Vela is an adults-only (18+) dating service. Children are not permitted to create accounts or otherwise use Vela. This document describes Vela's standards and procedures for preventing, detecting, and responding to child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE) content or behaviour on our platform, as required by Google Play's Child Safety Standards Policy.
Zero tolerance. Vela has a zero-tolerance policy for child sexual abuse material (CSAM), grooming, sexual extortion of minors, child trafficking, or any other form of CSAE. Suspected CSAM is reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and to law enforcement, as required by law.
1. Age requirement and enforcement
Vela is restricted to users aged 18 and older. This is enforced through multiple layers:
- Self-declared age at sign-up. During onboarding, the user must enter a date of birth and confirm they are 18 or older. Users who indicate an age under 18 are blocked from completing sign-up.
- Mandatory face verification. Every account must complete a 3-frame liveness check at sign-up before the account is activated. Verification photos are reviewed for indicators of an underage user (apparent minor in the image) and accounts so flagged are rejected and the photos sent for manual administrative review.
- Photo moderation on every upload. Every profile photo, chat photo, and AI-generated avatar is automatically reviewed by a vision moderation service for nudity, violence, and indicators that the subject is under 18. Photos that fail review are blocked and never made visible. Repeated violations trigger account suspension.
- User reporting. Every profile, chat, and message has a one-tap report flow. Reports flagged as a child-safety concern are escalated for immediate manual review.
- Closed beta with founder review. During early access, Vela is invite-only. Every account is reviewed by Vela staff before the platform opens to general subscription sign-ups.
2. Prohibited content and behaviour
The following are strictly prohibited on Vela. Violations result in immediate account termination, content removal, and reporting to appropriate authorities where the law requires.
- Child sexual abuse material (CSAM) of any kind, including drawings, illustrations, computer-generated imagery, or text descriptions involving minors.
- Grooming behaviour, including any attempt to contact, communicate with, or solicit a person known or believed to be under 18.
- Sexual extortion (sextortion) targeting minors.
- Trafficking, recruitment, or facilitation of trafficking of any person, with particular vigilance for minors.
- Content that sexualizes minors, including portraying adults as minors in a sexualized context.
- Sharing or facilitating the sharing of CSAM links, URLs, or distribution channels.
- Accounts impersonating minors or pretending to be a minor to deceive other users.
3. Detection and review process
Vela combines automated and human review to detect potential CSAE:
- Automated screening: all photos and AI-generated avatars are scanned by a vision moderation service trained to detect nudity, violence, and minor-presence indicators before they are visible to any other user. Material flagged with high confidence is blocked at upload time.
- Liveness verification: face-verification photos undergo a separate adult-presence check at the same moment they are checked for liveness. Accounts where the verification subject appears to be a minor are rejected and the photos sent for manual administrative review.
- User reports: reports submitted through the in-app report flow are triaged by Vela staff. Reports indicating possible CSAE receive priority and are reviewed within 24 hours.
- Trust signals: accounts that accumulate multiple moderation violations or multiple user reports are auto-flagged and reviewed by Vela staff regardless of whether any individual signal was high-confidence.
4. Reporting to authorities
If Vela staff determine that any content or activity on the platform constitutes apparent CSAM, sexual extortion of a minor, or trafficking:
- The content is preserved (in a secure, access-restricted form) for the duration required by law and then deleted.
- The account responsible is permanently terminated and prevented from re-registering on the platform to the extent technically possible.
- A CyberTipline report is filed with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) as required by 18 U.S.C. § 2258A. CyberTipline: cybertipline.org or 1-800-843-5678.
- Where the conduct involves identifiable victims or perpetrators, the matter is referred to the appropriate law enforcement agency.
- For Canadian users, equivalent reports are filed with the Canadian Centre for Child Protection via cybertip.ca.
5. User reporting channels
Users can report content or accounts of concern through any of the following channels:
- In-app report: the 3-dot menu on any profile, chat, or message offers a Report option. Reports involving suspected child-safety concerns are prioritized for review.
- Email: [email protected] for CSAE concerns, urgent safety issues, or content involving a minor.
- External authorities: users may also report directly to NCMEC's CyberTipline (US) or Cybertip.ca (Canada) at any time. Vela cooperates with all such reports we are made aware of.
6. Designated Child Safety Contact
Vela maintains a designated point of contact for child-safety matters, including law enforcement and trust-and-safety inquiries from external organizations:
- Email: [email protected]
- Subject prefix: please use "Child Safety" in the subject line for priority routing.
- Response time: Vela commits to acknowledging child-safety reports within 24 hours and to acting on substantiated reports as fast as our trust-and-safety capacity allows.
7. Training and policy review
Vela staff who review user reports or moderation decisions are trained on recognizing CSAE indicators. This Child Safety Standards policy is reviewed at least annually and updated when our practices change or when applicable law evolves.
8. Compliance with applicable law
Vela operates in compliance with the laws of the jurisdictions in which it offers service, including but not limited to:
- United States: 18 U.S.C. § 2258A (reporting requirements for online services), 18 U.S.C. § 2251 et seq. (sexual exploitation of children), and applicable state laws.
- Canada: An Act respecting the mandatory reporting of Internet child pornography by persons who provide an Internet service (S.C. 2011, c. 4), the Criminal Code provisions on child pornography (sections 163.1, 172.1, 172.2), and applicable provincial laws.
9. Contact