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In today’s increasingly digital world, technology-savvy users have numerous social apps competing for their virtual attention. Yubo, a Paris-based live social discovery app with a growing global membership base, has risen to the top of this highly competitive industry.
The company’s innovative business model focuses on the fast-growing Gen Z population, specifically 13-to-25-year-old users. Yubo operates with numerous safeguards to ensure users of all ages have a safe online experience, including age-gating, wide-scale age verification, and advanced real-time AI and human intervention. The company’s recognized Safety Board also plays an important role in meeting this ongoing challenge.
Yubo’s First Priority: Keeping Its Users Safe
Since its 2015 inception, Yubo has made user platform safety a top priority. In conjunction with recognized experts, the founders of Yubo prioritized establishing various guidelines to help ensure users of all ages can safely use this social platform.
Yubo designed distinct user communities that only allow users to interact with those in their similar age group. Yubo is strongly focused on protecting all of its users, especially minors who are particularly vulnerable, when socializing on the app. Toward that end, Yubo utilizes several digital identification technologies.
Live Stream Community Guidelines
Users must comply with Yubo’s Community Guidelines when live streaming. For example, Yubo does not permit users to post sexually explicit, pornographic, violent, or illegal content. In addition, users cannot appear in swimwear (if they are not by a pool or at the beach) or underwear. Full and partial nudity are not allowed.
Finally, Yubo places a strong focus on users’ mental health and wellness. Specifically, the platform limits content related to mental health issues such as eating disorders. If a user posts content that promotes this or other self-injury behaviors, the content will be removed and they are likely to be banned from Yubo’s use.
Safety Specialists and advanced AI algorithms constantly monitor each live stream. When Yubo’s Community Guidelines have been violated, a Safety Specialist intervenes in real-time to educate and take action on the user involved. When a user reports a problem, a Safety Specialist will respond within minutes.
Yubo also takes other internal precautions to protect its users. The company partners with non-governmental organizations (or NGOs) in several countries. These efforts are focused on stopping online harassment and other exploitation of children, including on online social platforms.
The Yubo Safety Board’s Integral Role
Besides Yubo’s industry-leading user protection policies and technology, the company consults with a safety advisory Safety Board that constantly reviews and guides Yubo’s expanding suite of safety product features. Board members carefully analyze existing safeguards and help to advise on and propose new ones.
Snapshot of the Yubo Safety Board
The Yubo Safety Board includes online safety experts from across the globe:
- Annie Mullins OBE: Head of Yubo Trust & Safety
- Travis Bright: Safety Engineer, Product Director at Thorn
- Anne Collier: Journalist, Founder of Family Net News, Executive Director of The Net Safety Collaborative
- Dr. Richard Graham: Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Clinical Director, Good Thinking, Consultant
- Alex Holmes: Deputy CEO, The Diana Awards
- Michael Moran: Garda Liaison Officer Paris, Former Deputy Director INTERPOL, Cybercrime Expert
- John Shehan: Vice President, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
The Yubo Safety Board’s Collaborative Programs
Yubo’s respected Safety Board partners with multiple entities to enhance platform users’ digital well-being and safety. Specifically, the Yubo Safety Board maintains collaborative agreements with the Australian, French, and UK governments.
The Yubo Safety Board also actively engages with several influential NGOs focused on younger users’ online safety. Examples include the Australia-based Kids’ Helpline and the UK-based Internet Watch Foundation and NSPCC. In France, the Safety Board works with Point de Contact – INHOPE. Other influential NGOs include the United States National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the US-based Thorn.
Internal Online Safety Initiatives
The Yubo Safety Board also utilizes Yubo’s powerful platform to run issues-led online user safety campaigns. These campaigns regularly bring timely issues before Yubo users. Past collaborators include the Cyberbullying Research Center, The Diana Awards, and The Trevor Project. Switchboard, Good Thinking, e-Enfance, and other leading NGOs have also participated in Yubo’s safety initiatives.
Game-Changing Yoti Age Verification
In late 2018, the Yubo Safety Board facilitated the company’s partnership with Yoti, an industry leader in the online verification arena. Since 2019, Yoti has assisted Yubo in verifying suspicious platform users’ identities. In May 2022, Yubo introduced a new wide-scale Yoti-designed age verification system set to age-verify all users on the platform – a first among major social media apps. Initially targeted at the most vulnerable 13-to-14-year-old users, the system was first tested on this age group in beta. Following a successful test phase, it was expanded to users of all ages throughout the summer of 2022.
The goal of this latest age verification process is simple: ensure everyone who accesses the app is the age they claim to be. This means Yubo users can be confident they are interacting with same-aged users, which is especially important for minors on the platform.
How the Yubo Age Verification System Works
The fast, easy age verification process doesn’t require an ID card or other documentation (unless the age they state on their profile doesn’t match). This is a key advantage as many younger users have not yet acquired an ID card or other identification documents. Instead, each Yubo user will be asked to take a real-time photo inside the app.
Next, Yoti’s age-estimation software will analyze the photo and estimate the user’s age with 98.9 percent accuracy. In addition, a special liveness algorithm will take a short video. When analyzed, the video will determine whether the photo is real rather than a screenshot or Google image.
Next, let’s assume everything checks out and the software determines the user’s claimed age is their real age. If that’s the case, the user will be verified and they will be able to access the app. If there’s a mismatch, the user will need to present more documentation. If they can’t (or won’t) do that, they will not be able to access the Yubo app until they comply.
The Yubo Safety Board’s Steadfast Commitment
Yubo’s continued growth means that Yubo Safety Board members must quickly adapt to evolving online safety challenges. The Board members’ ongoing commitment to users’ safety continues to drive the group’s efforts forward.
