Safety

If you've seen something illegal or someone is in immediate danger, use the right authority first. CTFO is not the emergency channel.

• Immediate threat to life: call 999
• Child sexual abuse imagery: report to the Internet Watch Foundation
• Terrorism content: report to the UK Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit
• Fraud or scams: report to Action Fraud
• Anonymous tip: Crimestoppers
• If you're struggling: Samaritans, free 24/7 on 116 123

To report something on CTFO itself, use the Report button on the post or reply (it sits next to the post), or the report action on any DM you've received (hover or tap the message, the action is alongside the timestamp). For things that don't fit either flow, the contact form with the Abuse report category reaches the same moderator queue.

Anything unlawful under UK law is removed. We follow the Online Safety Act's list of priority illegal content. The full categories we treat as priority:

• Terrorism
• Child sexual exploitation and abuse
• Grooming
• Child sexual abuse imagery (CSAM)
• CSAM links
• Hate offences
• Harassment, stalking, threats and abuse
• Controlling or coercive behaviour
• Intimate image abuse
• Extreme pornography
• Sexual exploitation of adults
• Human trafficking
• Unlawful immigration offences
• Fraud and financial offences
• Proceeds of crime
• Drugs and psychoactive substances
• Firearms, knives and other weapons
• Encouraging or assisting suicide
• Foreign interference offence
• Animal cruelty

When something is reported to us as illegal:

• CSAM and terror content: removed on detection or as soon as we see the report, reported to the IWF or CTIRU as appropriate. Target time-to-action is under 1 hour from us being alerted.
• Other priority illegal content: removed within 24 hours of credible report, faster where we can.
• Anything illegal but lower-priority: reviewed within 72 hours.

We're a small platform with one moderator. These are the targets we work to. Out-of-hours reports of CSAM or imminent harm should also go to the authorities above so they can act faster than we can.

• The report enters our moderator queue and is sorted by severity (illegal content first).
• The moderator reviews it against UK law and our Rules.
• If illegal: content is removed, the account is actioned (warning, restriction, suspension or ban), and authorities are notified where appropriate.
• If not illegal but in breach of our rules: handled per the rule broken (e.g. pin for misinformation).
• If a false report or in bad faith: dismissed and tracked. Repeat false reporting can itself be actioned.

You can appeal any moderator decision through the contact form with the Pin or ban appeal category.

CTFO is for users aged 16 and over. Signup requires confirming this and our Terms repeat it. We do not host pornography, livestreams or post media uploads of any kind, all of which materially reduce the risks to children.

Private 1:1 direct messaging is available to logged-in users, text only, no images. Default DM setting is "people I follow only", blocking hard-blocks DMs both ways, and any user can report a DM with one click which routes to a moderator with the plaintext attached. Image DMs will only ever be enabled after CSAM-hash scanning is in place. The DM design is covered in detail on the Trust & Transparency and Privacy pages.

Based on our service design (text only, 16+ self-declared, no adult content, no image DMs, opt-in DM exposure) we have concluded that CTFO is not likely to be accessed by significant numbers of children. We keep this assessment under review. If you are under 16 and have created an account, contact us and we will delete it.

Under the Online Safety Act, every regulated UK user-to-user service must name an individual accountable for compliance with the illegal content duties and the reporting/complaints duties.

For CTFO this is:

Natchland
Reachable via the Contact form, Legal category. Ofcom and UK law enforcement can also use this channel for formal correspondence.

We maintain an internal illegal content risk assessment covering all priority categories above. It is reviewed when the service materially changes and at least every six months. We don't publish it in full because parts describe mitigation specifics that would help bad actors evade them, but we will provide it to Ofcom on request and a summary can be requested via the contact form.

We cooperate with valid UK legal requests: court orders, warrants, and statutory requests under UK law. We do not respond to informal requests without legal process. CSAM and credible threats to life are reported to UK authorities on detection without waiting for a request, since we are required to. More on our position in Trust & Transparency.

We are a small, independent platform run by one person and a small moderator team. We can move fast on what we see, but:

• We rely on user reports. Things we don't see, we can't action.
• Out of hours response is slower than during the day. Always report imminent harm to the authorities first.
• We do not pre-scan content. Moderation is reactive.

This page is updated when our processes change or new Ofcom guidance lands. Last updated date is at the top.