What blocking does
- You stop seeing each other in the judge feed.
- Any pair card containing you both disappears.
- Existing conversations close. You won't get new ones.
- They will not be paired with you again.
Safety
What we do, what you can do.
Red Thread is built around community input. That only works if the community is safe to be a part of. Here's exactly how we handle age verification, photo moderation, blocking, reporting, and the line between what the platform owes you and what stays in your hands.
18+ only, no exceptions
Red Thread is for adults. You must be 18 or older to sign up. We collect your date of birth during signup and gate the app behind it; under-18 birthdates can't create accounts.
- Your DOB is locked after signup. If you set it wrong, contact support@redthread.social and we'll fix it after identity verification.
- If you encounter a user you believe to be under 18, report them with the Underage user reason. Underage reports are treated as urgent and reviewed first.
- We coordinate with law enforcement on confirmed child-safety violations as required by law.
Photo moderation
Every photo you upload is scanned by Google Cloud Vision SafeSearch before it goes live to the community. The scan checks for nudity, graphic violence, racy content, and other categories Google flags as unsafe.
- Auto-rejected photos never appear in the judge feed, on your profile, or in chat. You're prompted to upload a replacement.
- Borderline matches are reviewed by our team and either approved or removed.
- We do not use your photos to train models, identify you elsewhere, or share them with third parties beyond the specific moderation API call.
Block, anywhere
Tap the safety menu (three dots) on a pair card, in a chat, or on an expanded profile, and you'll see Block.
What the other person sees
Nothing. Red Thread does not tell a user they've been blocked. They simply stop appearing in any context where you'd be visible to each other.
Unblocking
Go to Settings → Blocked Users, find them, and tap Unblock. They'll go back into the candidate pool; they won't be re-paired with you automatically.
Reporting
Reports are anonymous to the reported user. We review every report, prioritize by severity, and take action ranging from warnings to permanent bans.
The seven reasons
- Inappropriate photos, anything that slipped past automatic moderation.
- Inappropriate messages, sexual harassment, explicit content sent without consent, threats.
- Harassment or bullying, persistent unwanted contact, slurs, intimidation, off-platform harassment that started here.
- Fake profile or impersonation, stolen photos, false identity, catfishing.
- Underage user, anyone you believe to be under 18. Treated as urgent.
- Spam or commercial activity, solicitation, scams, ads, link spam, romance fraud.
- Something else, anything that doesn't fit the buckets above. Tell us what happened.
What happens after you report
- Your report goes into a moderation queue.
- Our team reviews the profile, the conversation context (if any), and prior reports against the same user.
- We take action: a warning, a temporary suspension, a permanent ban, or, for child-safety or violent-threat reports, escalation to law enforcement.
- If you also chose to block the user at report time, the block applies immediately regardless of the report outcome.
Once you've reported a user, the safety menu shows "Reported · Submitted" so you know it landed. You can't double-report the same user from the same context, but you can report a specific message in a chat even if you've already reported their profile.
Meeting in person
Red Thread is a way to get to a conversation, and after that conversation potentially to a date. The moment you decide to meet someone, the platform is no longer between you and them. We take that handoff seriously, and you should too.
Smart first-meeting practices
- Meet somewhere public and well-trafficked the first time. Bars, coffee shops, restaurants. Not their place. Not yours.
- Tell a friend the time, place, and who you're meeting. Share a live location if you can.
- Arrange your own transportation. Don't get in a car with someone you've never met in person.
- Trust your gut. Leaving early is always allowed, even if you feel awkward about it.
- Don't send money. Real people don't ask new matches for cash, gift cards, or crypto.
- If something feels off after the meeting, report them here even if you also handle it elsewhere.
If you're worried about your data
You can pause matching, delete specific photos, or delete the whole account.
- Pause: Edit Profile → Open to matches off. You stay a judge; the community stops voting on you.
- Delete photos: Edit Profile → tap the × on a photo.
- Delete your account: Settings → Delete account, type DELETE to confirm. Your profile, photos, votes, and matches are removed. Conversations remain in the other person's inbox marked as "Deleted User," because messages they received belong to their account too.
- Can't sign in? Use the web deletion request form. We'll verify identity and run the deletion for you.
Full data handling details, including what we keep and for how long, live in the privacy policy.
Contact
For urgent safety issues, email safety@redthread.social. For everything else, use the support page or the contact form on the home page.