Child safety standards

Child safety · October 2026

These are the child safety standards of the Makhe app, published by Makhe (Pty) Ltd in South Africa. Makhe has zero tolerance for child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE). They apply to everyone who uses Makhe, and to everything shared on it: profiles, posts, comments, private messages, photos, documents and listings.

What is not allowed

You may not use Makhe to:

• create, upload, share, ask for or link to child sexual abuse material (CSAM), including drawn, edited or computer-generated images of children;
• groom a child, or contact a child for any sexual purpose;
• sexualise children in words, images or comments;
• pressure, threaten or blackmail a child, for example by threatening to share images of them (sextortion);
• arrange to meet a child for sexual purposes, or traffic or sell a child;
• help, encourage or praise anyone who does any of the above.

Breaking these standards means the content is removed, the account is banned, and we report it to the authorities.

Who can use Makhe

• You must be 13 or older to use Makhe.
• New accounts must give a date of birth before they can finish signing up. Makhe works out your age from it. Once an account is on record as under 18, the date of birth cannot be changed to make the user an adult; only our team can correct it.
• Users aged 13 to 17 need consent from a parent or guardian. The young person gives their parent or guardian’s mobile number, and we send that phone a single-use link, valid for 72 hours, to give or refuse consent. Until consent is given the account stays locked: the user can only finish sign-up, ask for consent again or delete the account. Our team can review consent and withdraw it.

How we protect under-18s

• No private messages between under-18s and adults. Our servers refuse them, including chats that would otherwise start from tutoring, mentoring or lost & found. Under-18s can message other under-18s, and adults can message adults.
• Under-18s are not shown to adults in the Youth Hub. Study buddy, mentor and tutor lists only show under-18s to other under-18s, only within the user’s own ward, and without the name of their school.
• Under-18s cannot advertise, and cannot create marketplace listings, services or job posts.
• An under-18’s phone number is never shared with a service provider they send an enquiry to.
• Anyone can be blocked. A blocked user cannot message you. You can block someone from their profile, a conversation or a comment, and unblock them later.

How to report a concern in the app

You can report without leaving the app:

• Use Report on a user profile, post, comment, study group, study document, mentor profile or tutor profile. Listings, events, lost & found items, organisation posts, services and reviews can be reported too.
• In a private conversation, press and hold a message and tap Report message. You can also block the other person from the conversation.
• Go to Me → Help & Support → Email Support to write to our team.

Every report goes to the Makhe moderation team for review. If you come across child sexual abuse material, do not screenshot, save or forward it, because sharing it is a crime even when you mean well. Report it in the app, or email us, and tell us where you saw it.

You can also report a child-safety concern by email to safety@makhe.co.za.

What we do about CSAM and exploitation

When we learn of child sexual abuse material or exploitation on Makhe, we:

1. remove it from the app;
2. ban the account responsible and sign it out;
3. report it to the South African Police Service (SAPS), as section 24B of the Films and Publications Act requires, and to the Film and Publication Board (FPB) through its child sexual abuse material hotline;
4. keep the records the police need, and help them with any investigation, as the law allows.

If a child is in danger

• In an emergency, call SAPS on 10111.
• Report child sexual abuse material to the Film and Publication Board hotline on 0800 148 148 or at fpbhotline.org.za.
• Children and parents can talk to Childline South Africa, free, on 116.

The laws we follow

Makhe complies with South Africa’s child-protection laws, including:

• the Films and Publications Act 65 of 1996, which makes child sexual abuse material a crime and requires anyone who knows of it to report it to SAPS (section 24B);
• the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act 32 of 2007, which requires anyone who knows of a sexual offence against a child to report it to the police (section 54);
• the Children’s Act 38 of 2005;
• the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA), which requires a parent or guardian’s consent before we process a child’s personal information.

We also follow Google Play’s Child Safety Standards policy.

Child safety contact

Our child safety point of contact can answer questions about these standards and how we prevent and deal with child sexual abuse material:

The head of Makhe (Pty) Ltd (child safety lead)
Email: safety@makhe.co.za

For anything else, email support@makhe.co.za. To delete an account, see Delete your account.