Child safety policy

Last updated: 30 September 2026.

Present is a camera-only app for people 16 and over. This policy sets out what we do to keep children off the service, what we do to protect the 16 and 17 year olds who are on it, and what happens when something goes wrong. Everything in it describes the app as it is built today.

1. Nobody under 16

1.1 Present is for people aged 16 and over, everywhere in the world. A person under 16 cannot create an account.

1.2 A person aged 16 or 17 joins as a private account, and it stays private until they are 18. In the app, a private account's photos and videos are shown only to the people it has connected with.

1.3 Telling us about an account you think is under 16. Any account can be reported from within the app as suspected under 16, and reports may also be sent to [email protected]. We review every one of these within 24 hours. Where the account appears to us to belong to a person under 16, we remove it. You do not need an account of your own to tell us, and you do not need to be certain.

2. How we establish age

2.1 Age is asked once, when you join, and we ask Apple before we ask you.

2.2 On iOS 26 and later, Apple's Declared Age Range gives the app a bracket taken from the age already held on your Apple Account: 18 or over, 16 or 17, or under 16. You are shown what came back and confirm it. That answer comes from Apple's own record rather than from anything typed into Present, and it is the same age Apple uses for its own protections, including Communication Safety.

2.3 Where Apple cannot answer, the app asks you for a date of birth and converts it into the same three brackets on the phone itself. This happens on iOS 18 through 25, where the Apple feature does not exist, and on iOS 26 where the account carries no birthday or you decline to share it.

2.4 As at September 2026, around two thirds of active iPhones run iOS 26 or later, so for most people joining Present the bracket comes from Apple rather than from anything they type.

2.5 Only the bracket ever leaves the phone: "16 to 17" or "18 and over", together with whether it came from Apple or from a date entered on the phone. The date of birth is never sent to us and is not stored, on the phone or on our servers. We hold no birthday for anyone. Our servers enforce the bracket on every request, so the private lock cannot be worked around from the app.

2.6 Because no date is stored, nothing lifts the lock on a birthday. At 18 you tap "Confirm you're 18 or over" in Settings, and we ask Apple again, or show the date wheel where Apple cannot answer. An 18-and-over answer removes the lock. The account stays private until you choose otherwise.

3. There is no way to upload a file

3.1 Present has no photo library picker, no file picker and no way to bring in an image from the web or another app. The only way to post is to take a photo, or a video of at most six seconds, live in the app.

3.2 Every capture is sealed on the phone at the moment it is taken, using Apple's App Attest, and our servers verify that seal before accepting the post. A capture must be posted within an hour of being taken or it cannot be posted at all.

3.3 This is the single largest reason Present carries less risk than an app that accepts arbitrary images. There is no route onto the service for pornography, screenshots or downloaded material, other than pointing a camera at a screen, and that case is dealt with below.

4. What is refused before it can be posted

4.1 Before Post is offered, the photo or video is judged on the phone itself. Nothing about this check leaves the device or is stored anywhere.

4.2 Nudity and graphic violence. These are detected by Apple's on-device Sensitive Content Analysis, which Present carries the entitlement to use. It runs wherever the phone's Communication Safety or Sensitive Content Warning is switched on. Since iOS 26.1, Apple turns Communication Safety on by default for every account under 18. A 16 or 17 year old who captures a nude, whether in the room or on a screen, is told the photo cannot be posted on Present, and cannot post it. For a video, the whole file is analysed. An adult is checked only where they have turned Sensitive Content Warning on themselves.

4.3 Photographs of text. A photo that is mostly writing, such as a screen, a poster or a menu, is refused, with a note asking for it to be taken again without the words.

4.4 Photographs of screens. A photo of a screen is noted as such on its receipt and is not treated as a live capture.

5. Who can see a young person's posts

5.1 A post reaches the photographer's connections, and the connections of anyone tagged in it once they accept the tag. Being tagged is a request and never automatic. The person tagged can decline it, or remove themselves later.

5.2 A moment shows posts from two or more people together, with one conversation. Moments only ever include people who are all connected to each other, with no block between any of them. They form by themselves when connected people post from the same place at around the same time, or when someone takes a new photo or video to create or join one from a connection's recent post, from anywhere, with no further request sent. Whether a post can go into moments is shown on the capture review screen before it's posted, where it can be switched off, and any post can be closed to moments later with Stop moments. A moment is seen by everyone in it, anyone tagged in its photos, and all of their connections. Its page at prsnt.au/m/CODE never makes a post public: a private post shows only as a fingerprint, and a private account is never named.

5.3 Present has no public feed, no discovery of strangers, and no direct messaging.

5.4 Every capture has a receipt at prsnt.au, found with its five-character code. On a private account, every post's receipt shows a fingerprint by default, unless the full post is chosen for that specific post. That receipt shows the "Verified capture" mark, the code, and a pixelated image of the photo or video (for a video, its first frame) 20 pixels along its longest side, with no capture details. On the share screen "Show full details on prsnt.au" starts switched on, but nothing changes unless the person then taps Share, Copy link or Save to my phone with it still on. That includes 16 and 17 year olds, whose accounts stay private: they make this choice for their own posts, and so may someone with an accepted tag on one of their posts, since they chose to tag that person. Their account stays private, and a receipt never names a private account.

5.4a The fingerprint works one way. Anyone who already has the photo can see the two match. Anyone who does not learns nothing: at that size a whole face is one or two coloured squares. There is a demonstration on our verification page.

