Online safety information for people in Australia

The following apply to you, if you are in Australia, or ordinarily resident in Australia, to the extent required by applicable law.

1. If something goes wrong on Hily

There are two things you can do straight away – you can block the person, report them to us, or do both.

Before blocking or deleting messages, consider taking screenshots or saving evidence if you can do this safely. Evidence may help eSafety, police or support services act on your report.

Block them

Blocking stops someone contacting you or seeing your profile. It takes effect immediately and you do not have to tell us why. How to block a user.

Report them to us

Report someone if their profile, photos, videos, messages or behaviour break our Community Rules or Terms of Use. Report from inside the app – see How to report someone – or email support@hily.com.

What happens next:

1. We confirm we have received your report as soon as it reaches us.
2. A trained moderator reviews it.
3. If we find a breach, we remove the content. For serious or repeated breaches, we may ban the account.
4. We tell you the outcome – whether or not we found a breach.
5. If you disagree with the outcome, you can ask us to review it. You have six months from the date of our decision. Your appeal is assessed by reviewers who were not involved in the original decision, and we will tell you the result.

Your report is confidential. We do not tell the person you reported who reported them. More detail on how we review reports is in our Moderation Policy.

Controlling what you see and who can reach you

Not everything that upsets you breaks our rules. People sometimes send sexual images you did not ask for, or content showing violence or self-harm. You can limit that before it reaches you:

• Consent Guard stops sexual photos and messages being sent to you unless you have agreed to receive them.
• You also need to match with someone before they can message you.

Blocking, described above, is the fastest way to stop one particular person. If something you have seen or received has upset you, the services below can help.

If you need support

These free Australian services are independent of Hily:

eSafety keeps a fuller list of counselling and support services.

2. The eSafety Commissioner

The eSafety Commissioner is Australia’s independent online safety regulator, which operates under the Online Safety Act 2021.

What eSafety does:

• Takes reports from the public about seriously harmful online content.
• Can order a service like Hily to remove that content.
• Sets and enforces the online safety rules that services like ours must follow.
• Publishes free safety advice, guides and education.

Reporting to eSafety is free at esafety.gov.au/report. You can read more about what eSafety does at esafety.gov.au/about-us.

What you can report to eSafety:

• image-based abuse – sharing, or threatening to share, intimate images or videos of someone without their consent, including sexual extortion and digitally altered or deepfake intimate content;
• adult cyber abuse – content sent to or shared about an Australian adult that is menacing, harassing or offensive and intended to cause serious harm;
• cyberbullying of a child or young person under 18;
• illegal and restricted online content, including child sexual exploitation material, pro-terror material and abhorrent violent material.

Important:

For image-based abuse and illegal or restricted content, you can report directly to eSafety without contacting Hily first.

For adult cyber abuse and cyberbullying of a child, report to Taimi first. If the issue is not resolved and the content meets eSafety’s threshold, you may escalate to eSafety.

If you have concerns about how Hily is meeting its obligations under the Online Safety Act you may complain to eSafety. For the fastest resolution, please contact Hily first at support@hily.com or through our contact form.

3. Hily’s policies and safety resources

Community Rules – what is and is not allowed on Hily

Moderation Policy – how we review reports and make decisions

Terms of Use – the rules you agree to when you use Hily

Safety Tips – practical advice for chatting and meeting up

Safety / Reporting – all our reporting options in one place

Privacy Policy – how we handle your personal information