Is Yubo safe?
Yubo is an industry leader in online safety. Find out how it helps to keep its teenage users safe on the social live streaming platform thanks to its Community Guidelines, technical tools, human moderators and block and report features.
Yubo gives teens a place to socialise and make friends but, as with any social app, things can sometimes go wrong (e.g. bullying, fake profile images and harmful content).
Whether you’re a teenager or a parent or a teacher, we want to reassure you that we’re committed to helping our users, especially those under 18, stay safe on the Yubo app. How do we do this?
We provide a number of industry-leading online safety features, including:
- Community Guidelines – these contain rules for anyone who wants to use the Yubo app. It addresses nudity, violence, hate speech and other important topics and help to keep the Yubo community friendly, safe and inclusive. Every new user must agree to abide by them to use the platform.
- Technical tools and human moderators – we have a wide range of technical tools in place to protect our users, as well as real people monitoring livestreams, carrying out age verification and banning those showing inappropriate behavior. If anyone breaks our Community Guidelines, we take action (e.g. sending real-time alerts and issuing bans).
- Block and report features – teenagers, family members and school representatives can report any concerns to our team of safety experts 24/7 and get a fast response (e.g. within minutes for user reports about Lives, and within 24 hours for submissions through our online form).
We also have an independent Safety Board and work with governments, NGOs, charities and other organisations to help drive improvements in safety and wellbeing on digital platforms.
Want more detailed information about how safe Yubo is? Visit our Safety Hub and check out our ‘Staying Safe on Yubo’ guides for young people and for adults (parents, carers and educators).
What is Yubo?
Yubo (previously called Yellow) is a social live streaming platform designed to help young people make new friends. It’s a space where anyone can belong, feel safe and hang out. Available to download to your device for free from the App Store and Google Play, Yubo has more than 60 million users worldwide.
Many of our users are teens (Generation Z) who love to message, chat and livestream – sharing their interests, playing games and becoming friends. We work hard to make the Yubo community as positive and welcoming as possible and provide a number of industry-leading safety features to help keep our users safe.
Learn more about us and watch a short video about how we’re encouraging teenagers to make friends not followers. You might also like to watch this video overview of Yubo by Pocket-lint.
Is the Yubo app safe for teenagers?
We work hard to make the Yubo app as safe as possible for teenagers. Yubo is not suitable for young children (it has a minimum age of 13) and there are separate communities for under-18s and adults.
As one of the fastest growing platform for young people to socialise online, we have a special responsibility to our users. The whole Yubo team is committed to protecting, supporting and educating millions of teens in our worldwide community, so safety is at the centre of everything we do. Our comprehensive Safety Hub includes information about:
- Our approach to safety (our safety team, our Safety Board and our partnerships)
- Advice on staying safe online – how to deal with key concerns, such as bullying and unwanted contact from strangers
- An overview of our safety tools, which include a reporting feature, real-time alerts and Muted Words
To find out more about safety on Yubo, check out our blog for Safer Internet Day 2021. You might also find our ‘Staying Safe on Yubo’ guides for young people and for adults (parents, carers and educators) useful.
What should parents know about the Yubo app?
Yubo is a social live streaming platform that is free to download from the App Store and Google Play. More than 60 million people worldwide are part of the Yubo community – many of whom are teenagers. Young people love Yubo because it gives them an authentic and engaging way to communicate, connect and meet new friends. They can be themselves and not worry about the pressure of comparing followers or ‘likes.'
We’d like to reassure parents and caretakers that safety isn’t just a box for us to tick. As Anne Collier, Founder of Netfamilynews.org and a member of the Yubo Safety Board, says, “Every family has its own way of handling digital safety… it’s just good to know that Yubo has put so many technical safeguards in place and takes a consciously educational approach to keeping its millions of young users safe.” For example:
- We provide a number of industry-leading online safety features on the Yubo app, including Community Guidelines, technical tools and a 24/7 team of safety experts
- Our independent Safety Board and partnerships with governments, NGOs, charities and other organisations help improve digital safety and protect our users’ wellbeing
The Yubo community is extremely inclusive and we have zero tolerance for online hate. 35 genders and 50 pronouns are available in multiple languages for use in profiles and we’ve worked with organisations such as Switchboard LGBT+ Helpline and The Trevor Project to run in-app campaigns.
