Child safety standards

Roadby does not tolerate child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE) in any form. This page sets out our standards for the Roadby app and for this website (roadby.app): what is prohibited, how to report it, what we do when we find out about it and how to contact us. It applies to everyone who uses Roadby, wherever they are.

Who Roadby is for

Roadby is an app for drivers: it connects people who are physically close to each other by live voice, and lets them write to each other by text message. Roadby is only for adults.

Everyone must confirm that they are 18 or older when creating an account. We do not verify ages, so these standards assume that a minor may still try to use Roadby; if we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18, we may block or close it.

These standards apply to every Roadby user, whatever their age: anything that sexually exploits, abuses or endangers a child is prohibited on Roadby, and so is using Roadby to contact a child for that purpose.

What is prohibited

By “child” or “minor” we mean anyone under 18. In the voice lobby, in messages and message requests, in groups (including their names and photos), in a profile (name, @username, bio or photo) and in any contact that starts through Roadby, you must not:

• Share, ask for, promote or point others to child sexual abuse material (CSAM): any photo, video or computer-generated image that shows a minor in sexually explicit conduct.
• Sexualise children in any way, including sexual comments, descriptions or jokes about minors.
• Groom a child: contact a minor or win their trust in order to abuse or exploit them sexually, including trying to meet them.
• Threaten, blackmail or pressure a minor to obtain sexual images or sexual contact (sextortion).
• Offer, advertise or arrange the sexual exploitation or trafficking of a child.

These rules add to the community guidelines in the terms of service. Breaking them always leads to the account being closed, as explained below.

How Roadby is built

Some of Roadby's design choices limit what can be shared through it. You should also know what those choices cannot do:

• Besides live voice, Roadby has text messages, one to one and in groups. Messages are text only: nobody can send photos, videos, voice notes or files in them (a group can have a group photo, which is checked like profile photos). Only friends can add someone to a group. By default anyone can send a message request, which can be accepted or deleted; each person can limit requests to people they have met in a lobby or to friends only (Settings › Messages › Who can message you). Messages are not end-to-end encrypted: our server keeps them only until they are delivered (30 days at most), and we only look at the messages someone reports.
• Voice is live and is never recorded, exported or transcribed. That protects everyone's privacy, but it also means we cannot listen back to a conversation: when something happens in the lobby, we depend on your report.
• Nobody receives your position, your distance or your direction: other people only learn that you are in range (within about 400 metres) and, while you are, a volume level in four steps (section A.3 of the privacy policy).
• Profile photos and group photos are checked automatically before they are published (Google Cloud Vision's SafeSearch), and a photo is rejected if the check flags it as sexually explicit at its highest level. It is an automatic filter, not a tool built to detect child sexual abuse material: it can make mistakes, and if the service is unavailable a profile photo can be published without being checked, but a group photo cannot (sections A.2 and A.5b of the privacy policy). That is why your reports matter.
• You can block anyone at any time. Blocking is immediate and the other person is not told. From then on neither of you sees or hears the other and their messages no longer reach you; if you are both in a group, you both stay members, but their messages reach you folded and they cannot notify or mention you.

How to report a concern

In the app. Open the person's profile (from Friends, History or Notifications or, if you have already blocked them, from Settings › Account › Blocked users), tap the ⋯ button at the top right and choose “Report @username”. In a chat, you can also report the whole conversation from its menu or a single message by holding it; in a group, the group from its menu or a message by holding it. Choose the reason that fits best, such as “Sexual content or involves a minor”, or, if none does, “Something else”. The person you report is not told who reported them (in a group, no one is told), and once the report is sent the app offers to block them as well. Always do it with the vehicle stopped in a safe place.

By email. A report in the app does not include a description (a report from a chat does include a copy of the last messages the reported person sent there), so if what you want to report involves a child, please also write to us at support@roadby.app (in the app: Settings › Account › Help & support) with the @username, what happened and when. You do not need a Roadby account to write to us about a child's safety.

Do not download, screenshot, copy or forward the material, not even to us: sharing it can be a crime in itself. Tell us where you saw it instead (for example, the @username of the profile).

If a child is in immediate danger, call the emergency services first: 112 in Spain and across the European Union.

You can also report child sexual abuse material directly to the authorities. In Spain, to the Policía Nacional at denuncias.pornografia.infantil@policia.es, or anonymously through the child sexual abuse material hotline of INCIBE, Spain's National Cybersecurity Institute, which is part of the INHOPE international network. Elsewhere, contact your local police.

What we do when we receive a report

Reports go to a private list that only Roadby's administrators can read, and each new report sends them a notification; the person reported cannot see them or find out who filed them. We aim to review each report within 24 hours; messages about a child's safety always come first.

When we have reason to believe that a child is being sexually abused or exploited through Roadby, or that someone has shared child sexual abuse material:

• We remove the content from Roadby (for example, the profile photo, the bio, a group's name or photo, or messages still waiting on our server) as soon as we know about it.
• Before we close the account, we save a copy of the information we still hold that the authorities may need (such as the account details, the reports received, any copies of reported messages and the access records), and we share it only with the authorities. If the person has already deleted their own account, the account details and the reports about them were deleted with it; copies of reported messages remain for up to 90 days after they were made, and the access records for the periods set out in the privacy policy.
• We report it to the competent authorities: in Spain, the Policía Nacional.
• We close the account involved: we block it so that it can no longer join the lobby, appear on anyone's radar or send messages, and we keep the copy described above for as long as the authorities need it, even if its owner deletes the account. Its owner is banned from Roadby and must not open a new account; if we find one, we will close it too.
• We cooperate with the police and the courts when they ask us for information, in accordance with the law.

Our legal adviser is confirming how long that copy is kept and on what legal basis, and the exact channel we use to report to the authorities; this section will set them out when the review is complete. Until then, we keep the copy only for the authorities and only for as long as they need it.

Because voice is not recorded, when a report is about something said in the lobby we decide on the basis of the reports we receive and the information we hold about the accounts involved; when it is about messages, we also have the copy that comes with the report. Any other breach of these standards also leads to the account being closed.

Complying with the law

Roadby complies with the child protection laws that apply to it, including those of Spain, where Roadby is run, and of the European Union. Where the law requires us to report something to the authorities, or to keep or hand over information, we do so.

Child safety contact

For anything to do with child safety on Roadby, including enquiries from the authorities, from Google Play or from organisations that protect children, write to support@roadby.app. Our child safety contact can explain how we prevent and deal with child sexual abuse material on Roadby, and can act on what you tell us.

Changes to these standards

If we make a significant change to this page, we will update the date shown at the top.