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Safety

VIA Age & Child Safety Policy

Effective Date: August 21, 2026 · Last Updated: August 21, 2026

VIA is a faith-centered platform available to users 16 years of age and older.

Because VIA may be used by older teenagers as well as adults, VIA applies additional safety and privacy protections to users under 18. VIA does not permit children under 16 to create or maintain accounts.

This Age & Child Safety Policy explains VIA's age requirements, protections for minors, restrictions concerning sexual exploitation and grooming, and procedures for handling age and child-safety concerns.

This Policy supplements the VIA Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Community Guidelines, Safety & Reporting Policy, AI Privacy Notice, Copyright / DMCA Policy, and other applicable VIA policies.

1. Minimum Age

You must be at least 16 years old to:

  • Create a VIA account.
  • Maintain a VIA account.
  • Access or use VIA.
  • Participate in VIA features.
  • Submit content to VIA.
  • Use VIA's AI features.
  • Use messaging or other communication features if and when available.
  • Upload content for analysis or processing.

If you are under 16, you may not create or use a VIA account.

The minimum age applies regardless of whether a person intends to:

  • Only read content.
  • Use only certain features.
  • Avoid messaging other users.
  • Use only AI features.
  • Use VIA temporarily.
  • Use another person's account.

2. Users Under 18

VIA permits users who are 16 or 17 years old to use the platform.

However, users under 18 receive additional protections because they are minors.

VIA may apply heightened safeguards to interactions involving minors, particularly where conduct involves:

  • Sexual content.
  • Sexual solicitation.
  • Grooming.
  • Exploitation.
  • Requests for private or intimate information.
  • Attempts to move interactions to less protected channels.
  • Attempts to arrange inappropriate offline meetings.
  • Financial exploitation.
  • Manipulation or coercion.
  • Spiritual or religious authority being used to exploit a minor.

Being permitted to use VIA does not mean that an adult may treat a 16- or 17-year-old as though the minor has the same risk profile or protections as an adult.

3. No Accounts for Individuals Under 16

Individuals under 16 are not permitted to use VIA.

If VIA learns that an account belongs to someone under 16, VIA may:

  • Restrict the account.
  • Suspend the account.
  • Terminate the account.
  • Remove associated content where appropriate.
  • Delete associated information where required by applicable law.
  • Take additional measures reasonably necessary to protect the individual.

VIA may take these actions without prior notice when reasonably necessary for safety, security, or legal compliance.

4. Age Representation

When creating an account, users must provide truthful age information and must not intentionally misrepresent their age to obtain access to VIA.

Users must not:

  • Claim to be older than they are.
  • Create an account for someone under 16.
  • Allow a person under 16 to use their account.
  • Use another person's account to bypass the minimum-age requirement.
  • Circumvent an age restriction or account restriction.

VIA may take action when it has reason to believe an account does not satisfy the minimum-age requirement.

5. Age Verification

VIA may use age information, age-assurance technologies, account information, reports, or other reasonable methods to enforce its age requirements.

VIA does not guarantee that every user's age can be independently verified.

Self-reported age information may not identify every underage user.

If VIA introduces age-verification or age-assurance technology, the applicable Privacy Policy and other notices will describe relevant information practices.

Where age-verification information is collected, VIA will handle it according to applicable law and its privacy and retention practices.

6. Children Under 13

VIA is not intended for children under 16.

Accordingly, VIA does not permit children under 13 to create accounts or use the Service.

Where applicable, VIA will comply with legal requirements concerning personal information collected from children, including requirements that may apply under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and related regulations. COPPA generally applies to online services directed to children under 13 and to general-audience services with actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information from children under 13.

If VIA learns that a child under 13 has created or used an account, VIA may take appropriate steps to restrict or terminate the account and address associated information as required by applicable law.

7. Reporting an Underage User

If you believe someone using VIA is under 16, report the account through the available reporting mechanism.

Useful information may include:

  • Username.
  • Profile or account information.
  • Relevant statements made by the user.
  • The reason you believe the user is under 16.

