How we keep Sober Singles a safe place to date: content moderated before it is published, two routes to a verified badge, and blocking and reporting you can use from a member's profile or from your chat with them.
What each check involves, and the minimum age to be here.
Verifying is optional and there are two routes. ID verification means uploading a photo of an ID card so our moderation team can compare it with your profile photo, so you need a profile picture in place before you can complete it. Admin verification is the other route, and both give the same Verified badge.
The badge opens Verified chat rooms and lets you filter for other verified members. Uploading explicit media needs the ID route specifically. Your ID is not visible anywhere on the site.
A quick camera check that local regulations require before you can continue. It takes two on-screen prompts and a few seconds. If you cannot use a camera you can upload a photo ID instead, and a member of our team reviews it within 24 hours.
Your video is processed instantly, a small number of images may be kept for review, and neither the video nor those images are ever added to your profile. The photo ID route completes the same age check, and any photo you upload for it is reviewed securely and never shown on your profile.
The site is for adults. You must be 18 or over, or the age of majority where you are if that is higher.
Local regulations are what require the video age check above.
What other members can see about you, what reaches you, and what you can do about anyone who becomes a problem.
Your profile carries a username you choose. The site rules keep contact details off profiles and public areas, including last names, addresses, places of work, phone numbers, external links, messenger IDs and social media details, and a profile carrying them is failed or edited by our moderation team.
Two things worth knowing when you pick one. Members can search by username, so a handle you use elsewhere can be matched to this profile, and your profile is visible to members of the other dating sites operated by us.
Distances are shown as a threshold, less than or more than a set number of miles or kilometres away.
If you give permission, the app can read your device's latitude and longitude, and features relying on precise location may not be available if you decline. Changing the location on your profile can require an upgrade.
Block any member from their profile or from inside your chat with them. The control is labelled Block & Report and you are asked to pick a reason.
Once a member is blocked their messages are not delivered to you and you can no longer open their profile. You can do it yourself, without going through support.
Report a member using the same Block & Report control. You select a reason, and depending on the reason you may be asked to attach supporting material such as screenshots.
The member is not told who raised it. If you want a piece of content removed without blocking anyone, the complaints route below is open to you.
You decide what you see. Explicit content can be shown, blurred with the option to reveal it, blurred only from members outside your preferences, or kept hidden.
The setting is yours and you can change it. Your own explicit photos and videos stay hidden until you are ID verified.
Member ratings, and what the system watches for in messages.
Members carry a rating that reflects their own activity and interactions on the site.
One signal among several when you are deciding whether to reply. It is not a background check and it does not tell you who someone is.
Direct messages are checked for potentially harmful content such as weblinks and contact details. A message carrying them triggers an alert, and sharing contact details can sit behind an upgrade.
The alert fires because contact details are present, whatever you meant by sending them. The check is called Message Protection and only VIP members can switch it off.
Moderation of what gets published, and what happens once something is reported.
Content uploaded to profiles and to public areas is reviewed against the site rules before it appears, using a combination of automated screening and human moderators who categorise what is uploaded.
The review happens before anything is published, not after a complaint. Direct messages go through the separate check described above.
Anyone can report illegal or inappropriate content on the site, whether or not they are a member. Complaints are reviewed, actioned and resolved within five business days, and content found to be in violation is removed immediately.
You do not need to be a member to make a complaint.
Help when something goes wrong, guidance beforehand, and how your data and payments are handled.
Our call centre operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year. You can reach the team by telephone, by email, or by submitting a ticket.
Someone is available whatever time the problem happens, including nights and weekends.
Reminders built into the app, including not sharing your contact details too soon and keeping conversation on the platform until you know someone.
The reminders appear inside the app, for example when you are about to share contact details.
Financial transactions are protected by encryption technology, and financial information is stored and held by our PCI compliant payment service provider.
If you upgrade, the terms ask you to consent to your card being kept as a stored credential for future payments. You are only asked for card details when you upgrade, never on a free account.
You can ask for a copy of the data we hold about you, have it corrected or deleted, or withdraw a consent you have given us. Withdrawing consent is not a small setting: your profile is deleted, you can no longer log in, other members can no longer find you, and the change can take up to 14 days to work through our systems.
If you are not satisfied with how we handle that, you can take it to the Information Commissioner's Office in the UK, the European Data Protection Supervisor in the EU, or, in the US, where there is no single national authority, the Federal Trade Commission, which has jurisdiction over most commercial entities.
