Safety and child protection

Last updated 2026-09-26

Kismaro pairs you with a stranger. Most conversations are unremarkable, some are good, and a few go wrong. This page is what to do about the last kind — and, honestly, what we can and cannot do about it.

The two checks, and their limits

Age. You give a date of birth once, on its own screen, and it can never be edited. That is stronger than the checkbox every other site in this category uses. It is not identity verification: someone determined to lie can still lie.

Face. In video chat your browser checks every few seconds that a face is actually in frame. A camera pointed at a ceiling, a photograph or a looping recording ends the conversation. A second check scores the frame for nudity in your browser, and our server audits a real frame against what your browser claimed — that gap is what catches a modified client.

Both reduce risk. Neither is a guarantee about the person you are talking to, and you should not use them as one.

What we never see

Video, voice and text are not recorded. There is no archive, which means there is nothing to leak — and also that we cannot go back and look at what happened. When you report someone we act on the account and the device, not on a recording, because none exists.

Protecting yourself

• Do not give out identifying details. Full name, school, workplace, town, phone number, email, or your social accounts. A first name is fine; the rest is not.
• Assume you are being recorded. Our policy does not govern the other person's screen recorder. Do not do anything on camera you would not want kept.
• Check what is behind you. Post, parcels, a window, a school uniform, a street sign — backgrounds identify people more often than faces do.
• Nobody legitimate asks for money. Not for a ticket, not for an emergency, not for a platform they want to move you to. Anyone who does is running a script.
• Be wary of moving to another app. The pressure to move to a private messenger early is the single most common opening move of a scam.
• Press Next. It costs nothing. You owe a stranger no explanation and no politeness, and leaving is always a reasonable answer.

Sextortion — read this before it happens

The pattern is consistent: flattery, a fast move to something intimate, a recording you did not know about, then a demand for money and a deadline. It targets adults as often as it targets teenagers.

If it happens to you: do not pay, do not keep talking, and do not delete anything. Paying funds the next demand and does not end this one. Screenshot the account details and the messages, block them, report them here, and report them to your local police. In the United States you can also contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children; in the UK, the Internet Watch Foundation. This is a crime committed against you, not something you did.

If you think someone is a child

End the conversation and report it immediately. Do not try to confirm their age, do not ask questions, and do not continue talking in order to gather evidence — that makes things worse, not better.

Press Report, then write to [email protected]. Reports involving a minor are looked at first, result in an immediate permanent ban with no appeal, and where the law requires it are passed to the relevant authorities along with what we hold.

How to report

Every conversation has a Report button. Press it during or straight after the conversation — it attaches the details we need, which an email sent hours later cannot.

A person reads every report. Bans escalate: 24 hours, then 7 days, then permanent. Anything involving a minor, or sexual content involving a minor, skips that ladder entirely.

Reporting someone does not tell them you reported them.

Our standards against child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE)

Kismaro has a zero-tolerance standard against child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE). This section is that standard, published so that anyone — a user, an app store, or an authority — can read it.

Prohibited absolutely. Child sexual abuse material (CSAM); sexualisation of a minor in any form, including text, drawing or generated imagery; grooming, solicitation or sextortion of a minor; and any attempt by an adult to make contact with a minor for a sexual purpose.

Minors may not use Kismaro at all. It is 18+ only. A date of birth is confirmed once and can never be edited, and any account found to belong to a minor is removed.

Enforcement. These breaches do not go through the normal escalation ladder. They result in an immediate permanent ban with no appeal, of the account and of the device behind it.

Reporting and referral. Reports reach a person. Where the law requires it we report the matter to the relevant authorities — including, in the United States, the NCMEC CyberTipline — and preserve the account records we hold for them.

Our point of contact for CSAE matters, for users and for authorities, is [email protected]. Anything involving a minor is looked at before anything else in the queue.

If you are in danger

Contact your local emergency services first. We are not an emergency service, we cannot see a conversation as it happens, and we cannot reach anyone physically. Tell the authorities first, then tell us, and we will act on the account and preserve what we hold.

If you are struggling

Talking to strangers can be a lifeline and it can also be a way of avoiding something harder. If a conversation leaves you feeling worse, or you are having thoughts of harming yourself, please talk to someone who can help: findahelpline.com lists free, confidential lines in most countries.

Tell us when we get it wrong

If a report went nowhere, a ban was unfair, or something on this page is not true in practice, write to [email protected]. That is how this gets better.