Video Call — Child Safety Standards Against Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (CSAE)

Last updated: 2026-05-29

1. The product, in safety terms

Video Call is a random-stranger video chat application for adults aged 18 and older. Live camera + microphone streams between two consenting adult users are routed in real time through a WebRTC media transport (LiveKit). We do not record, store, transcribe, or re-broadcast call content.

Because the call medium is live and ephemeral, our CSAE controls are necessarily a combination of pre-call gating, in-call user-reporting, and post-incident enforcement rather than scan-and-block of stored media.

2. Pre-call gating

• 18+ self-attestation at sign-up via the Terms of Service acceptance, with the age requirement repeated in the in-app onboarding.
• Mature-content rating on the Google Play store listing per Play's content-rating questionnaire, which surfaces the parental-control gates Google Play provides.
• Camera and microphone runtime permissions required before any call. Permission prompts are explicit about what's about to happen.
• No account creation by minors — Firebase Authentication does not allow anonymous-or-Google sign-in flows that bypass the age attestation surfaced in the app's Terms acceptance.
• Region awareness — we serve users globally but display jurisdiction-specific age requirements where they exceed 18.

3. In-call controls

• Every active call has a persistent in-call HUD with a one-tap Report button and a one-tap Block button.
• Reports include a "Involves a minor" category. Reports in this category are escalated by our moderation team within the same business day, ahead of other categories.
• Blocking is bidirectional and permanent. A blocked user can never be re-matched with the blocker. We treat repeated blocks against a single account as an automated signal that prompts moderator review.
• Tapping Next ends the call instantly. The user has no obligation to stay on a call that feels off.
• Calls are time-boxed at 3 minutes (free tier) or 10 minutes (Pro), reducing the window for sustained predatory behaviour.

4. Post-incident response

• Every CSAE report is reviewed by a human moderator within 24 hours.
• If the report is credible, the reported account is permanently banned and device-level blocked immediately, before the appeal window opens.
• We preserve all available metadata (the reporter's user id, the reported user id, the call timestamps, the room identifier, the report category and text) for the period required by law and to assist any investigation.
• We report suspected CSAM to NCMEC's CyberTipline (report.cybertip.org) as required by 18 U.S.C. § 2258A and equivalent obligations in other jurisdictions where we have users.
• We cooperate fully with valid legal process from law-enforcement agencies — see "Working with law enforcement" below.

5. How to report CSAE on Video Call

If you encounter content or behaviour you suspect involves a minor while using Video Call, please report it through the following channels, in this order of effectiveness:

1. Inside the app, tap the Report icon in the top-right of the in-call HUD, pick the Involves a minor category, and submit. This is the fastest path because it attaches the call's room identifier and timestamps automatically — our moderation team gets the evidence trail at the same time as the report.
2. If you cannot reach the in-app flow, email us at dopetech.support@gmail.com with the subject line "CSAE Report — Video Call". Include the approximate date and time of the call, the username you saw, and as much detail as you can safely provide. We will acknowledge within 24 hours.
3. Report directly to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) CyberTipline at report.cybertip.org. NCMEC's reporting works worldwide and feeds national law-enforcement networks.
4. For users outside the United States, you may also report to your local hotline through the INHOPE network at inhope.org/EN/articles/find-a-hotline.
5. If you believe a child is in imminent danger, call your local emergency services directly. Don't wait for a moderation team to respond.

6. How we respond to reports

• CSAE reports submitted in-app are routed to a dedicated moderator queue separate from general abuse reports.
• Median first-response time target: 24 hours. P95 target: 72 hours.
• Confirmed CSAE → immediate permanent ban + device-level ban + NCMEC report.
• Suspected but unverifiable → account flagged for accelerated re-review on any subsequent report, and the reported user is temporarily unable to start calls pending more information.
• False report (made in bad faith) → counted against the reporter's account, may itself result in a suspension if a pattern of bad-faith reports is established.
• We retain a log of all CSAE reports and the actions taken for at least 12 months for audit by Google Play, NCMEC, or competent authorities upon valid request.

7. Industry detection partners

Because the primary medium is live video, hash-matching technologies (PhotoDNA, Google CSAI Match, Microsoft Content Moderator) currently apply only to:

• Avatar and bio-attached images uploaded to profiles. These are scanned for known-CSAM hashes before publication, where applicable.
• Shorts feed clips (curated content only in v1; if user-uploaded clips ship in a future release, hash-matching will be required at upload time).

For live calls, we rely on the controls in §3 (in-call user reporting, blocking, time-boxed calls) plus moderator review of reported incidents. We are monitoring the maturity of real-time live-video CSAE-detection partners and will integrate one if and when a privacy-preserving deployment becomes operationally available.