Pictorium

Draft — not yet in force. Details marked “to come” are being filled in.

Pictorium Child Safety Standards

Effective date: [to come: effective date] · Operator: Switch'N'Plugs · Child safety contact: safety@pictorium.ca

Pictorium exists so families, teams, and classes can share photos of events, and many of those photos show children. We take that seriously. This page states our standards against child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE) and what we do to enforce them.

What we prohibit

Any of the following gets content removed, the account closed, and, where the law requires, a report to the authorities:

• Child sexual abuse material (CSAM) of any kind: uploading, requesting, describing, or linking to it.
• Sexualizing a minor: content, comments, or captions that present a child in a sexual way, including otherwise ordinary photos paired with sexual comments.
• Grooming: using Pictorium to build a relationship with a child for sexual purposes, to arrange contact, or to move a child to another platform.
• Sextortion, or soliciting sexual images from a minor.
• Sharing photos of children the uploader has no right to share, or refusing a parent's or guardian's request to remove a photo of their child.
• Accounts held by children under 13.

How we keep CSAM out

Pictorium is built around closed groups, not a public feed, and we rely on people rather than scanning. We do not scan uploads against databases of known images.

• Closed groups. Only people with the group's invite code can join, and the organizer can let people in one at a time.
• Organizer approval. By default, the organizer approves every upload before anyone else in the group can see it.
• In-app reporting. Anyone in a group can report a photo, video, comment, or person in two taps. A report of child sexual abuse or exploitation goes straight to our designated child safety contact, a person, at safety@pictorium.ca.

When we learn of CSAM, by a report or otherwise:

1. The file is taken out of view at once. No member, and not the organizer, can see it.
2. The file and related account information are preserved as evidence and are not deleted by any process, including account deletion.
3. The uploader's account is frozen: no sign-in, no uploads, nothing published.
4. We report to the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (Cybertip.ca) and notify the police, and cooperate with law enforcement.
5. Nobody views the file to handle the report. We act on the report, not on the picture, and we do not tell the uploader, the organizer, or the group that a report was made.

There is no in-app appeal. Anyone who believes an account was frozen in error may write to safety@pictorium.ca.

How we handle other reports

• In-app reporting. Any member can report a photo, video, comment, or person from inside the app, in two taps. Reports reach the group's organizer, and a report of illegal content also reaches Switch'N'Plugs's safety contact by email.
• Blocking. Any member can block another; the two no longer see each other's content.
• Organizer gate. By default, an organizer approves each upload before the group can see it, and can remove anything at any time.
• Review and action. Reports of CSAE are handled by the safety officer with priority. Confirmed CSAE leads to removal, account closure, preservation of evidence, a report to Cybertip.ca, and notice to police.

What organizers are expected to do

Organizers control who joins and what is shown. They must share the invite code only with people who belong; keep upload approval on for groups involving children unless they have a good reason not to; remove anything that breaks these standards; act on reports promptly; and honour any parent's or guardian's request to remove a photo of their child.

Legal compliance

Switch'N'Plugs complies with Canada's An Act respecting the mandatory reporting of Internet child pornography by persons who provide an Internet service (S.C. 2011, c. 4) and, where applicable, 18 U.S.C. § 2258A (reporting to NCMEC's CyberTipline) and its evidence-preservation duties, along with all other applicable child safety laws.

How to report

• To us: the in-app report button, or safety@pictorium.ca (monitored by our designated child safety officer).
• In Canada: Cybertip.ca — https://cybertip.ca
• In the United States: NCMEC CyberTipline — https://report.cybertip.org
• If a child is in immediate danger, call your local police (911 in Canada and the U.S.).

Designated child safety point of contact: safety@pictorium.ca, Switch'N'Plugs, [to come: mailing address].

Our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy contain more detail.