Working with Governments and NGOs

No platform can keep people safe on its own. PlayHouse works with child-protection organizations, support services, technology providers and law enforcement to prevent abuse, and we are subject to oversight by regulators in the places where we operate. This page explains who we work with and how.

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)

NCMEC is the US nonprofit that runs the CyberTipline, the national system for reporting suspected child sexual exploitation.

• CyberTipline reporting. PlayHouse is registered with NCMEC as an electronic service provider, operated by Vallara, Inc. We report apparent child sexual abuse material (CSAM) to the CyberTipline, as US law (18 U.S.C. §2258A) requires, and preserve the reported material as the law requires. NCMEC makes reports available to law enforcement in the United States and around the world.
• Take It Down. PlayHouse is a participant in NCMEC's Take It Down service, which helps people who are under 18, or who were under 18 when an image was taken, stop nude or sexually explicit images of them from being shared online. We check every upload against the Take It Down hash list.

See Combating Child Sexual Abuse Material.

StopNCII.org

StopNCII.org is a free service that helps adults stop intimate images of them from being shared without consent. It creates a hash (a digital fingerprint) of an image on the person's own device, so the image itself is never shared. PlayHouse uses the StopNCII.org hash list and checks every upload against it before it is published. See Non-Consensual Intimate Imagery and Consent.

Microsoft PhotoDNA

We use Microsoft PhotoDNA, licensed to us by Microsoft, to detect known CSAM. PhotoDNA creates a signature of an image that still matches after the image has been resized, cropped or lightly edited, and compares it with the signatures of images already confirmed as CSAM. Images uploaded to PlayHouse are checked with PhotoDNA before they are published. A match is blocked, the account is frozen, and the case goes to our specially trained team.

Law enforcement

We cooperate with law-enforcement agencies investigating crimes involving PlayHouse, and respond to valid legal process. Requests, including emergency disclosure requests where someone's life or safety is at imminent risk, can be made through our legal request form and are handled by a dedicated team with restricted access. See Assisting Law Enforcement and our Law Enforcement Guide.

Regulators

PlayHouse is operated from the United States by Vallara, Inc. and is available internationally. Depending on where our users are, we are subject to oversight by regulators including:

• United States: the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), including under the TAKE IT DOWN Act and consumer-protection law.
• United Kingdom: Ofcom, under the Online Safety Act 2023.
• European Union: the Digital Services Coordinators of the EU Member States, under the Digital Services Act.
• Australia: the eSafety Commissioner, under the Online Safety Act 2021.

For the United Kingdom, we carry out the illegal-content risk assessment and children's access assessment that the Online Safety Act requires, and we keep them under review.

See Regulatory Information (EU, UK, Australia) for how to contact us under these laws and how to complain to a regulator.

Working with us

We welcome engagement from governments, regulators, researchers and nonprofit organizations working to keep people safe online. If you would like to work with us, or have a question about our safety practices, contact us through our legal request form and choose Legal inquiry.