Do not:

  • Investigate the person yourself.
  • Attempt to obtain additional personal information.
  • Contact or confront the suspected minor.
  • Publicly identify the suspected minor.
  • Encourage others to investigate the person.
  • Publish screenshots of the suspected minor.

A good-faith report may be appropriate even if VIA ultimately determines that the user satisfies the minimum-age requirement.

8. Sexual Content Involving Minors

VIA strictly prohibits sexual exploitation and sexualization of minors.

Users may not use VIA to create, upload, request, transmit, distribute, facilitate, or otherwise engage in sexual content involving a minor.

This includes:

  • Child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
  • Sexual images or videos involving minors.
  • Sexualized depictions of minors.
  • Sexual solicitation of minors.
  • Requests for sexual images from minors.
  • Sexual conversations directed toward minors.
  • Sexualized AI-generated content depicting minors.
  • Attempts to obtain sexual material involving minors.
  • Attempts to distribute sexual material involving minors.
  • Content that falsely represents a minor as an adult for sexual purposes.

This prohibition applies regardless of whether content is:

  • Real.
  • Edited.
  • AI-generated.
  • Computer-generated.
  • Photorealistic.
  • Fictionalized.
  • Shared privately.
  • Published publicly.

9. Sexual Solicitation and Exploitation of Minors

Users may not use VIA to:

  • Solicit sexual activity from a minor.
  • Request sexual photographs or videos from a minor.
  • Offer sexual material to a minor.
  • Groom a minor for sexual purposes.
  • Encourage a minor to meet for sexual purposes.
  • Move a sexual interaction with a minor to another platform.
  • Encourage secrecy concerning sexual interactions.
  • Facilitate sexual exploitation of a minor.
  • Use another account or communication method to circumvent restrictions involving a minor.

VIA may immediately restrict or terminate accounts reasonably suspected of engaging in serious sexual exploitation or grooming.

Where required or appropriate under applicable law, VIA may preserve or disclose relevant information to authorized authorities or reporting organizations.

10. Grooming

VIA prohibits grooming and other conduct intended to sexually exploit or abuse minors.

Potential grooming behavior may include attempts to:

  • Build inappropriate trust with a minor for sexual purposes.
  • Isolate a minor from trusted adults.
  • Encourage secrecy about an interaction.
  • Gradually introduce sexual material.
  • Request sexual images.
  • Exchange sexual content.
  • Arrange sexual meetings.
  • Move a minor to another platform to avoid safeguards.
  • Manipulate, threaten, or pressure a minor into sexual activity.

A single interaction does not necessarily establish grooming. VIA may consider the surrounding circumstances, pattern of conduct, communications, and available evidence.

11. Adult-to-Minor Interactions

VIA recognizes that adults and 16–17-year-olds may legitimately encounter one another in a faith community.

Adult-to-minor interaction is not automatically prohibited.

However, adults must not use VIA to:

  • Pursue a minor sexually.
  • Groom a minor.
  • Solicit sexual content.
  • Manipulate a minor into secrecy.
  • Exploit a minor's vulnerability.
  • Pressure a minor into inappropriate offline contact.
  • Request unnecessary intimate or sensitive information.
  • Use spiritual authority or perceived religious authority to exploit a minor.

VIA may apply heightened scrutiny to reported adult-to-minor interactions where there are indicators of exploitation, coercion, grooming, or sexual misconduct.

12. Romantic and Relationship Conduct

VIA is not a dating platform.

Users may discuss:

  • Marriage.
  • Singleness.
  • Relationships.
  • Dating experiences.
  • Christian perspectives on relationships.
  • Personal experiences.
  • Family and community relationships.

However, users may not use VIA as a hunting ground for romantic or sexual solicitation.

In particular, users should not use VIA for:

  • Unsolicited romantic outreach.
  • Mass romantic messaging.
  • Sexual advances.
  • Dating-oriented outreach to people they do not already know.
  • Repeated romantic contact after rejection.
  • Targeting minors for romantic or sexual purposes.

Adult users must not pursue romantic or sexual relationships with 16–17-year-old users through VIA.

13. Spiritual Authority and Minors

Because VIA is faith-centered, spiritual authority requires particular care.

