Trust & Safety Policy

Effective Date: [INSERT DATE]

Last Updated: [INSERT DATE]

DRAFT TEMPLATE — NOT LEGAL ADVICE. This is primarily an internal operational reference; portions of it (response-time commitments, reporting process) may also be published to build user trust. Review with an attorney, particularly the child-safety mandatory-reporting section, which involves specific legal obligations that vary by country.

1. Purpose and Scope

This policy defines how K9 identifies, responds to, and escalates safety concerns across the platform, including harmful content, harassment, in-person meetup risks, and content involving minors. It applies to all user-generated content and interactions on the Service.

2. Reporting Mechanisms

Every profile, post, comment, message, and playdate listing includes a Report option. Reported items are queued for review by K9's moderation team.

Response time commitments

•High severity (threats of violence, content involving minors, immediate safety risk): prioritized above all other reports and reviewed as quickly as we can.

•Medium severity (harassment, impersonation, animal welfare concerns): reviewed promptly, after any higher-severity reports.

•Low severity (spam, minor guideline violations): reviewed in the order received.

These review targets describe our goals, not a guarantee. Review timing depends on K9's sole discretion and operational capacity, and nothing in this policy creates a promised response time or a legal duty to review or act on any particular report within any set period.

3. Severity Tiers and Response Actions

•Tier 1 — Warning: first-time, low-severity violations (e.g., off-topic spam). Content removed, user warned.

•Tier 2 — Temporary suspension: repeated violations, harassment, or animal welfare concerns. Account suspended 7–30 days depending on severity.

•Tier 3 — Permanent removal: severe or repeated violations, impersonation used to cause harm, content involving cruelty to animals, or any threat to a minor's safety. Account permanently banned; device/contact info may be flagged to prevent re-registration where technically feasible.

4. Child Safety Commitment

K9 is an adults-only (18+) platform and has zero tolerance for any content that sexualizes, endangers, or exploits a minor. Upon obtaining actual knowledge of apparent child sexual abuse material, K9 removes it, permanently bans the responsible account, and reports it to the CyberTipline of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) as soon as reasonably possible, consistent with 18 U.S.C. § 2258A. When a CyberTipline report is made, K9 preserves the reported content and related data for at least one year as required by law, and maintains a designated contact for CyberTipline reporting. K9 cooperates with NCMEC and law enforcement as legally required.

Because K9's Explore feature surfaces content to the wider community rather than just a user's followers, extra care is warranted around photos incidentally including children. Community Guidelines encourage cropping or blurring children's faces; moderation should treat any content that appears to invite attention to a child's image, rather than the dog, as a signal for closer review.

5. In-Person Meetup and Playdate Safety

•Meetup and Spot listings may only reference public locations; private residences should be disallowed at the product level, not just discouraged in copy.

•Phone number verification is required at signup, in addition to email, to raise the cost of creating bad-faith accounts.

•A brief safety reminder is shown before a user's first RSVP to a playdate (public location, daylight hours, tell a friend your plans).

•A “share your plans” option should let a user send a meetup's time and location to a contact of their choosing.

•A private, non-public post-meetup check-in (“How did this go?”) should be used to catch repeat concerning behavior before it escalates — this data is for internal safety review only, never displayed publicly as a rating.

6. Data Retention and Account Deletion

When a user deletes their account, their profile, posts, photos, and messages are permanently deleted from production systems, except where limited records are retained for a legitimate safety, fraud-prevention, or legal purpose (for example, records related to an active moderation investigation or a valid legal request). Backup copies may persist briefly in encrypted backups before full deletion per standard backup rotation, as disclosed in the Privacy Policy.

7. Professional Advice Disclaimer

Content posted by verified veterinary, insurance, or other professional Business Accounts — including responses sent through in-app messaging — is provided for general informational purposes only and does not create a formal veterinarian-client-patient relationship or insurance policy relationship. K9 does not supervise, verify, or guarantee the accuracy of professional advice given through the Service, and users should be directed to seek an in-person or formal professional relationship for any medical, insurance, or legal decision.

8. Law Enforcement Requests

Consistent with the Stored Communications Act (18 U.S.C. § 2701 et seq.) and applicable state privacy law, K9 requires appropriate formal legal process — such as a valid subpoena, court order, or search warrant supported by probable cause — before disclosing non-public user data or communications, except in emergencies involving a risk of death or serious physical injury or where otherwise permitted or required by law. K9 reserves discretion regarding whether and when to notify an affected user of a request, subject to applicable non-disclosure or sealing orders and emergency circumstances. Law-enforcement and legal-process requests may be directed to support@joink9.app.

9. Policy Review

This policy should be reviewed at least every 6 months, and immediately after any safety incident, to confirm response-time commitments remain realistic and severity tiers remain appropriate as the platform grows.