child safety & CSAE standards

summary — what you need to know

Unify has zero tolerance for child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE). Any content or behaviour that sexually exploits, abuses or endangers a minor is prohibited, results in immediate and permanent removal from the platform, and is referred to law enforcement and to the appropriate child protection body without prior notice to the offending account. Every listing, profile, message and community post can be reported from inside the app. Reports involving a minor are the highest-priority matter we handle, are always reviewed by a person, and are actioned within 24 hours. To raise a concern directly, email hello@unifymarketplace.com with the subject line URGENT — CHILD SAFETY.

01Scope and why these standards exist

Unify Marketplace Ltd (“Unify”, “we”, “us”) operates the Unify platform — a student-exclusive marketplace and community available via our website and mobile applications. These standards apply to every part of the platform: marketplace listings, direct messages, group and society channels, events and ticketing, profiles, and any other user-generated content or interaction.

Access to Unify requires enrolment at a recognised university or higher education institution, verified through a valid institutional email address. Eligibility is based on enrolment rather than on age, which means a small number of Users may be under the age of 18. We publish these standards because a platform that can lawfully contain minors must state plainly what it forbids, how it responds, and how anyone — user, parent, institution or authority — can reach us.

These standards restate and expand commitments already set out in clause 26 of our Terms of Service and section 14 of our Privacy Policy. Where this page and those documents overlap, they are intended to be read together. In the event of any conflict, the Terms of Service prevail.

02What CSAE means on Unify

“CSAE” means child sexual abuse and exploitation. “Child” and “minor” mean any person under the age of 18, whether or not they are enrolled at a university and whether or not they hold a Unify account. The following are absolutely prohibited on Unify, without exception and regardless of intent, framing, humour or claimed fiction:

Child sexual abuse material (CSAM) — posting, sharing, linking to, requesting, distributing or facilitating access to any imagery or recording depicting the sexual abuse or sexual exploitation of a minor, including computer-generated, animated or AI-generated depictions.
Sexualisation of minors — any text, image, audio or video that presents a minor in a sexualised manner, describes a minor in sexual terms, or is designed to elicit sexual gratification involving a minor.
Grooming — any attempt to build a relationship, trust or emotional connection with a minor for the purpose of sexual abuse, exploitation or trafficking, including attempts to move a minor to another platform or to an offline meeting for those purposes.
Sextortion — threatening to reveal intimate imagery of a person in order to obtain further imagery, sexual activity, money or anything else of value, where that person is or may be a minor.
Solicitation — requesting, offering or arranging sexual contact with a minor, or requesting sexual imagery from a minor.
Trafficking — advertising, recruiting, transporting or arranging the sexual exploitation of a minor, including through listings, events or community channels.
Facilitation and normalisation — offering to supply CSAM, directing others to it, or promoting, glorifying or seeking to legitimise sexual interest in minors.

These prohibitions apply to public content and to private communications alike. They also apply to conduct that begins on Unify and continues elsewhere: where we become aware that an account has been used to initiate contact that leads to CSAE off-platform, we treat it as a violation of these standards.

03How we work to prevent CSAE

No platform can guarantee prevention of every violation in real time, and we do not claim to. The measures below describe what we actually operate.

measure	what it does
institutional email verification	Every account is tied to a verified university or higher-education email address. Unify is not an open network — accounts cannot be created anonymously, and each account is traceable to an institution.
campus-scoped visibility	Users see and interact with the verified community at their own institution rather than an open global audience, which materially narrows the surface for stranger-initiated contact.
automated moderation	Automated systems screen listings, profiles and community content against our conduct and content standards and escalate matches for human review. An automated flag never results in a significant account decision without a person reviewing it.
human review of reports	Every report is reviewed by a member of the Unify team. Reports involving a minor are never handled by automated processing alone.
in-app reporting and blocking	Every listing, profile, message, review, event and community space can be reported from inside the app, and any user can be blocked immediately and reversibly from account settings.
no device location	Unify does not collect device location. Users are associated with a campus, not tracked to a place.
age-appropriate design	We do not use manipulative design techniques or engagement-maximising mechanisms that could be harmful to younger users. See section 07.

Operating these systems does not make Unify liable for content that is not detected before it is reported, and the presence of moderation infrastructure does not transfer liability to Unify for content created by Users, as set out in clause 20.4 of our Terms of Service.

04How to report CSAE

4.1 In the app

Unify provides an in-app reporting mechanism on every piece of user-generated content and on every user. Open the item — a listing, profile, message, review, event or community space — use the report control, and select the child safety reason. You do not need to be certain, and you do not need to be the person affected. You can also block the account at the same time; blocking takes effect immediately and is independent of the report.

