Vivastreet* takes compliance seriously. We are committed to operating our platform in a responsible manner, promoting safety and security, and working collaboratively with partners. We operate robust safety checks and security measures across our platform, as well as working closely with stakeholders such as law enforcement, policy makers, and the voluntary sector.
In our Transparency Report, we set out a range of safety and security measures we have in place, as well as the partnerships we maintain with a range of law enforcement agencies and charity operators. Through this approach, we work to continually implement strategies to try to improve our service and make our part of the internet safe for the individuals and businesses who use Vivastreet.
As part of our ongoing commitment to safety and compliance, we have written this Online Safety Act Policy, to explain how we are approaching our obligations and duties under the Online Safety Act.
The Online Safety Act 2023, also referred to as the OSA, is a law in the UK which aims to protect children and adults from harm online. The OSA places certain requirements and duties on a variety of services, such as websites, apps, social media platforms, search engines and online messaging and sharing platforms. Some services are also required to publish information about how they comply with the OSA. The OSA was passed into law in 2023, but it came into force in stages to allow services time to comply. Ofcom is the UK's regulator which provides guidance to services about how to comply with the OSA and will be enforcing the act, for more details please visit their website: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/.
Vivastreet is a service which needs to comply with the OSA. We do not have to publish information about how we comply with the OSA, but we have written this policy to be transparent about the work we do and our approach. This policy sets out what we are currently doing to comply with the OSA's requirements and duties, and what we intend to do going forward.
The OSA requires that action is taken against illegal content, such as extreme pornography, fraud and terrorism. Where illegal content or activity is found on a service, the OSA requires that actions are taken to reduce the risk of harm this content poses. By 16 March 2025, all services that are regulated by the OSA need to carry out certain risk assessments to decide how much of a risk illegal content on their service poses to individuals and decide what actions should be taken to reduce the risks and remove illegal content as it arises.
Vivastreet has completed an OSA risk assessment ahead of the 16 March 2025 deadline, which included a review of the tools and methods we use to keep our users safe. The tools and methods we use include: verifying the identity of a subset of those posting adverts, matching posts against hashed databases of images known to have been posted previously without the consent of the individual featured, a human moderation team checking posts for compliance with our guidelines, and an AI assisted review which (for example) flags high risk key words. Reducing the risks of our platform being involved in human trafficking and sexual exploitation are particular focuses of our moderation team, though the team of course bears a much broader role than this, seeking to ensure our posting guidelines are complied with at all times. We have not gone into significant detail on the specific key words we look for as part of our moderation processes, because disclosing the key words we look for would undermine the effectiveness of our moderation processes. We will continue to periodically review and update the assessment and decide whether the actions being taken are sufficient, or whether further actions can be taken to mitigate risk and reduce harm.
All services that are regulated by the OSA and are user-to-user services must assess whether children are likely to access the service and, if children are likely to access the service, assess the risk the service poses to children. All user-to-user services must complete a Children's Access Assessment (CAA) by 16 April 2025 to determine whether children are likely to access the service, and we are of course in the process of completing a CAA.
As part of our continuing commitment to the safety of individuals and businesses who use Vivastreet, we will continue to engage with new guidance issued by Ofcom.
*we mean Vivastreet.co.uk, part of Digital Ventures Ltd, and this is who we are referring to when we refer to Vivastreet, us, or we in this policy.
Last updated: 16 March 2025