Users must not exploit religious, pastoral, or spiritual authority to manipulate a minor.

Examples include:

  • Claiming God requires a minor to keep an interaction secret.
  • Using Scripture to pressure a minor into sexual or romantic conduct.
  • Claiming spiritual authority to obtain intimate information.
  • Telling a minor that obedience to the user is required by God.
  • Using religious guilt, fear, or threats to control a minor.
  • Using a pastoral or mentoring relationship to facilitate exploitation.

VIA may treat these circumstances as spiritual manipulation, grooming, harassment, exploitation, or another applicable violation depending on the circumstances.

14. Mental Health, Crisis, and Vulnerable Minors

Users may discuss mental health, emotional struggles, prayer, grief, trauma, abuse, and other difficult experiences.

However, users must not exploit a minor's vulnerability.

Users must not:

  • Encourage self-harm.
  • Encourage suicide.
  • Encourage violence.
  • Encourage a minor to remain in immediate danger.
  • Discourage emergency assistance through coercive spiritual claims.
  • Use a minor's crisis to obtain money, sexual content, personal information, or inappropriate access.
  • Present themselves as having authority over a minor's safety or medical treatment when they do not.

VIA's Community Guidelines and Safety & Reporting Policy provide additional requirements concerning crisis and high-stakes safety situations.

15. Images and Personal Information Involving Minors

Users should exercise particular care before uploading information or images involving minors.

Do not unnecessarily upload:

  • School identification cards.
  • Student records.
  • School schedules.
  • Home addresses.
  • Phone numbers.
  • Private conversations.
  • Medical information.
  • Government identification.
  • Precise locations.
  • Private photographs.
  • Other sensitive information concerning a minor.

Users should redact unnecessary identifying information before uploading material to VIA.

Public availability of information does not automatically make it appropriate to redistribute.

16. AI Features and Minors

VIA may provide AI features that process user-submitted:

  • Text.
  • Images.
  • Documents.
  • Screenshots.
  • Other content.

Users must not intentionally use VIA AI features to:

  • Sexualize a minor.
  • Generate sexual content involving a minor.
  • Identify a minor for exploitation.
  • Locate a minor.
  • Profile a minor for exploitation.
  • Facilitate sexual contact with a minor.
  • Circumvent child-safety protections.
  • Generate deceptive material designed to exploit a minor.

AI-generated content is subject to the same applicable safety restrictions as other content.

VIA may restrict AI access or terminate accounts where AI features are deliberately misused in ways that threaten minors.

Additional information about AI processing is provided in VIA's AI Privacy Notice.

17. Do Not Identify or Locate Minors

Users may not use VIA to crowdsource the identification, location, or personal information of a minor.

Prohibited conduct includes:

  • Identifying a minor from a photograph.
  • Finding a minor's school.
  • Finding a minor's home.
  • Publishing a minor's phone number.
  • Publishing a minor's private social-media accounts for targeting.
  • Organizing users to contact a minor.
  • Encouraging users to track a minor.
  • Publishing information intended to facilitate unwanted contact with a minor.

This restriction applies even where information may be publicly available elsewhere.

18. Child Sexual Abuse Material

VIA strictly prohibits CSAM.

Users must never upload CSAM to VIA for the purpose of:

  • Sharing it.
  • Storing it.
  • Analyzing it.
  • Generating related material.
  • Distributing it.
  • Using it as part of an AI prompt.

Do not upload suspected CSAM merely to report it.

If you encounter suspected CSAM, use VIA's reporting mechanism and provide only the information reasonably necessary to identify the relevant content.

Do not redistribute the material.

VIA may preserve and report suspected CSAM or child sexual exploitation when required or appropriate under applicable law.

19. Reporting Child-Safety Concerns

Report suspected:

  • Underage accounts.
  • Sexual exploitation of minors.
  • Grooming.
  • Sexual solicitation.
  • CSAM.
  • Threats against minors.
  • Attempts to locate or identify minors.
  • Exploitation of a minor's vulnerability.
  • Serious adult-to-minor misconduct.

When reporting, provide enough information for VIA to identify the relevant account or content.

