Report shows efficacy of platform wide age-verification in reduction of inappropriate content, decreased need for Safety Specialist intervention.

PARIS, FRANCE – MARCH 21, 2023 – Yubo, the live social discovery app for Gen Z, has released its latest transparency report, providing key insights to government leaders, NGO partners, and other stakeholders on the platform’s progress and success mitigating online safety risks with technical tools and policies.

The H2 2022 Yubo Transparency Report tracks data and activity on the platform between July 2022 and December 2022, a period that followed a series of major safety feature and policy implementations, including:

Platform wide age-verification requirements (an industry-first among major social companies)

Real-time moderation of audio in livestreams (also an industry-first)

Enhanced capabilities for user-reporting of content on Yubo

This latest report also represents Yubo’s step toward publishing metrics on a twice-yearly basis, following an annual cadence, to provide data to interested parties more frequently and provide actionable insights to industry partners more readily. 

Yubo’s first transparency report was published in 2022 to reflect findings from the previous year (2021). Each report is compiled and reviewed by the Yubo Safety Advisory Board, which includes experts from leading organizations dedicated to enhancing online safety, such as the National Centers for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), Thorn and The Diana Award.

Through the second half of 2022, there was a decrease in the number of reports flagged by Yubo's proactive detection systems after streamlining the way reports were categorized. This allowed Yubo's safety team to spend more time focusing on reviewing reports and taking efficient action. As a result of the mandatory age verification system implemented in September 2022, there was also a notable increase in the number of permanent account suspensions.

“In 2022, Yubo developed and rolled out more safety features, updates, and policies, than in any other year prior. We are looking forward to identifying new metrics and tracking progress on a year-over-year basis to understand how we can continue to improve our safety framework to ensure we can stay true to our commitment to being a leader in online safety,” said Yubo CEO Sacha Lazimi. “This new bi-annual cadence of reporting, will give us more agility in informed decision-making during what we feel is a critical period for online safety.”

“We are grateful for Yubo’s proactive and transparent approach to keeping minors safe, including their recent efforts to age-verify 100 percent of all users,” said John Shehan, Senior Vice President of NCMEC’s Exploited Children Division & International Engagement. “Among the many electronic service providers NCMEC works with, Yubo is an industry leader and one who consistently invests in their technology and people, all in an effort to protect minors who use their platform.”

Yubo, the live social discovery app for Gen Z, has released its latest transparency report, providing key insights to government leaders, NGO partners, and other stakeholders on the platform’s progress and success mitigating online safety risks with technical tools and policies.

Yubo publishes H2 2022 Transparency Report with findings from safety updates, policy overhauls

NEW YORK – FEB. 27, 2023 – Yubo, the live social discovery app for Gen Z, has partnered with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to support the organization in its launch of Take It Down, a free online service to help stop child sexual exploitation and help minors remove their nudes from the internet.

Since 2018, Yubo has worked closely alongside NCMEC, the leading nonprofit dedicated to finding missing children, reducing child sexual exploitation, in an ongoing partnership to eradicate online child exploitation. With the launch of Take It Down, Yubo continues its collaboration with NCMEC to block the non-consensual use of sexually exploitative photos and videos depicting anyone under the age of 18. The service will complement  the wide range of advanced detection tools Yubo already has in place to prevent, remove, and report inappropriate imagery that is shared on the app, and help to further enhance the protection of its users.

NCMEC’s Take It Down service works by assigning a unique hash value to each nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit image or video submitted on the site. A hash value works like a digital fingerprint and allows participating online platforms to identify and block imagery that has the same hash, while maintaining privacy and anonymity. In fact, the entire process of submitting a report on Take It Down happens without the image or video being reported ever leaving the person’s device or anyone else viewing it.  

Through this partnership with NCMEC, Yubo will scan its platform to help remove, and, when necessary, report any images or videos found on Yubo that have been submitted via the service.

