Child Safety Standards
1. Our Commitment
HitchLine is a strictly 18+ service and has a zero‑tolerance policy for any content, conduct, or attempted contact that exploits, endangers, sexualizes, or harms a minor — whether or not that minor is a user of HitchLine. This includes child sexual abuse material (CSAM), sexually suggestive content involving minors, grooming, sextortion, and any use of the Services to contact a minor for an unlawful or harmful purpose. We design, operate, and moderate HitchLine to prevent, detect, disrupt, and report such activity.
This page sets out HitchLine’s published standards against child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE), how users can report concerns, how we respond, and how to contact us. It is a companion to our Terms and Conditions and our Privacy Policy, which remain binding.
2. Age Requirements — HitchLine is Strictly 18+
HitchLine is intended exclusively for adults aged eighteen (18) years or older. Use of the Services by anyone under 18 is not permitted under any circumstances, regardless of feature, region, or parental consent. This restriction applies to every part of the Services — accounts, profiles, Primary Chat, Business Chat, Requests Chat, ChatRoom, Tales, HitchDrop, the E‑Wallet, listings, and any other feature now or in the future.
Users confirm their age at sign‑up and represent that they meet this minimum. We do not knowingly create or maintain accounts for anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from minors. If we identify, or are credibly informed, that a person under 18 is using or attempting to use the Services, we:
- Suspend the account immediately and block re‑registration via the same email, phone, and IP;
- Delete the underage user’s account and associated data in line with our Privacy Policy, except where preservation is required by law;
- Report any associated CSAE or other unlawful content to the appropriate authorities as described in Section 5.
Misrepresenting age, helping a minor circumvent these restrictions, or knowingly creating an account on behalf of a minor are themselves serious violations of our Terms and grounds for permanent termination. Because HitchLine is 18+ only, our prohibitions on CSAE and on contacting, sexualizing, or harming a minor (Section 3) apply to any minor — including persons known to the user off‑platform — and not only to users of the Services.
3. Published Standards Against CSAE
The following are strictly prohibited across every part of the Services — profiles, Tales, ChatRoom, Primary/Business/Requests Chat, HitchDrop tasks, listings, reviews, and any other surface:
- Creating, uploading, sharing, requesting, soliciting, transmitting, or linking to child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in any form, including images, video, audio, animations, drawings, or written content.
- Sexually suggestive content involving anyone under 18, including nudity, sexualized poses, sexual emojis or language directed at minors, and “borderline” content that sexualizes children.
- Grooming behavior — building trust, isolating, manipulating, or normalizing sexual contact with a minor.
- Sextortion — coercing or threatening a minor (or anyone) for sexual content, money, or favors.
- Sharing or trading contact details of minors for sexual or exploitative purposes.
- Solicitation of in‑person meetings with a minor for sexual, exploitative, or otherwise unlawful purposes.
- Adult users contacting minors through the Services for any sexual, romantic, or grooming purpose.
- Promotion, glorification, or facilitation of child sexual abuse, trafficking, or exploitation.
- Impersonating a minor, or impersonating any person to deceive a minor.
Violations are removed on detection and result in immediate account termination, preservation of evidence, and reporting to authorities as set out below.
4. In‑App Reporting and Safety Tools
Every user can report CSAE concerns directly from inside the Application. Reporting is available without leaving the Service and does not require contacting support:
- Report a profile — tap the report icon on any user’s profile to flag the account for child‑safety, harassment, impersonation, or other policy violations.
- Report a chat or message — Primary Chat, Business Chat, Requests Chat, and ChatRoom all expose a report option on individual messages and on the conversation as a whole.
- Report a Tale — tap the report option on any Tale (image or video) to flag it for moderation. Reported content is queued for immediate review.
- Report a HitchDrop task or listing — task posts, job listings, business listings, and rental listings can each be reported from their detail view.
- Block — alongside reporting, you can block any user, which prevents further contact, removes them from your ChatRoom and search results, and stops them from viewing your Tales.