Do not:

  • Confront the suspected offender.
  • Threaten the suspected offender.
  • Organize harassment.
  • Repost prohibited material.
  • Attempt to conduct your own investigation.
  • Publish identifying information about a minor.

20. Emergency Situations

VIA is not an emergency response service.

If you or another person appears to face an immediate risk of serious physical harm, contact appropriate emergency services or another qualified emergency resource in your location.

Do not wait for VIA to respond to a report when immediate intervention is necessary.

21. Enforcement

VIA may take action when it reasonably believes an account or content violates this Policy.

Possible actions include:

  • Removing content.
  • Restricting content.
  • Restricting communication features.
  • Restricting AI features.
  • Suspending an account.
  • Permanently terminating an account.
  • Blocking associated accounts where appropriate.
  • Preserving relevant information.
  • Taking additional protective measures.
  • Reporting conduct to appropriate authorities or organizations where required or appropriate.

VIA may take immediate action when necessary to protect a minor or other user.

22. Legal and Regulatory Cooperation

VIA may respond to valid legal requests from:

  • Law enforcement.
  • Courts.
  • Regulators.
  • Other legally authorized entities.

Where legally required or permitted, VIA may preserve or disclose information relevant to investigations involving:

  • Child exploitation.
  • Sexual abuse.
  • Grooming.
  • Serious threats.
  • Violence.
  • Other serious criminal conduct.

Any disclosure will be handled according to applicable law and VIA's Privacy Policy.

23. False Reports

Users must not knowingly submit false or fraudulent child-safety reports to:

  • Harass another user.
  • Retaliate against another user.
  • Silence legitimate discussion.
  • Manipulate moderation.
  • Remove an account they simply dislike.

A good-faith report is not a violation merely because VIA ultimately determines that the reported conduct did not violate this Policy.

24. Protecting Minors' Privacy

If VIA becomes aware that personal information concerning a minor has been improperly exposed, VIA may take reasonable steps to limit its exposure.

Depending on the circumstances, this may include:

  • Removing content.
  • Restricting access.
  • Removing identifying information.
  • Suspending an account.
  • Preserving relevant information.
  • Taking additional protective measures.

VIA cannot guarantee that information users have already copied, downloaded, or redistributed can be removed from every location.

25. No Guarantee of Complete Detection

VIA uses reasonable measures to enforce its age and child-safety requirements.

However, no:

  • Age declaration.
  • Age-assurance system.
  • Automated moderation system.
  • AI system.
  • Human review process.
  • Reporting system

can identify every violation.

VIA does not guarantee that every underage user, grooming attempt, exploitative interaction, or prohibited piece of content will be detected.

Users should report genuine concerns rather than relying solely on automated systems.

26. Relationship to Other VIA Policies

This Policy should be read together with:

  • VIA Terms of Service.
  • VIA Privacy Policy.
  • VIA Community Guidelines.
  • VIA Safety & Reporting Policy.
  • VIA AI Privacy Notice.
  • VIA Copyright / DMCA Policy.
  • VIA Data Retention and Deletion Policy.

Additional protections may apply to specific features.

If a feature-specific policy establishes stricter protections for minors, those protections also apply.

27. Changes to This Policy

VIA may update this Policy as:

  • Features change.
  • New safety risks emerge.
  • Applicable laws change.
  • Age-assurance practices develop.
  • Moderation systems evolve.
  • Privacy practices change.

Material changes may be communicated through appropriate means.

The current version will be made available through VIA.

Core Rule

VIA is 16+.

  • Users under 16 may not create or use VIA.
  • Users 16–17 may use VIA but receive additional protections as minors.
  • Sexual exploitation, sexualization, grooming, and sexual solicitation involving minors are prohibited.
  • Adults may not use VIA to pursue minors sexually or exploit minors through romantic, spiritual, financial, or emotional manipulation.
  • Do not use VIA to identify, locate, expose, or target minors.
  • Do not upload suspected CSAM merely to report it.
  • Report genuine child-safety concerns rather than confronting or investigating the people involved.
  • VIA is not an emergency service.