To help prevent victimization through the spread or use of explicit content: 

A minor or adult selects a sexually explicit or inappropriate image or video from their device taken before they were 18 that they want hashed and removed, and submits it to NCMEC directly through the Take It Down service.

Each image or video is automatically hashed into a unique digital fingerprint, which can be used to identify exact copies of that image or video. 

Images and videos remain on the minor’s device and are never actually uploaded to or seen by NCMEC or its Take It Down service.

The hash is added to a recently developed hash-sharing list maintained by NCMEC and is shared with participating platforms, such as Yubo, which have executed an agreement to receive these hashes submitted by minors.

Platforms may voluntarily scan their services for the hashes and may remove or report any detected hash matches to reduce the circulation of sexually explicit or exploitative content depicting minors.

“Take It Down provides young people with a meaningful tool to better control how and where their images are used online, and its launch represents a key step in the mission to eradicate CSAM online,” said Yubo co-founder and CEO Sacha Lazimi. “Take It Down serves as an added layer of safety and protection for the teens and young adults socializing on Yubo. We are proud to be a partner to NCMEC in the launch of this service and to support innovation that effectively fights the non-consensual spread of content while preserving our users’ privacy.”

Yubo & NCMEC - a new reporting flow

To further support the rollout of Take It Down, Yubo has added a new option to the app’s reporting flow to allow users to report any content circulating online of them that they deem inappropriate. If users select this option in Yubo’s in-app reporting tool, they will be directed to visit the NCMEC Take It Down site, where they can submit an anonymous report of the content they want removed.

Take It Down is currently available globally in English and Spanish. The service will continue to evolve with new capabilities, such as new languages and hash value matching of live photos or Boomerang videos, which it currently does not cover. 

The service is modeled after the United Kingdom’s StopNCII.org, which helps adults victimized by “revenge porn” and similar acts stop the circulation of sensitive media or content of them online. 

Yubo, the live social discovery app for Gen Z, has partnered with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to support the organization in its launch of Take It Down, a free online service to help stop child sexual exploitation and help minors remove their nudes from the internet.

Yubo joins forces with NCMEC to combat the spread of sexually inappropriate photos and videos of minors online

In an industry-first, the Gen Z social discovery app expands audio moderation for livestreams to the UK, Australia and Canada, after launching in the U.S. this summer

Yubo, the live social discovery app for Gen Z, has expanded its audio moderation technology for livestreams across four of its largest markets: the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. In partnership with Hive, Yubo introduced this technology in the United States at the end of May, becoming the first major social media platform in the world to tackle the challenges of real-time audio analysis. 

While significant strides have been made in the advancement of real-time image and video moderation technology, audio moderation has remained an unsolved challenge. Roughly half of people who have reported experiencing harassment in online gaming – where livestreaming has historically been most prevalent – were targeted by voice, according to a report by the Anti-Defamation League. 

Yubo has since expanded the trial phase to include all majority-English-speaking regions where it has large user bases, reaching a critical inflection point to gather substantive insights into this breakthrough safety tool. Although still in its infancy, the technology has proven to be particularly effective at detecting potential real-world risk, such as violence to others or self-harm. 

Hive’s audio moderation technology on Yubo currently works by recording and automatically transcribing 10-second snippets of audio in livestreams of 10 or more people. The text is then instantly scanned using artificial intelligence. Only transcripts containing words or phrases that violate the app’s Community Guidelines are flagged for review by Yubo’s Safety Specialists, who begin investigating the incidents in real time to determine what actions should be taken, including whether it is necessary to escalate to law enforcement. Transcripts with no suspected violations are not reviewed nor kept. 

The algorithms that power this audio moderation technology utilize machine learning and will therefore continue to improve and become more precise with time. To protect user privacy, livestream transcripts that have not been flagged for investigation are deleted after 24 hours. Transcripts that are flagged and require investigation internally or by law enforcement are stored for up to a year. 