4.2 By email

Anyone — including people without a Unify account, parents, guardians, university staff, child protection organisations and law enforcement — may report a child safety concern by emailing hello@unifymarketplace.com with the subject line marked URGENT — CHILD SAFETY. Please include any username, link or description that helps us locate the account or content.

4.3 Reporting to the authorities directly

Reporting to Unify does not replace reporting to the authorities, and you should never delay contacting them in order to contact us first. If a child is in immediate danger, call the emergency services (999 in the UK, 911 in the US). In the UK, suspected child sexual abuse imagery can be reported anonymously to the Internet Watch Foundation, and concerns about online child sexual abuse to CEOP Safeguarding. In the United States, reports can be made to the NCMEC CyberTipline.

4.4 Do not forward the material

Never download, save, re-share or forward suspected child sexual abuse material — including to us. Possessing or distributing it is a criminal offence regardless of the reporter’s intent. Report where the content is; do not send the content itself.

05What happens after a report

Reports concerning the safety of a User who is or may be under 18 are the highest-priority matter we handle. Our response is as follows:

Acknowledgement and review. All reports are acknowledged and reviewed within 24 hours of receipt. Child safety reports are escalated ahead of the queue and acted on in the shortest possible timeframe.
Human review, always. Every child safety report is reviewed by a human member of the Unify team and is never subject to automated processing alone.
Immediate removal. Content that violates these standards is removed immediately on detection or confirmation, without waiting for the outcome of any wider investigation.
Permanent termination. Where a CSAE violation is confirmed or credibly suspected, the account is terminated immediately and permanently. Termination on these grounds is not subject to the ordinary appeal process; any review is conducted internally and does not require prior notice to the account holder.
Preservation. Relevant account records, content and metadata are preserved for disclosure to law enforcement and child protection authorities, and are retained for as long as is necessary for that purpose, notwithstanding any deletion request.
Referral. The matter is referred to the authorities as set out in section 06.

Submitting a report does not guarantee a specific outcome, and we may not be able to tell a reporter what action was taken — doing so can compromise an investigation or the privacy of the person the report concerns. All valid reports are actioned.

06Referral to authorities and cooperation

Unify will report all confirmed or credibly suspected instances of child sexual abuse material to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) in the United Kingdom, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the United States, and to law enforcement in the relevant jurisdiction, without delay and without prior notice to the offending User. Confirmed or credibly suspected grooming, sextortion, solicitation or trafficking involving a minor is referred to the relevant law enforcement authority on the same basis.

Unify cooperates fully and without reservation with law enforcement, child protection agencies and regulatory bodies in all matters relating to child safety. This cooperation supersedes any obligation of confidentiality owed to the User whose account is the subject of the inquiry. We will preserve relevant data and provide it to authorities as required by law.

Law enforcement and child protection agencies may contact us at the address in section 09. We aim to respond to properly identified requests concerning an imminent risk to a child within the same working day.

07Age-appropriate design

Unify’s design principles are consistent with the UK Children’s Code (Age Appropriate Design Code) to the extent applicable to our platform and user base. We do not use manipulative design techniques or engagement-maximising mechanisms that could be harmful to younger users.

Where a User is under 18, their personal data is processed on the same legal bases and subject to the same retention periods set out in our Privacy Policy, together with the additional protections in clause 26 of the Terms of Service. Unify does not collect device location, does not sell personal data, and does not run behavioural advertising inside the app.

08Compliance with child safety laws

Unify complies with applicable child safety and child protection laws in the jurisdictions in which it operates. These include, as applicable, the Online Safety Act 2023, the Protection of Children Act 1978, the Sexual Offences Act 2003, and the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 in the United Kingdom; and 18 U.S.C. § 2258A and related federal and state law in the United States; together with any equivalent obligations in other jurisdictions where our Users are located.

Unify further confirms that it complies with the child safety standards required for distribution on the platforms through which our apps are made available, including Google Play’s Child Safety Standards policy and Apple’s App Store Review Guidelines on objectionable content and safety. These standards are published at unifymarketplace.com/child-safety and that is the link we provide to those platforms.

09Child safety point of contact

Unify maintains a designated point of contact for child safety matters. Users, parents and guardians, universities, child protection organisations, regulators, law enforcement and app distribution platforms may all use it.

Email: hello@unifymarketplace.com — subject line URGENT — CHILD SAFETY
Postal address: Child Safety, Unify Marketplace Ltd, 46 Marlborough Place, London NW8 0PL, United Kingdom
Response commitment: acknowledgement and human review within 24 hours; same-working-day response to properly identified requests from authorities concerning imminent risk to a child

This address is monitored for child safety reports specifically. For all other matters — general moderation reports, data protection requests, press enquiries — use our contact page.

10Review and changes to these standards

We review these standards at least annually, and whenever our platform features, our moderation capability, or the law materially change. Material changes are published on this page with an updated version number and effective date. The current version and effective date are shown at the top of this page.