Trust and Safety Policy

If you are in immediate danger or experiencing a crisis right now, call your local emergency number first (911 in the US/Canada, 999 in the UK/Ireland, 112 across the EU/EEA, 000 in Australia, 111 in New Zealand) and consult our country-by-country list at /legal/crisis-resources.

Reporting

In-product report flows are available on every Reader profile, every Booking, every Session, every review, and every message thread. We acknowledge reports within twenty-four hours and respond substantively within five business days for most categories.

You can also report by email:

General reports of abuse or safety concerns — report@booktarot.com
Suspected child endangerment, child sexual abuse material (CSAM), or grooming — report@booktarot.com (subject "CSAM/URGENT" if applicable; we escalate immediately to NCMEC in the US, IWF in the UK, and to local equivalents where required by law)
Security vulnerabilities and responsible disclosure — security@booktarot.com
Suspected fraud, payment scams, off-platform circumvention — report@booktarot.com
Suspected human trafficking — report@booktarot.com (subject "TRAFFICKING") with concurrent referral to the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 (US), the Modern Slavery Helpline 08000 121 700 (UK), or your country's equivalent listed at /legal/crisis-resources

Crisis response

If a Session involves crisis content — thoughts of suicide, intent to harm self or others, ongoing abuse, sexual assault, child endangerment, intimate-partner violence, substance-use crisis, or trafficking — the Reader is contractually required to:

Pause the reading and stay calm.
Listen without judgement.
Share regionally appropriate crisis resources from /legal/crisis-resources based on the Client's country of residence as known to the Platform.
Encourage the Client to contact the resource, and — with the Client's permission — stay on the line while they do.
End the Session if doing so is in the Client's interest.
Notify Trust & Safety after the Session so that follow-up support can be offered where appropriate, within the limits of the Privacy Policy.

Readers will not give medical, psychiatric, legal, or substance-use advice during a Session, and will not interpret the cards in a way that could be perceived as discouraging anyone from seeking emergency help. Material violations of this protocol are grounds for immediate removal from the Platform under the Reader Agreement at /legal/reader-agreement.

The full country-by-country list of crisis lines we surface — covering over sixty jurisdictions across North America, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Central Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania — is at /legal/crisis-resources. It is also linked from the footer of every page, from the bottom of every Session screen, and from every Reader profile.

Reader vetting

Every Reader on the Platform is identity-checked against a government-issued ID through a regulated identity-verification provider, screened against international sanctions lists (OFAC, UK Consolidated List, EU Consolidated Financial Sanctions List, UN sanctions), interviewed by Trust & Safety, and onboarded under the Reader Agreement which incorporates these conduct standards. Tax-form collection (W-9, W-8BEN/W-8BEN-E, or DAC7 information) is completed before the first payout.

Anti-fraud

We combine signal-driven detection with human review:

Identity verification on Reader signup.
Behavioural signals on Client accounts (device fingerprinting, velocity checks, geo-mismatch detection).
Stripe Radar for payment-fraud risk and chargeback prediction.
Manual review for high-risk patterns.
Off-platform-circumvention monitoring (see /legal/terms § 12.2).
Sanctions screening on a continuous basis for both Clients and Readers.

Significant decisions affecting a User (suspension, removal, payout freeze) are reviewed by a human before they take effect — see the Privacy Policy at /legal/privacy § 10 for the Article 22 GDPR position on automated decision-making.

Content moderation

We moderate Reader bios, profile photos, reviews, message threads, and reported Session content. Our standards are in the Acceptable Use Policy at /legal/acceptable-use and the Community Guidelines at /legal/community. Removal categories include illegal content (CSAM, terrorism, sanctions violations), harassment, hate speech, fraud, sexual content, and any content that violates the Reading Topic Restrictions at /legal/terms § 5.2.

We do not delete reviews simply because a Reader objects to them. We will remove reviews that violate policies, are demonstrably false, contain personal data of third parties, or were created in circumstances that make them unreliable.

Disputes

Booking disputes follow a structured review:

Evidence intake from both parties (each invited to upload screenshots, recordings if available, and a written statement).
Neutral review by Trust & Safety.
Decision within five business days for standard cases, ten for complex.
Refunds, partial refunds, rebookings, or no action issued per the Refund Policy at /legal/refund.
Right to escalate to the in-Platform appeals mechanism within 30 days of the decision.

EU Users may also escalate qualifying disputes to certified out-of-court dispute-settlement bodies under Article 21 of the EU Digital Services Act; see /legal/dmca.

Notice and action

We comply with:

The US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 512 — see /legal/dmca.
The EU Digital Services Act, Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 — including notice-and-action under Article 16, internal complaint-handling under Article 20, and out-of-court dispute settlement under Article 21.
The EU Platform-to-Business Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2019/1150, in our dealings with Readers.

Statistics on removals, account actions, and government requests are published quarterly at /legal/transparency.

Children

The Platform is restricted to users 18 and older (21 in certain Gulf states; see /legal/terms § 3.1). We do not knowingly permit Sessions involving minors and Readers are contractually prohibited from delivering one. If you become aware of a User you reasonably believe to be a minor, report it immediately to report@booktarot.com.

Modern slavery

See our Modern Slavery Statement at /legal/modern-slavery.

Transparency

Quarterly transparency report at /legal/transparency covers:

Content removals by category.
Account suspensions and terminations.
Government and law-enforcement requests received and complied with, by country.
DSA-mandated metrics for EU Users.
Notable safety actions.

Contact

Reports: report@booktarot.com
Security: security@booktarot.com
DSA single point of contact: dsa@booktarot.com
Legal: legal@booktarot.com