Consent & Age Records
What you must be able to prove about everyone who appears in what you publish.
Why this exists
Two questions decide whether adult content is lawful: was everyone in it an adult, and did everyone in it agree to it being published? If either answer is missing, the content is unlawful regardless of how it looks. South African law puts real consequences behind both — sections 24A and 24B of the Films and Publications Act for the first, and section 16 of the Cybercrimes Act 19 of 2020 for the second.
You are the person who knows the answers. So you are the person who keeps the records. This page is the standard we hold you to, and what you attest to each time you publish.
What you must hold, for every identifiable person
Including yourself, and including anyone visible in the background who can be recognised.
- Proof of age. A copy of a government-issued identity document, passport or driving licence showing a date of birth that makes them 18 or older on the date the content was made. Not a stated age; a document.
- Their legal name, and any stage or professional name they use, so the document can be matched to the person.
- Written consent, signed and dated, that covers both making the content and publishing it on this platform specifically. A release for a magazine shoot does not cover publishing the same images here.
- The date the content was made, so the age document and the consent line up with it.
- A record of any limits they placed on the consent — for example, subscriber-only and not public, or no face visible. You must honour them.
Keep it for five years
Keep the records for at least five years after you last publish the content, and keep them securely — they contain identity documents, which are exactly the kind of information that causes real harm when leaked. Do not store them in the same place as the content itself, and do not upload them to this platform: we do not want them, and asking us to hold them would make us responsible for information you are better placed to protect.
Withdrawal of consent
Consent to publish can be withdrawn at any time, by anyone in the content, whether or not they signed something. When it is withdrawn, take the content down promptly. If the person contacts us instead of you — which is common where a relationship has ended badly — we will remove the content and tell you why. We do not require them to prove copyright, and we do not treat their request as a dispute between you and them to be argued out first.
What you attest to when you publish
Every post that carries media asks you to confirm, at the moment of publishing, that everyone depicted is an adult and consented to it being published here. That confirmation is timestamped against the post. It is not a formality: it is the record we can produce if the content is ever challenged, and a false attestation is grounds for immediate termination and, where the content is unlawful, a report to the authorities.
If we ask
We may ask you to produce the records for a specific post — usually because someone has questioned it. You have seven days to respond. While we wait, the post may be hidden; if the records are produced and are in order, it goes back up and nothing further happens. If they are not produced, the content stays down.
We do not ask casually, we do not keep copies of the documents once we have checked them, and we do not share them with the person who raised the question.
Content you did not make
If you did not make the content, you need the same records plus proof that you hold the right to publish it. Reposting someone else's work does not transfer their consent to you.
Questions
If you are unsure whether what you hold is enough, ask before you publish: [Contact email — not yet published by this deployment]. See also Content Standards & Classification.
This document may be updated. Material changes are announced in the app and take effect only after you have had a chance to read them.