Child Safety
Effective date: September 21, 2026 Last updated: September 27, 2026
Our commitment
Cert.Photos exists to prove that a photograph is real. That purpose is worth nothing if the service becomes a place where children are harmed.
We have zero tolerance for child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and for every form of child sexual exploitation and abuse. This is not a policy we balance against other considerations. There is no warning step, no strike system, and no appeal.
Cert.Photos is operated by Platform Technology Ventures LLC, One Broadway, 14th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
How to report to us
If you believe content certified or shared through Cert.Photos sexually exploits a child:
- Use our report form and choose *Child sexual abuse material*. No account is required, and you may report anonymously.
- Or email abuse@cert.photos.
You do not need to be certain. You do not need to explain yourself. Tell us what you saw and where, and a person will look at it.
You can also report directly to NCMEC, and you should if the matter is urgent: the CyberTipline at https://report.cybertipline.org or 1-800-843-5678. Outside the United States, report to your national hotline via INHOPE at https://www.inhope.org. If a child is in immediate danger, contact your local emergency services first.
What we do when we find it
- The content is removed and its certificate is revoked.
- The account is terminated for good.
- We file a report with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) CyberTipline, as required of electronic service providers under 18 U.S.C. § 2258A.
- We preserve the content and associated records for the period required by law, and make them available to NCMEC and to law enforcement.
- We do not notify the account holder in advance of a report.
Reports of this category are actioned on receipt — not within a service-level window.
How we detect it
We describe our approach by capability rather than by vendor, because the tools change and naming them helps the people we are trying to stop.
- Reports from people. Our report mechanism is open to anyone, without an account, and anonymously. This is the channel we rely on most and the one we invest in first.
- Human review. Every report in this category is reviewed by a person, and it is prioritised ahead of every other queue.
- Automated detection. We operate automated image classification over content uploaded to the service.
Since 21 September 2026, every photo is checked against industry-standard perceptual hash sets of known child sexual abuse material before a certificate is issued. A match blocks certification, preserves the content, and raises a priority case for human review. Photos certified before that date were not screened at capture. No automated check is perfect, and this does not replace reports from people.
Automated detection catches some things and misses others. It does not replace reports, and we do not present it as a guarantee.
Design choices that limit the risk
Two properties of how Cert.Photos is built are worth stating, because they constrain what can enter the service at all:
- Photographs can only enter through our in-app camera. There is no import-from-gallery path, on either iOS or Android. Content cannot be loaded in from a device's photo library.
- There is no public feed, no comments, no direct messages, and no follows. A shared photo is a dead-end verification link. There is no discovery surface for someone to work through, and no channel for contacting another user.
Age
You must be at least 18 years old to use Cert.Photos. Accounts we believe belong to someone under 18 are terminated.
Working with others
We support and cooperate with NCMEC, with law enforcement, and with the child-safety programmes operated by our platform partners. For legal process, see our law enforcement guidelines.
Contact
- Report content: abuse@cert.photos · report form
- Trust and safety: trust@cert.photos
- Legal process: legal@cert.photos
Platform Technology Ventures LLC, One Broadway, 14th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.