Five Borough Fedi Project (5BFP) operates Masto.NYC. These are our published child safety standards, covering the Masto.NYC service and the Masto.NYC app.

Zero tolerance for child sexual abuse and exploitation

5BFP has a zero-tolerance policy toward child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE). Child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and any other content or conduct that sexualizes, exploits, or endangers a minor is absolutely prohibited on Masto.NYC, and we will remove it and terminate the responsible account.

Specifically, you may not use Masto.NYC to create, upload, post, share, link to, solicit, or otherwise distribute:

  • Child sexual abuse material, in any form, including material that has been drawn, animated, computer-generated, edited, or produced with generative AI.
  • Sexualized depictions of minors, including of real, fictional, or synthetic minors.
  • Content that grooms, sexually solicits, or attempts to sexually extort a minor (sextortion), or that facilitates any of these.
  • Content that facilitates child trafficking or the sexual abuse of a minor offline.
  • Content that normalizes, promotes, glorifies, or advocates for the sexual abuse or sexual interest in minors.
  • Off-platform contact information, code words, or links posted for the purpose of trading any of the above.

This applies to public posts, unlisted and followers-only posts, direct messages, profile fields, display names, avatars, headers, and uploaded media. It applies equally to content that reaches Masto.NYC from other federated servers: when we find it, we remove it, and we defederate from servers that host it.

These prohibitions are in addition to our server rules, which are listed on the Masto.NYC About page.

Minimum age

Masto.NYC is not directed to children. You must be at least 13 years old to create or use a Masto.NYC account. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13, and we delete accounts we learn belong to someone under 13.

How to report child sexual abuse and exploitation

If a child is in immediate danger, call 911.

You can report CSAE content to us from inside the Masto.NYC app and website, without leaving the app: select the ⋯ menu on any post, profile, or account and choose Report, then describe the problem. Reports go directly to the Masto.NYC moderation team. You do not need an account to reach us — you can also email help@masto.nyc at any time, or write to us at the postal address listed under DMCA Agent Information.

Reporting to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is supported on Masto.NYC, and we already do it automatically: apparent CSAM identified on our service is submitted to NCMEC’s CyberTipline through an automated pipeline, so you do not have to file a report yourself for us to act on one.

You are still welcome to report to NCMEC directly, through the CyberTipline or by calling 1-800-843-5678. Outside the United States, report to your national hotline through INHOPE.

Please do not download, re-post, or forward suspected CSAM in order to report it. A link, a post URL, or an account name is enough for us to act.

How we respond

When we receive a report of CSAE content, or find it ourselves:

  • We remove the content and suspend the account, permanently and without warning. The graduated warning process described under Moderation policies does not apply to CSAE; the first offense is the last one.
  • We report apparent CSAM to NCMEC’s CyberTipline automatically, as required of us by 18 U.S.C. § 2258A, and we preserve the associated content and account records for the period the law requires so that they are available to investigators.
  • We cooperate with valid legal process from law enforcement.
  • Where the content originated on another server, we report it to that server’s administrators and block the server if it does not act.

We comply with the child safety laws that apply to us, including 18 U.S.C. §§ 2251, 2252, 2252A and 2258A, New York Penal Law Article 263, and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

Child safety point of contact

Child safety at Five Borough Fedi Project is owned by the Masto.NYC moderation team, reachable at help@masto.nyc. Mail to that address reaches the whole team, and it is the fastest way to get to someone who can speak to how we prevent and handle CSAM.

Where a platform or authority requires a single designated individual rather than a team, that contact is reachable at seano@masto.nyc.

These standards are also kept with our other organizational policies in the 5BFP org-docs repository.