- Clear Chat — you can remove a conversation from your view while still allowing HitchLine to preserve evidence as required by law.
Reports are routed to HitchLine’s Trust & Safety queue and reviewed by our moderation team. Reports concerning a minor or CSAE are treated as highest priority and reviewed on a 24/7 basis.
5. Moderation, Enforcement, and Evidence Preservation
When HitchLine identifies, or is notified of, content or conduct that may involve CSAE, we take the following actions, as appropriate to the case and to the extent permitted by law:
- Immediate removal of the offending content from the Services.
- Account action — suspension during investigation and permanent termination on confirmation, including blocking re‑registration via email and IP.
- Evidence preservation — we preserve the content, account metadata, message history, and access logs for the period required by applicable law to support investigations.
- Reporting to authorities — confirmed CSAM is reported to the U.S. National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) CyberTipline, and we cooperate with NCMEC’s referrals to law enforcement worldwide. We also cooperate with INHOPE‑network hotlines and with local law‑enforcement and regulatory authorities in the jurisdictions where the conduct occurred.
- Cooperation with lawful requests — under our Terms §6.3, we cooperate with law enforcement, regulators, and courts on properly issued legal process, and we may disclose preserved information to protect users or the public from imminent harm.
- Continuous improvement — confirmed cases inform updates to our detection systems, moderation policies, and the products themselves to reduce future risk.
Users who report CSAE in good faith are protected from retaliation under our community policies. Knowingly filing false CSAE reports is itself a serious policy violation.
6. Compliance with Child‑Safety Laws
HitchLine is designed to comply with the child‑safety laws of the jurisdictions in which the Services are available, including but not limited to:
- United States — the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the federal CSAM reporting obligation under 18 U.S.C. §2258A (NCMEC CyberTipline), and applicable state child‑protection laws.
- European Union — the Digital Services Act (DSA) obligations on online platforms, and the GDPR provisions on children’s data (Articles 6(1)(f), 8, and 17 right to erasure).
- United Kingdom — the Online Safety Act 2023 duties on user‑to‑user services regarding illegal CSAE content, and the UK Age Appropriate Design Code (Children’s Code).
- India — the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 and the POCSO Act, including the obligation to preserve and report CSAM to the relevant Indian authorities.
- Australia — the Online Safety Act 2021 and the eSafety Commissioner’s Basic Online Safety Expectations.
- GCC and Middle East — applicable child‑protection and cyber‑crime laws in the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf jurisdictions.
- Other jurisdictions — equivalent local child‑safety laws applicable to where the Services are accessed.
Where local law imposes a stricter standard than this page, the stricter standard applies. Nothing on this page limits HitchLine’s obligation to meet its legal duties or to cooperate with competent authorities.
7. Designated Point of Contact
HitchLine maintains a designated point of contact who is responsible for the prevention, detection, and reporting of CSAM and CSAE on the Services, and who is reachable by users, parents and guardians, regulators, law enforcement, and child‑safety organizations.
- Email: [email protected]
- Web: https://hitchline.com/contact/
- Address: HitchLine LLC, State of Delaware, United States.
Reports concerning child safety are routed to the responsible team and treated as highest priority. For ongoing or imminent risk to a child, please contact your local emergency services first, and then notify us so we can preserve evidence and cooperate with authorities.
8. Guidance for Parents and Guardians
If you are a parent or guardian and you believe a person under the applicable minimum age is using HitchLine, or that a minor has been targeted by CSAE on our platform, please contact us at [email protected]. We will work with you to remove the account and preserve any evidence. We encourage parents and guardians to monitor their children’s online activity and to talk to them about safe and respectful use of social services.
9. Updates to These Standards
We review these Child Safety Standards on a regular basis and after significant product, legal, or operational changes. When we make material updates we will revise the Effective Date above and, where appropriate, notify users through the Services. Continued use of HitchLine after an update constitutes acceptance of the revised Standards.
This document was last updated on June 3, 2026.