5.4b Every account's profile photo also has a receipt, including that of a 16 or 17 year old, so that a person receiving a connection request can confirm it is a real live capture of a real person. For a private account that receipt shows the photo, the capture time and the device, and no name.

5.5 The photo and video files themselves are delivered from permanent web addresses containing a long, randomly generated sequence, so they cannot practically be guessed. They are not protected by a login, though: anyone who is given the address of a file can open it, including a file from a private account. Deleting a post removes the file. We plan to move to addresses that check permission before a file is opened.

5.6 On a private account, an exact location reaches the open web only after two separate choices, made at two different moments. The first is at capture: every post can be precise, approximate or have no location at all. Precise is selected by default, but the person is shown the exact spot on a map and has to confirm it for each post, and coordinates leave the phone only where they did. The second is at sharing: "Show the exact location" starts off, so the receipt shows the suburb unless the person sharing turns it on, and a share card shows coordinates only if they choose full capture information. The person sharing can be the one who took it, or someone with an accepted tag on it.

5.7 Both apply to every post by a 16 or 17 year old, whose accounts are always private. This governs the public receipt. Inside the app, the people a user has connected with see the exact place where that user chose a precise location when posting.

6. Reporting, blocking and what we do about it

6.1 Any post, message, profile or account can be reported from within the app. Any person can be blocked, which removes each from the other's view entirely and cannot be undone by the other side. Blocking takes effect immediately and does not wait on a report.

6.2 Reports may also be sent to [email protected].

6.3 Within 24 hours. Every report is reviewed and acted on within 24 hours of us receiving it. Where a report is upheld, the photo or video is removed and we act on the account that posted it. Removed material comes off every profile and every feed, and its public page, where it had one, stops resolving.

6.4 Zero tolerance. There is no tolerance for objectionable material or abusive users on Present. An account may be terminated immediately and permanently, without warning and on a first occasion. An account that breaches our rules more than once is terminated. A person whose account has been terminated must not create another, and any further account they create may be terminated without notice.

6.5 Anyone can ask for a post they appear in to be taken down, and the photographer is told when that happens.

6.6 Suspected under 16. A report that an account belongs to a person under 16 is handled on the same 24 hour footing as any other report, as set out in clause 1.3. Where the account appears to us to belong to a person under 16, we remove it, and the person may rejoin when they turn 16.

7. Child sexual abuse material

7.1 Child sexual abuse material has no place on Present. Any account found to have captured or posted it is terminated immediately and permanently.

7.2 Where we become aware of material we have reasonable grounds to believe is child abuse material, we refer details of it to the Australian Federal Police. Section 474.25 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) obliges us to make that referral within a reasonable time of becoming aware of the material, and we would make it regardless of the obligation.

7.3 A referral is made without the account holder's consent and without notice to them, whatever the account's privacy settings, and we preserve the relevant records for that purpose. We will co-operate with any resulting investigation, and with equivalent authorities in other countries where the law requires it.

7.4 If you have come across such material on Present, report it in the app and email [email protected]. In an emergency, or where a child is at immediate risk, call the police on 000 in Australia, or your local emergency number. You can also report to the eSafety Commissioner at esafety.gov.au/report or to the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation at accce.gov.au/report.

8. For parents

8.1 If your child is 16 or 17 and on Present, their account is private and stays private until they turn 18 and confirm it. In the app, their photos and videos are shown only to the people they have connected with. There is no public feed for a stranger to find them in, and nobody can send them a direct message. Messages happen on posts, and only the author, people tagged in it, and people connected to them can write one.

8.1a Your child decides who can share their posts. On Present a post belongs to the people in it, so the only people who can share one of your child's posts outside the app are your child and the friends they choose to tag in it. Friends in a moment with your child can also share that moment as a card, which shows its photos together. Being tagged in someone else's post is a request your child can decline, moments only ever include people who are all connected to each other, and your child chooses on the capture review screen whether each post can go into moments, and can change that later with Stop moments.

8.1b When a post is shared, your child still is not named. Their username never appears on prsnt.au, and the receipt says only "A private Present account". Share cards of their posts show a display name at most, which is why we suggest a first name. Only your child can share their own profile card. An exact location can only reach the open web after two separate confirmations, as section 5 describes: your child choosing a precise location when posting, and the person sharing the post choosing to show it.

8.2 The nudity and violence check described in section 4 depends on Apple's Communication Safety, which Apple switches on by default for accounts under 18. It can be switched off in Screen Time, which is worth knowing before you change that setting.

8.3 The check also depends on the age held on your child's Apple Account being accurate. If you set that account up, it is worth confirming the birthday on it is right.

8.4 If something concerns you, email [email protected]. A person reads it.

9. Where this sits legally

9.1 The controls described here meet Apple's App Store Review Guideline 1.2 for user-generated content, which requires a method of filtering objectionable material, a mechanism for reporting it in the app, the ability to block abusive users, published contact details, and action on reports within 24 hours.

9.2 In Australia, the 16 and over rule and private-by-default for under-18s address the industry codes made under the Online Safety Act 2021 (Cth), in force since 9 March 2026, which are directed at keeping under-18s away from pornography, high-impact violence and material promoting self-harm.

9.3 Our reporting obligation for child abuse material arises under section 474.25 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth).

9.4 This policy sits alongside our terms of service and our privacy policy. Where a term of service is more specific, it governs.

10. Contact

Questions about this policy, and reports that cannot wait, go to [email protected]. By post: PO Box 8090, Flynns Beach LPO, Port Macquarie NSW 2444, Australia.