Child Safety Standards

• Any image, video, audio, text or link depicting the sexual abuse of a child (CSAM).
• Contacting a child to deceive, groom or persuade them to meet for sexual purposes (grooming).
• Asking a child for sexual images or information, or threatening or blackmailing them with it.
• Content that sexualises children or praises or normalises abuse.
• Any listing or communication that facilitates the trafficking, exploitation or abuse of children.

These prohibitions cover all content, whether real, drawn, animated or generated by artificial intelligence. Accounts that break these rules are closed, and child sexual abuse material is reported to the relevant authorities.

hangel is not a service directed at children. Under our user agreement the minimum age is 18. In Türkiye and the European Union, 16–17-year-olds may use a restricted mode with a declaration of parental consent; in restricted mode, blood donation features and marketing communications are switched off. Children under 16 may not join hangel, and anyone found to be under 16 during age verification cannot pass it. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 16, we close it.

There is no one-to-one private messaging between users: people can only message organisations (NGOs, brands, clubs) and the hangel team, and organisations can reply to people who wrote to them.

In meeting rooms, participants under 18 are in safe mode: they cannot take part in after-meeting profile sharing and do not appear in other people’s lists. The chat filter is on for everyone.

Posts, messages, profiles, events and volunteering listings have a “Report” option, and every message in meeting-room chat has a report button. Choose “Child safety” as the reason. Your report is confidential; the owner of the content is not told who reported it.

From the same menu you can block the account: a person you block cannot message you, and their messages and content are hidden from you. You can manage blocked accounts in Settings → Blocked accounts.

Do not download, screenshot, copy or forward the content — doing so may itself be a crime. Just report it.

If you cannot use the app, write to info@hangel.org with the subject “Child safety” and include a link to the content.

• A child safety report is flagged with the highest priority and the responsible team members are notified immediately.
• The reported post, message, profile or listing is automatically hidden from public view until the review is finished.
• The team reviews the content. If it breaks the rules, it stays down and the account is suspended or closed. If not, the content is restored.
• Child sexual abuse material is removed as soon as we learn of it; the evidence is not deleted but kept inaccessible so it can be passed to the authorities.
• Other reports are reviewed by the same team; content that breaks the rules is removed.

When we become aware of child sexual abuse material, we remove it and report it to the competent authorities under the Turkish Penal Code (Articles 103 and 226) and Law No. 5651: the İhbar Web hotline of the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK), the cybercrime units of the General Directorate of Security (EGM) or the public prosecutor’s office. We respond to lawful requests from the authorities.

For cases outside Türkiye, we report to the competent authority of the country concerned or, where appropriate, to the NCMEC CyberTipline in the United States.

You can also report directly:

• İhbar Web — ihbarweb.org.tr (Türkiye)
• General Directorate of Security (EGM) — egm.gov.tr (Türkiye)
• NCMEC CyberTipline — report.cybertip.org (international)

hangel complies with child protection law in Türkiye (the Turkish Penal Code, Law No. 5651 on internet publications and Law No. 6698 on personal data protection) and with the relevant rules of the countries where it operates. Our rules on children’s personal data are in the Children’s Data Policy.

Our point of contact for questions about our child safety practices and these standards is the address below. Authorities can also reach us there.

info@hangel.org