Child Safety

Introduction

We take Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (CSAE) and Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) seriously. We made a number of key platform decisions to protect both children and adults.

CSAE refers to child sexual abuse and exploitation, including content or behaviour that sexually exploits, abuses or endangers children. This includes, for example, grooming a child for sexual exploitation, sextorting a child, trafficking of a child for sex or otherwise sexually exploiting a child.

CSAM stands for child sexual abuse material. It is illegal and our Terms of Service prohibit using Google products and services to store or share this content. CSAM consists of any visual depiction, including but not limited to photos, videos and computer-generated imagery, involving the use of a minor engaging in sexually-explicit conduct.

What We Do

In the SmartGroups app, we forbid the following:

Bilateral chat: You can only chat with everyone in your group.
Bilateral sharing of pictures and videos: You can only share pictures and videos with everyone in your group.
Direct sharing or communication on large social networks: There is no login or integration with large social networks.

In addition to the above, you can flag as inappropriate any picture or video. This will alert the leadership of the church and will also alert us. After flagging material as inappropriate, it will not be visible unless a church leader reviews it and restores it.

Cautions

Nonetheless, there are still opportunities for reprehensible behavior. These include:

Disclosure of a personal email in a person's profile which can lead to a bilateral email chain.
Disclosure of a personal phone number in a person's profile which can lead to phone calls and text messages and sharing of media via text messages.
Disclosure of a personal third-party social network identifier in a chat message, or prayer request, public meeting note, or any other free form response followed by communication on that channel.
Disclosure of any of the above through group sharing of pictures and/or videos.

Recommendations

As a result, we recommend:

Carefully consider your church and group profile security policy. In the SmartGroups app, you can have different personal profile policies for a church directory compared to a group, and you can also override the policy for even more restrictive disclosure for individuals.
Use parent phone numbers and email addresses for minors.
Ensure that at least two adults are present in all online and in-person meetings to protect children from disreputable activity as well as protecting the church from undesirable litigation.

What To Do

If you see something:

Flag any inappropriate material immediately. Tap the Flag Inappropriate button (looks like a flag in the wind).
Contact our support hotline.
Contact a country specific hotline (see below).
Contact law enforcement of immediate dangers and threats.

If you recognize additional platform steps that could be taken to heighten child safety, please contact support.