Child safety at Hoovz
How to report a suspicion of sexual abuse or sexual exploitation of children and adolescents — and what Hoovz does next.
If a child or young person is in acute danger, call the police immediately (110 in Germany).
What is prohibited on Hoovz
Our terms of use prohibit content and conduct that depicts, promotes, initiates or facilitates the sexual exploitation or endangerment of minors — in particular depictions of the sexual abuse of children or adolescents, and cybergrooming.
How to report a concern
In the app
You can report chat messages, profiles, horse profiles and reviews directly in the app, using its reporting function. Choose “Child safety” as the reason.
If you report a chat message as a child-safety concern, Hoovz hides the message at once and pauses the chat for both sides — until further notice, nobody can write in it.
Without an account, and without giving your name or contact details
Through our reporting form, anyone — including people without a Hoovz account — can send information about the sexual abuse or sexual exploitation of minors without giving their name or contact details. If you do, please also keep anything that could identify you out of your description.
By email
You can also write to us directly at childsafety@hoovz.app. An email does tell us your sender address, though — reporting without giving your name or contact details works only through the reporting form.
What happens after a report
Hoovz records child-safety reports from the app and from the reporting form as a child-safety case, and a person on our team reviews them.
If an image is hidden or removed for child-safety reasons, Hoovz secures the file in a separately protected area with restricted access. Other users cannot retrieve it there. Our moderation tool does not show images that were reported in the app as a child-safety concern, or secured for that reason, even to our own team. Such an image is not automatically published again — not even if a report is rejected or a measure is lifted.
If Hoovz receives information that gives rise to a suspicion of a criminal offence involving a threat to the life or safety of a person, a report under Art. 18 DSA is made without delay to the competent law enforcement or judicial authority. Where Germany is the Member State concerned, the report is made through the BKA-DSA-Portal of the German Federal Criminal Police Office.
External points of contact
Independently of Hoovz, you can also turn to other places. If someone is in acute danger, call the police immediately (110 in Germany).
You can also report depictions of the sexual abuse of minors and other illegal online content to complaints offices, for example:
These bodies are not part of Hoovz.