“Our expansion of audio moderation technology is not only a key element of Yubo’s ever-evolving safety product roadmap, but a critical development in expanding the parameters of online safety industry-wide,” said Yubo Chief Operating Officer Marc-Antoine Durand. “There is still a lot of progress to be made in the area of voice detection, but we are proud to be forging a path for our peers by being the first to launch audio moderation with Hive and helping make this tool more reliable and effective through this trial.”

Yubo first deployed audio moderation technology this summer to a small cross-section of users in the US. With greater scale across four primary markets, audio moderation keywords now trigger an average of 600 livestreams per day for review by Safety Specialists. Still, a significant share of these constitute “false positives.” False positives refer to instances where, for example, a song playing in the background or playful language containing triggering keywords are flagged for review, but are not actually instances of harmful speech. False positives highlight not just the complexity of effective online content moderation, but also the importance of combining technical tools with human oversight for nuance and context. That's why at Yubo human moderators always have the final say on what moderation action to take and continuously supervise the detection algorithms. 

Yubo scales real-time audio moderation technology across four major international markets

Robust age-verification technology enhances Gen Z platform’s existing safety tools and combats bad actors – bots or humans – seeking to breach security systems

PARIS, FRANCE – SEPT. 14, 2022 – Yubo, a live social discovery platform for Gen Z, is the first major social media app in the world to implement comprehensive age-verification for all its users, a groundbreaking milestone in a key area of concern in online safety today.

Yubo 100% Age Verification

In partnership with leading digital identity provider Yoti, Yubo first introduced this age-verification system in May for users ages 13 and 14, with the goal of scaling verification across all ages by year-end. Following the successful trial, the technology integration was accelerated, with all Apple users becoming verified three months ahead of schedule. The new age-verification technology will be fully deployed to Android users, who make up roughly 10 percent of users on Yubo, in the coming weeks.

The new system further mitigates risks of child abuse and other such acts by preventing users who might misrepresent their age for ill intent from joining the platform. Age-verification technology also strengthens age-gating on Yubo, which separates users into different communities based on age to limit interaction betweens teens and adults – a unique feature among social media platforms today.

“Our commitment to empowering Gen Z to express themselves and connect authentically online is second only to our commitment to continually advancing Yubo’s position as a leader in safety innovation,” said Yubo CEO Sacha Lazimi. “By continually applying new safety measures, such as mandatory age verification, to our platform, we are taking a clear stance that we are willing to drive away a portion of users in order to prioritize making Yubo as safe as it can possibly be."

Yubo’s new age-verification system prompts first-time users signing up for an account, or existing users who haven’t yet been verified, to take a real-time photo of their face on the app, using Yoti’s facial age estimation technology. Yoti’s technology accurately estimates age by looking at an image of a face, which is analyzed as a pattern of pixels. The technology converts the pixels to numbers and matches them to an age. Designed with privacy at its core, the system has no way of linking a face to a name. If analysis detects a discrepancy between the age provided and Yoti’s facial age estimation, additional identification steps to access Yubo are required, through an in-app process overseen by Yubo Safety Specialists in accordance with “privacy by design” principles set forth by European data privacy laws.

Yoti is able to verify that a user is above or below a given age threshold consistently across all ages, genders, and skin tones, and its technology is certified by iBeta, the gold standard for such technologies. Yoti is a trusted partner of major retail and financial services firms, business software clients, government agencies and the Post Office of the United Kingdom, where Yoti is headquartered.

“With over 60 million users, Yubo understands the immense challenge of ensuring that their community remains safe,” said Yoti CEO Robin Tombs. “By using our industry-leading age verification across their entire platform, users who want to enjoy Yubo responsibly have an easy, privacy-preserving tool to verify their age. We are proud to collaborate with Yubo to help safeguard young people and create age appropriate experiences online.”

All developments and policies on the platform are guided by the expertise of Yubo’s Safety Board, which is made up of respected thought leaders from such organizations as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), Thorn, and INTERPOL.

