Banter

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Child safety standards

Banter: Your Cars, Your Crews, published by Banter for Car Enthusiasts LLC. Version 1.0, October 25, 2026. These are Banter's standards against child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE).

In short

  • Banter has no tolerance for child sexual abuse and exploitation, in any part of the app.
  • Every thread, reply, photo, comment and message is screened, and members can report anything from its menu.
  • Content that sexualizes a minor is hidden at once, the account is ended, and the content is reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), as U.S. law requires.
  • To report a concern, use Report in the app or write to support@carbanter.com.

Our standard

Child sexual abuse and exploitation means content or behavior that sexually exploits, abuses or endangers a child, including grooming a child, sextortion, trafficking of a child for sex, and child sexual abuse material (CSAM). For these standards a child is anyone under 18.

These standards apply to everything a member can write or show on Banter: threads, replies, photo posts and their pictures, comments, private messages, profiles, events listed on the calendar, and the text Banter's writing service produces. They are part of the Community Rules and the Terms of Use.

What is prohibited

  • Any child sexual abuse material: any picture, video or other visual depiction of a minor in sexually explicit conduct, including images that are made or altered by computer.
  • Any content that sexualizes a minor, in words or pictures.
  • Grooming: contacting a child to build trust for sexual purposes, or asking a child for sexual content, images or contact.
  • Sextortion: threatening a child to obtain sexual content, money or anything else.
  • Offering, requesting, trading, linking to or advertising any of the above, and any attempt to arrange the sexual exploitation or trafficking of a child.

How Banter prevents it

  • Age rules. You must be at least 13 to use Banter, or 16 where local law requires. From version 1.2 the app asks for your date of birth when you choose a handle; someone under 13 is turned away and nothing about them is kept.
  • Extra protection for members under 18. They can message only people they follow who follow them back, and their feed is shown newest first.
  • Blocking. Any member can block another, and a blocked member cannot message or follow them.
  • No random pairing, no location sharing. Banter does not match strangers at random and does not show members' locations to other members.

How Banter detects it

  • From version 1.2, everything a member writes is screened within seconds by an automated review service, and photo posts are screened with their pictures. Content in the sexual or illegal categories is hidden even when the check is only fairly sure.
  • A short list of words is refused before a post or message is saved.
  • Every report, and everything the screening is unsure about, is put in front of a person, who looks at it within 24 hours.
  • Automated checks make mistakes in both directions. That is why a person decides what the software cannot, and why anyone who sees something should report it.

The full process, with response times and records, is on How Banter moderates.

How to report a concern

  • In the app: every thread, reply, photo post, comment, message, event and profile has Report in its menu, with space to say what happened. A report is private; the member reported is not told who reported them.
  • By email: write to support@carbanter.com with the member's handle and what happened. Use this if you cannot use the app.
  • To the authorities: anyone can report child sexual exploitation to the NCMEC CyberTipline at report.cybertip.org or 1-800-843-5678.
  • If a child is in danger now, call the emergency services first (911 in the United States).

What Banter does when it finds it

  • The content is hidden from all members at once.
  • The Banter team ends the account of the member who posted it. There is no warning step for content that sexualizes a minor.
  • Content that appears to show the sexual abuse of a minor is reported to NCMEC (18 U.S.C. §2258A) and preserved as the law requires.
  • Banter cooperates with law enforcement and answers valid legal requests. Law enforcement may write to support@carbanter.com, marked "Law enforcement".

Compliance with child safety laws

Banter follows the child safety laws that apply to it, including the reporting duty of 18 U.S.C. §2258A and the rules on information from children under 13, and it follows the child safety requirements of Google Play and the Apple App Store. Banter is operated from New York, United States.

Child safety point of contact

Patrick Baginski, founder, Banter for Car Enthusiasts LLC. Email: support@carbanter.com. He is responsible for these standards, can speak to Banter's child safety practices, and is the person app stores and authorities should contact. Mail address: Banter for Car Enthusiasts LLC, care of ZenBusiness Inc., 41 State Street, Suite 112, Albany, NY 12207.

Reviews of this page

These standards are reviewed at least once a year, and whenever Banter adds a feature that changes how members can contact each other or share pictures. The version and date at the top show the latest review.