Universal Child Safety & Minor Protection Policy

1. Statutory Foundations & Global Minor Protection Perimeters

This Universal Child Safety Policy establishes the platform’s immutable commitments to minor privacy, physical safety, and psychological well-being across the global Braai ecosystem.

• South African Law (POPIA Act 4 of 2013, Section 35): Strict statutory prohibition against the processing of personal information of children (under 18 years) unless explicit consent is provided by a competent guardian or authorized under law.
• United States (COPPA — 15 U.S.C. 6501): Full compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, prohibiting unauthorized data collection from children under 13.
• United Kingdom (Age Appropriate Design Code — AADC): Enforcement of all 15 statutory design standards including highest privacy by default, age-appropriate friction, and geolocation deactivation.
• European Union (Digital Services Act & GDPR Art 8): Structural minor profiling bans and algorithmic transparency for youth accounts.

2. The 8-Capability Class Identity Model

Braai enforces cryptographic capability gating based on age assurance tiers:

Child (Under 13) │ Teen (13–17) │ Young Adult (18–20) │ Adult (21+) │ Guardian │ Verified Professional │ Merchant │ Institution

• Child Identity (Under 13): Access is strictly restricted to verified family circles and educational groups. Public social discovery, direct messaging with non-family members, commerce purchasing, financial credit, and adult content are mathematically and structurally impossible.
• Teen Identity (13–17): Access to youth sports, school, and skill communities with mandatory Guardian cryptographic pairing. High-risk features (infinite scroll, dating, public location broadcasting) are permanently disabled.
• Guardian Pairing (AS-007): Parents and legal guardians maintain non-invasive supervision, approval authority over circles, and the right to revoke child credentials at any time.

3. Safe-by-Design Technical Safeguards

• Zero Infinite Scroll: Feed pagination with explicit stopping cues to prevent compulsive engagement and sleep deprivation.
• Night Curfew Protection: Push notifications and community pings are automatically silenced between 21:00 and 07:00 local time for minor accounts.
• Zero Behavioral Advertising: Minor profiles are completely shielded from behavioral tracking, commercial profiling, and targeted advertising.
• Zero Geolocation Broadcasting: Real-time GPS location sharing is disabled by default for all users under 18 years.
• Zero Credit Extension (NCA 34 of 2005): Minor accounts cannot access credit, loans, overdrafts, or interest-bearing instruments.

4. On-Device Safety & Anti-Grooming Scanners

• Flame Filter & Predatory Language Scanner: Text interactions are analyzed using local on-device machine learning models to detect predatory grooming patterns, coercion, or severe cyberbullying without exposing private messages to human moderators unless flagged.
• CSAM Zero-Tolerance & PhotoDNA Matching: Media uploads undergo perceptual hash inspection against global Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) databases.
• Mandatory Law Enforcement Referral: Any confirmed CSAM or severe child exploitation incident triggers immediate account isolation and automated statutory reporting to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), Interpol, and the SAPS Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) Unit.

5. Guardian Inquiries & Safety Reporting

Parents, educators, and guardians may report child safety concerns directly to our dedicated emergency response team:

• Emergency Minor Safety Email: [email protected]
• Response Time: Critical minor safety reports are reviewed and acted upon within 60 minutes 24/7/365.