“Yubo has gone above and beyond to enhance the online experiences of Gen Z on its platform by proactively mitigating safety risks,” said Annie Mullins OBE, Yubo Independent Safety Advisor and former executive of Yahoo! UK and Vodafone, where she led user-protection programs and other such initiatives. “Its rapid, full-scale deployment of sophisticated age-verification technology with Yoti is just the latest evidence of its unwavering commitment to online safety innovation.”

In addition to implementing age-verification tech across its entire platform, Yubo is also the first social media platform in the world to introduce real-time audio and video moderation of livestreams, with instant intervention from human Safety Specialists when needed. In addition to Safety Specialists and the Emergency Escalation team members who support them, a range of cutting-edge technical tools also monitor activity on Yubo. 

Yubo is a live social discovery app making it easy for Gen Z to expand their social circles and hang out online with new friends from around the world. By eliminating likes and follows, we empower young people to show up as their true selves and connect as authentically as they would offline. Safety is a cornerstone of our platform, and we are proud to be the first social app in the world to introduce comprehensive user-age verification tools and real-time video and audio moderation for livestreams. Founded in France in 2015, Yubo today is used across more than 140 countries by over 60 million users. Visit us at yubo.live to learn more and follow our journey. 

Yoti is a digital identity technology company that allows organizations to verify identities and trusted credentials online and in person. Yoti’s products span identity verification, age verification, document eSigning, access management, and authentication. Over 12 million people have downloaded the free Yoti app globally. Yoti is available in English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese and Polish. Yoti is certified to ISO/IEC 27001:2013 for ID Verification Services, ISAE 3000 (SOC 2) Type 2 certified for its technical and organizational security processes. For more information please visit www.yoti.com.

Yubo, a live social discovery platform for Gen Z, is the first major social media app in the world to implement comprehensive age-verification for all its users, a groundbreaking milestone in a key area of concern in online safety today.
In partnership with leading digital identity provider Yoti, Yubo first introduced this age-verification system in May for users ages 13 and 14, with the goal of scaling verification across all ages by year-end. Following the successful trial, the technology integration was accelerated, with all Apple users becoming verified three months ahead of schedule. The new age-verification technology will be fully deployed to Android users, who make up roughly 10 percent of users on Yubo, in the coming weeks.

Yubo to become first major social media platform to age-verify 100% of its users

Yubo to become the first major social media app to institute wide age verification for all users

Cutting-edge age verification technology will safeguard the app’s 60 million Gen Z users and buildon Yubo’s existing industry-leading safety practices  

May 17, 2022 | Yubo, the social live-streaming app for Gen Z, today announces that it is implementing an industry-leading age verification feature in partnership with digital identity provider Yoti. Yubo will become the first major social media app to institute a wide age verification process across its platform to make sure its users are the age they say they are when interacting on the app. This age verification feature has launched in beta stage for users ages 13 and 14 with the goal of age-verifying 100% of all users on the platform by the end of 2022. 

London-based digital identity provider Yoti has been a trusted partner of Yubo since 2019, when Yubo became the first social media app to adopt its privacy-friendly technology to verify suspicious accounts. The partnership will now see them add another layer of age authentication to the platform as Yubo makes ID verification widely accessible within the app. 

Yoti built this technology to give people a secure way to prove how old they are in different everyday scenarios. For Yubo, it will play an important part in protecting its young users by ensuring the separation of minors and adults on the app – one of today’s top online safety challenges. Built with ‘privacy by design’ in mind, this approach will not require any personal details or documents for a user to receive their age estimate, thus their information is never seen by another person. Features of this new system include: 

Advanced age verification process: In order to make the age verification seamless and accessible to all users, Yubo’s new system will not require any identification documents unless a user’s age doesn’t match – instead users will take a real-time photo of themselves within the Yubo app, which Yoti's age estimation technology will then process. The technology will ensure users access the correct age group on the app and enable wide scalability. 

Enhanced security: After a user takes their photo, Yoti’s passive liveness algorithm analyses it to confirm the image being used is not a fake or a spoofing attempt. Users who do not have the correct age on their profiles will be asked to verify their identity through additional processes before accessing the app. 

