopted and of the reasons for any alternative measure. We keep a register of reports, complaints, appeals and moderation decisions for 12 months (permanent-ban records for 3 years) and the statutory records of CSEA reports. We review our compliance at least once a year and as soon as reasonably practicable after any significant change; the "Last reviewed" date above is updated each time. Aggregate figures are published in the Transparency Report.

11. Cooperation with Ofcom and the authorities

Our point of contact for Ofcom and any other regulator is legal@chatnow.fr, with post to Skyline Online LLC, 1209 Mountain Road Place NE, Ste N, Albuquerque, NM 87110, USA. We answer Ofcom information notices within the deadline set. Requests from UK police forces and courts are handled as described in our Law Enforcement & Authorities Guidelines, and we preserve evidence on request.

12. Complaining about our compliance

If you believe ChatNow is not meeting its duties under the Act — illegal content you reported was not dealt with, a report route did not work, our proactive technology wrongly removed your content, or we acted against you inconsistently with our own terms — make a complaint of type 5 on the Complaints & Appeals page or write to safety@chatnow.fr. Ofcom does not decide individual complaints, but you can tell Ofcom about your concern at ofcom.org.uk/online-safety.

13. Related pages

Report content or a user · Complaints & Appeals · Age Assurance Policy · Child Safety & Safeguarding · Staying Safe on ChatNow · Privacy Policy · Transparency Report