Trust & Safety

Last updated: September 3, 2026 · PolyLife, operated by Patrick Curl

These are the controls PolyLife uses to identify, detect, and act on violations of our Acceptable Use Policy — in particular our age requirement and our rules against prohibited content and behavior. They combine hard technical gates, member-facing safety tools, and human review.

Age assurance (18+)

Date-of-birth gate at sign-up. Every new member must enter a date of birth. The picker only offers birth years that make a person 18 or older, and any date under 18 is rejected with a clear message and blocks account creation — an under-18 user cannot complete sign-up.
Date of birth is stored so it can be checked during verification and used to enforce the age requirement over the account's life.
Optional photo verification. Members can verify by taking a selfie holding a one-time code; a reviewer confirms it (and can check apparent age) before a Verified badge is granted. Verification photos are private.
Zero tolerance for minors. Any account or content suggesting a user is under 18, or any sexualization of a minor, is removed and reported (see Child safety).

Account and profile verification at registration

Verified contact / identity is required to register. Sign-up is passwordless: a new member must prove ownership of a real email address by entering a one-time code we send to it, or sign in with a verified Google account. No account exists until that verification succeeds — this blocks throwaway and bot accounts and ties every profile to a reachable, real identity.
One account per person. Each person may hold only a single account, and duplicate or ban-evading accounts are removed.
Profile details captured up front. During onboarding a member provides a display name, date of birth (age-gated to 18+), pronouns, gender, orientation, and dating preferences, and must accept our ground rules and Acceptable Use Policy before entering the app.
Photo (selfie) verification. Members can further verify by taking a selfie holding a one-time code shown in the app; a reviewer checks it against the profile photos and apparent age before a Verified badge is granted and shown to others. Verification selfies are stored privately and never shown publicly.

Detecting prohibited content and behavior

In-app reporting. Every profile and message has a Report control with reason categories, so members can flag harassment, prohibited or explicit content, scams, impersonation, solicitation of commercial sex, or anyone who appears underage.
Zero tolerance for trafficking and exploitation. Human trafficking (including for sexual exploitation), and aiding, abetting, or facilitating the abuse or exploitation of any person, are strictly prohibited. Accounts involved are removed and, where the law requires, reported to NCMEC and law enforcement (see our Acceptable Use Policy and Community Guidelines).
Blocking. Any member can instantly block another; a block stops all discovery, matching, and messaging between the two accounts.
Human review. Reports flow to a moderation console where they are reviewed, and members and their content can be inspected and acted on.
Consent-first onboarding. Before entering the app, members must acknowledge our ground rules — consent, honesty about relationship status, and zero tolerance for harassment or outing.

How we act on violations

Our moderation tools support a graduated response, and every action is logged:

Content removal and photo rejection.
Warnings.
Shadow ban — the account is removed from everyone else's discovery, its likes stop creating matches, and its messages stop reaching people (used against spam and bad-faith accounts).
Suspension — the account is signed out and blocked for a set period.
Permanent ban.

Moderated accounts are hidden from all other members at the database level, and moderation state is controlled only by us — a member cannot undo it through their own settings.

Meeting safely

For real-world meetups, PolyLife offers safety check-ins: a member can schedule a check-in and, if they don't confirm they're safe, the app escalates to a trusted contact. We encourage meeting in public and telling a friend.

Child safety

PolyLife has zero tolerance for child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and the exploitation of minors. We remove such content, terminate the accounts involved, report to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), and cooperate with law enforcement. See our Child Safety Standards and Law Enforcement Guidelines.

Continuous improvement

As PolyLife grows we are expanding these controls, including automated detection to flag prohibited content and behavior for faster review. Our commitment is that the rules in our Acceptable Use Policy are actively enforced, not just published.

Report a concern

Use the in-app Report control on any profile or message, or email polylifedev@gmail.com. For emergencies involving a risk of harm, contact your local emergency services first.