Improved accuracy: Yoti’s technology, which is privacy-preserving, continues to grow in accuracy year on year. It is able to correctly verify that a user is above or below an age threshold, working fairly across all ages, genders, and skin tones. As a trusted identity platform, the Yoti age estimation system can effectively estimate the ages of 6 to 12-year-old users within 1.3 years and those between 13 and 19 within 1.5 years. Yoti’s proprietary liveness detection technology is certified by iBeta, the gold standard for such technologies. 

This new age verification approach is the latest in the platform’s long history of safety-driven initiatives to protect the Yubo community, including real-time AI and human moderation for live streaming, educating users on safe and responsible behaviours online, and working closely with leading safety experts:

Keeping users safe on live streams: Yubo is the first platform in the world to undertake real-time intervention in online live streaming. By using AI technology and human moderation, Yubo has created a system that maximises its ability to identify when a user is breaking the rules or putting themselves at risk. Advanced AI filters monitor each live stream by taking screenshots second by second and flagging inappropriate content to human moderators in real-time 24/7 on the app. The technology screens for nudity, partial nudity, including underwear, suggestive content, drug usage, weapons, blood and violence.

Educational safety features: Educational safety features and personalised modification options are prominent on the app through pop-ups and alerts sent to users if they are participating in harmful and inappropriate behaviours or sharing sensitive personal information. This prompts them to think twice before they share. Users are also empowered to block specific words and phrases on the app that they find upsetting by using the Muted Words feature launched last year. This gives them more control over what type of interactions they want to have and content they want to see. 

Safety Advisory Board: Yubo has created a safety advisory board made up of international online safety experts who provide invaluable advice and inform its proactive strategy to safety. Over the past three years, Yubo has worked closely  with this board, as well as governments, NGOs, and charities to evolve and innovate on Yubo’s safety strategy and  identify how else to further protect its users. 

Annie Mullins, OBE, Independent Safety Advisor at Yubo, says, “Yubo has shown relentless dedication to the safety of its users and this expanded partnership with Yoti is just one example of this. It’s critical that any company with young users proactively creates as safe and secure an environment for them as possible. I’m grateful to be a part of Yubo’s safety team as we continue to help keep young people stay safe online through industry-leading technology, partnerships and educational initiatives that show Gen Z how to behave responsibly online. At Yubo, we know online safety is always evolving, and so our teams will always strive to be ahead of the curve and innovate with new solutions.”

Robin Tombs, CEO of Yoti, says, "Yubo’s implementation of our industry-leading age estimation technology, combined with our liveness detection, is an exciting and innovative step for safeguarding young people online. Yubo was the first social media company to adopt our identity verification technology in 2019, and we are proud to see the company's continued commitment to user safety with the integration of this new approach.”

Marc-Antoine Durand, COO of Yubo, says, “At Yubo, we passionately believe in empowering Gen Z to interact safely online and giving them a place to discover and belong. Expanding on our partnership with Yoti through this identity verification technology will help us continue building on what is most important – the protection of our users. Many young people under 16 do not have any form of ID, which makes the standard identification processes difficult. With the ability to verify users’ age without ID, we can be inclusive of all our users and add another important layer to our extensive safety practices. This technology will help us take another step towards ensuring that our young users feel safe and comfortable on Yubo.”  

Anne Collier, Founder of NetFamilyNews.org & Executive Director of The Net Safety Collaborative (TNSC) says, “Yubo is a leader in youth online safety. As a member of their global safety advisory for 5 years, I have had a front-row seat in watching the app innovate for improving safety continuously. This partnership with Yoti is only one example. I love that the age assurance technology is designed to work across all ages, genders, skin tones and backgrounds. Stay tuned — there is much more goodness to come!”

Launched in 2015, Yubo is the leading platform for Gen Z to socialise online, reaching over 40 million users across 40 countries. By taking the best of offline interactions and powering them through online possibilities, Yubo is a space where young people can hang out and find out about the world and themselves. It is socially inspiring and enabling a new generation by creating a new space for youth centred around real-time, one-to-few conversations. Visit yubo.live for further information.