You can find out more about our commitment to user safety in our Safety Hub and in our ‘Staying safe on Yubo’ guide for parents, carers and educators. A recent media article by Grazia highlights how Yubo is a place where teens can be themselves.
Should parents be worried about their teens using Yubo?
It’s natural to worry, but we can assure you we are committed to protecting, supporting and educating teenagers within the Yubo community.
If you have specific concerns about bad or dangerous things happening to your kids on the Yubo app and other social platforms, please visit our Safety Hub. There you’ll find advice on how to deal with a broad range of issues, including bullying, peer pressure and sexual exploitation.
To support teenagers in the Yubo community, we offer industry-leading safety tools, including age verification, block and report features and real-time alerts and moderation.
Finally, you might have seen Yubo described as “Tinder for teens” and be worried that it is a dating app, but this is simply not the case. The comparison has been made because of our Swipes feature on the profile page that enable Yubo users to swipe left or right when building their network of friends.
Our Safety Hub contains lots of information for parents about our commitment to user safety. But don’t just take our word for it. Check out these media articles by Forbes and Metro.
What are the dangers of using the Yubo app?
Just like in real life, there are some dangers in the digital world. These include:
- Bullying
- Hate speech
- Inappropriate content
- Scams
- Sexual exploitation
It’s important that you and your kids are aware of these risks and that you understand how to deal with them on websites and apps like Yubo, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat among many others.
Here at Yubo, we’re committed to protecting, supporting and educating our users by providing innovative technical tools (e.g. Muted Words and real-time alerts) and 24/7 human moderators. We also work with organisations that focus on bullying, LGBTQI+ issues, mental health and sexual exploitation to run in-app awareness campaigns.
Visit our Safety Hub for more information – you’ll find advice on specific issues and ‘Staying Safe on Yubo’ guides for young people and for adults (parents, carers and educators) useful. You might also like to read our blog for Safer Internet Day 2022
What are the safety measures put in place by the Yubo team on the app?
There are a number of industry-leading safety measures in the Yubo app. These include:
- We have a minimum age of 13 on Yubo and under-18s have a separate age-protected community that only they can interact with
- We check profile photos using facial recognition technology and use Google image search to minimise fake accounts
- We age verify any accounts that exhibit a discrepancy with their age
- Users create their own profile and can choose to e.g. hide their location (city)
- Every Yubo user has to accept our Community Guidelines – we monitor activity in Lives and send real-time alerts if anyone violates these rules
- We send pop-up alerts to users if they are considering posting personal information in private chat (e.g. if they type “My phone number is…)
- Using our Muted Words feature, users can block words, abbreviations and emojis that they find offensive, harmful or triggering
- It’s easy for Yubo users to report any concerns to us from their phone or other device and to block another user from seeing them on the Yubo platform
These are just some of the ways we protect, support and educate teenagers in the Yubo app. As Travis Bright, Product Director at Thorn and a member of the Yubo Safety Board, says, “Protecting young people in their digital spaces requires innovative technology solutions and dedicated human moderators. Yubo is leading the way in both areas.”
Find out more in our Safety Hub and check out our ‘Staying Safe on Yubo’ guides for young people and for adults (parents, carers and educators).
What can parents do to help protect their children online?
Parents, carers and educators play a vital role in helping to protect young people online.
As a parent, you know your child best so one of the first things to do is have regular conversations about what they do in their digital spaces and help educate them on online safety. Perhaps you could ask them:
- What are your favourite apps/platforms and why do you like them?
- Do you ever worry about anything that happens online or in an app?
- Where would you go for help if something went wrong?
Just like other aspects of their life, it’s really important to have these open discussions and to let them know that you’re there for them if they have any concerns.
Of course, the Yubo team is here to support your family too. We provide industry-leading online safety features, 24/7 safety experts and encourage all our users to make their time on Yubo a positive experience.
You can find more information in our ‘Staying safe on Yubo’ guide for parents, carers and educators and Safety Hub. If you’re a parent or carer and would like to report any inappropriate behaviour or content on the Yubo platform, go to our Help Center and select ‘Contact us’.