Child safety standards

HeyNaija has zero tolerance for child sexual abuse and exploitation. These standards apply everywhere on HeyNaija: on the website and in the HeyNaija apps for Android and iPhone, in posts, replies, pictures, GIFs, videos, profiles, communities and Gists. A child is anyone under 18.

Never allowed, in any form:

• Child sexual abuse material (CSAM): any picture, video or other depiction of a child in a sexual way, whether real, drawn or made by a computer, AI included.
• Sexualising children: sexual comments about a child, or content that presents children as sexual.
• Grooming: contacting a child, or someone you believe is a child, to build trust for a sexual purpose, to ask for sexual pictures, or to arrange to meet.
• Sextortion: threatening to share sexual pictures of a child, or using threats to get them.
• Trafficking: offering, selling or seeking a child for any sexual purpose.
• Asking for, offering or linking to any of the above.

There are no exceptions: not as a joke, not to “raise awareness”, and not in a post marked sensitive. These standards sit alongside the HeyNaija rules, which apply to everyone.

During the beta, accounts are for people aged 18 or older, and everyone confirms they are when they join. If moderators have good reason to believe an account belongs to someone under 18, they may suspend it. The rules explain this, and what would have to be in place before younger people could join.

• Checked before it is published. Every picture, GIF and video uploaded to HeyNaija, profile photos included, is compared with known child sexual abuse material before anyone else can see it, using Arachnid Shield from the Canadian Centre for Child Protection. A match is never published. If the check cannot be done, the upload waits: nothing is published unchecked.
• Checked again as it is served. Pictures are also checked by Cloudflare’s CSAM Scanning Tool as they are delivered.
• Reports from people. Anyone can report a post or an account, and moderators look at every report.

When we find child sexual abuse or exploitation, or are told about it, we:

• remove it at once, and suspend the account without warning;
• keep a copy privately, out of public view and open only to the people who handle safety, as evidence;
• report it to the authorities responsible, as the law requires;
• work with law enforcement investigating it, and answer their lawful requests.

HeyNaija follows the child safety laws that apply to it, including Nigeria’s Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act 2015 and Child Rights Act 2003.

• On HeyNaija: open the menu on the post or account, choose Report, then Illegal content. This works the same in the apps and on the website. Reports of illegal content alert the people who handle safety straight away, and only moderators see who made a report.
• Not a member, or reporting for an authority? Write to [email protected] with a link to the post or account. Never send the picture or video itself, and never send any image of a child: the link is enough for us to find it.
• If a child is in danger now, call the police first. In Nigeria, call 112.
• You can also report child sexual abuse material found anywhere online to the NCMEC CyberTipline or the Internet Watch Foundation.

HeyNaija’s founders are responsible for child safety. Write to [email protected] about these standards or how we apply them, including from an app store, a regulator or law enforcement. It is the same address that receives our alerts about illegal content.