Safety & Transparency Centre.

1. Published Child Safety Standards (CSAE & CSAM Zero-Tolerance Policy)

TalkNote from Rare Inc. (operated by RARE INC LTD) maintains an absolute, zero-tolerance policy against Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (CSAE) and Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM):

• Strict Prohibition: We strictly prohibit any Voice Note, audio recording, image, text caption, story, direct message, link, or profile element that depicts, solicits, promotes, normalises, or facilitates the sexual abuse, sexualisation, grooming, sextortion, trafficking, or exploitation of a minor (any person under 18 years of age), including AI-generated or synthetic depictions.
• Immediate Enforcement & Reporting to Authorities: When suspected CSAM or CSAE is detected or reported, we immediately disable public and private access to the material, permanently suspend the offending account (account_suspended), revoke all active session and device tokens, preserve relevant technical evidence in secure restricted storage, and report the incident to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) CyberTipline, the UK National Crime Agency (NCA-CEOP), the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), and/or appropriate national law enforcement agencies.
• In-App & Web CSAE Reporting Mechanism: Users can report suspected child safety violations directly inside the TalkNote iOS, Android, and Web apps using the three-dot menu (••• → Report) on any Voice Note, comment, story, message, or profile, or by contacting our Designated Child Safety Point of Contact at Support@rareincorporated.com. Child safety reports are prioritised at the highest severity tier by our Trust & Safety team.

2. Age Assurance Engine & Protected Minor Safeguards

TalkNote enforces regional age eligibility and age-appropriate experiences through our dedicated backend Age Assurance Engine:

• Regional Minimum Age Requirements: You must be at least 13 years old to create a TalkNote account, or the higher minimum age required by the laws of your country, state, or territory without parental consent (for example, 16 years old in Australia under the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) framework, and between 13 and 16 across EEA member states and the United Kingdom). Users determined to be below the applicable minimum age are blocked from registration (BLOCKED_UNDER_MINIMUM_AGE) or have their accounts deactivated (DEACTIVATED_UNDER_MINIMUM_AGE).
• Multi-Tiered Age Assurance Signals: Our eligibility engine evaluates self-declared date of birth (self_declared_dob), platform-provided age range signals where available (apple_declared_age_range, google_age_signal), age estimation (age_estimation), or identity document verification (identity_document) to classify accounts into structured age brackets (UNDER_13, AGE_13_TO_15, AGE_16_TO_17, AGE_18_PLUS) and policy groups (INELIGIBLE, PROTECTED_MINOR, ADULT).
• Automatic Safeguards for Protected Minors (13–17): Eligible users under the age of 18 are placed in the PROTECTED_MINOR policy group, which automatically activates content_restricted (Restricted Mode) to filter out sensitive media attachments across feeds and discovery.
• Anti-Circumvention Controls on Date of Birth Changes: Updating a Date of Birth requires fresh password re-authentication. Any subsequent Date of Birth change attempt after an initial correction automatically flags the account as REQUIRES_MANUAL_REVIEW by our Trust & Safety team to prevent users from bypassing minor protections.

3. Automated & Human Moderation Architecture

TalkNote combines automated safety screening with human moderation via the internal TalkNote Trust & Safety Console:

• Automated Visual Media Screening (Google Cloud Vision SafeSearch): When a user uploads a profile avatar, cover banner, or photo attachment on a Voice Note, our media scanner evaluates the image against five safety classifiers: Adult, Violence, Racy, Medical, and Spoof.
  • Profile Avatars & Covers: Any avatar or cover photo flagged as sensitive or explicit is automatically rejected (removed) because profile imagery is visible across public directories.
  • Note Photo Attachments: Explicit violations are blocked (is_blocked = true), while borderline sensitive imagery—or media voluntarily marked as sensitive by the creator (MarkedByUser)—is automatically processed through a 25-radius Gaussian blur filter (blurred/<uuid>.jpg) and placed behind a sensitive-content warning interstitial.
  • Audit Logging: Every automated media check is recorded in our media_moderation_checks ledger for quality assurance and moderator review.
• Voice Note & Community Report Review: Community reports submitted against Voice Notes, audio comments, 24-hour stories, direct messages, or user profiles are routed to the TalkNote Moderation Console. Human reviewers evaluate the audio recording, caption, attachments, and account history against our Community Guidelines, prioritising urgent threats to physical safety, child protection, and non-consensual intimate content.

4. User Safety Tools: Blocking, Muting & Privacy Controls

We provide every user with immediate, self-service tools to curate their experience on iOS, Android, and talknote.live:

• Instant Account Blocking: Blocking a user (BlockUser) immediately removes any existing follower/following relationship and pending follow requests in both directions, prevents the blocked account from viewing your content, following you, or sending you direct messages, and hides their posts from your feeds.
• Private Accounts: Enabling Private Account in Settings ensures that only followers you explicitly approve (ApproveFollowRequest) can listen to your Voice Notes, view your stories, or see your follower/following lists.
• Custom Muted Words: You can configure a personal list of muted words or phrases (muted_words) in Settings to hide matching captions and notes from your feed.
• Mention & Sensitive Media Controls: You can toggle whether other users may mention your @handle (allow_mentions), toggle online presence visibility (show_online_status), and enable Restricted Mode (restricted_mode) or hide sensitive media (show_sensitive_media) at any time.

5. Graduated Enforcement Actions & Right to Appeal

When we determine that content or conduct violates our Terms of Service or Community Guidelines, we apply proportionate enforcement measures depending on the severity of the violation and the account's prior history:

1. Content Removal or Sensitive Blurring: Removing a violating Voice Note, audio comment, or story, or applying a mandatory sensitive-media blur warning.
2. Feature-Specific Restrictions: Temporarily restricting specific capabilities, such as suspending posting privileges (posting_suspended), suspending direct messaging (messaging_suspended), or applying account-wide content restrictions (content_restricted).
3. Full Account Suspension & Termination: Suspending the account (account_suspended / is_suspended), which replaces the public profile with a neutral placeholder (@talknoteuser) to prevent ongoing harm, or permanently terminating the account and revoking all session credentials.

How to Appeal a Moderation Decision: If you believe your content was removed or your account was restricted or suspended in error, you may submit a formal appeal within 30 days by emailing Support@rareincorporated.com or submitting a ticket via talknote.co/support (selecting Account Appeal). A human reviewer will re-examine the decision and notify you of the outcome.

6. Law Enforcement & Government Request Guidelines

RARE INC LTD cooperates with lawful investigations while protecting user privacy and freedom of expression:

• Valid Legal Process Required: Except in verified emergencies or mandatory statutory child-safety reports, we disclose non-public user account information only in response to valid, properly served legal process issued by a court or competent law enforcement authority with jurisdiction over RARE INC LTD (such as a court order, search warrant, or statutory production order).
• Preservation Requests: We honour formal law enforcement preservation requests to preserve existing account records for up to 90 days pending issuance of formal legal process.
• Emergency Disclosure Requests: Where a law enforcement agency submits a certified emergency request demonstrating an imminent threat of death, suicide, or serious physical injury to any person, we may voluntarily disclose strictly necessary information to prevent the harm.
• User Notification Policy: Unless prohibited by law, court order, or where notification would create a risk of harm to a minor or an ongoing emergency investigation, our policy is to notify affected users before or promptly after disclosing their account information in response to legal process.
• Law Enforcement Contact: Official legal process and verified law enforcement inquiries must be sent from an official government domain to Support@rareincorporated.com.