Yoti is a digital identity technology company that allows organisations to verify identities and trusted credentials online and in person. Yoti’s products span identity verification, age verification, document eSigning, access management, and authentication. Over 11 million people have downloaded the free Yoti app globally. Yoti is available in English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese and Polish. Yoti is certified to ISO/IEC 27001:2013 for ID Verification Services, ISAE 3000 (SOC 2) Type 2 certified for its technical and organisational security processes. For more information please visit www.yoti.com.

Yubo, the social live-streaming app for Gen Z implements an industry-leading age verification feature in partnership with Yoti. Yubo will become the first major social media app to institute a wide age verification process across its platform. Yubo’s goal is to age-verify 100% of all users on the platform by the end of 2022.

Social live-streaming platform Yubo implements industry-leading age verification system

Social Live-Streaming Platform Yubo Implements Industry-Leading Age Verification System

With so many young people in the Yubo community, their safety continues to be a priority for our whole team. Our Community Guidelines, technical tools and safety experts help to protect, support and educate our younger users 24/7. So we’re always proud to support Safer Internet Day (#SaferInternetDay and #SID2022), a global event that promotes the safe and positive use of digital technology for children and young people.

In line with the theme of this year’s Safer Internet Day on 8 February – ‘All fun and games? Exploring respect and relationships online’ – we’ve teamed up with one of our industry partners to create an in-app campaign for Yubo users in the US. 

Founded by Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, Thorn is a US-based NGO that builds technology to defend children and young people from sexual abuse. Its youth brand NoFiltr, launched in 2020, helps young people to navigate the challenges of the digital world. 

Our Yubo x NoFiltr campaign will be displayed in profile ‘Swipes’ and includes four crucial tips about online grooming (see below). Yubo users in the US who have any online concerns can contact our safety team directly by tapping the shield icon then ‘Report’ in the Yubo app or text NOFILTR to 741741.

“This campaign for Safer Internet Day is a great example of our proactive approach to preventing harm and helping members of the Yubo community to stay safe,” comments Annie Mullins OBE, Safety Advisor to Yubo. “We want to encourage young people to think critically when interacting with others online, help them to deal with potentially risky situations and protect themselves from harm.” 

“This includes helping them if they are being pressured into sharing personal information or images with someone they don’t know. By providing the NoFiltr advice in Swipes, we’re reaching them in their own space, using language that resonates with them, and letting them know that support is available.”

In a recent blog on the Thorn website, the company’s CEO Julie Cordua noted that “Our global systems are failing to protect children from online sexual exploitation. We need to move the ecosystem that is at the core of creating this world (tech companies, law enforcement, parents and caregivers, public apathy) from a reactive, siloed, child-isolated network to a child-centered, child-supported, globally-connected, proactive, and accountable community.”

Yubo partners with NGOs for Safer Internet Day

Our collaboration with Thorn for Safer Internet Day is part of our focus on building relationships with governments, NGOs, charities and other organisations in order to help drive improvements in digital safety and wellbeing. 

For example, we’re a member of the Tech Coalition and the ICT Coalition, and our Safety Board is made up of international industry experts, including John Shehan, Vice President of NCMEC, Mick Moran, formerly of INTERPOL, and Travis Bright, Product Director at Thorn. In recent years, we’ve also run various issues-based campaigns on the Yubo app with Childnet (UK), e-Enfance (France), Good Thinking (UK), NCMEC (US), Switchboard LGBT+ Helpline (UK), The Diana Award (UK) and many others.

And, of course, we continue to develop innovative tools that help to build a friendly, safe and inclusive community on Yubo and protect young people from online grooming, sexual exploitation, harmful content and other online concerns. These include:

Identity verification: Yubo users have to provide some personal information at sign-up, including their mobile number and a photo that clearly shows their face. We verify their mobile number and use face recognition algorithms and Google image search to check the authenticity of their profile picture.

Community Guidelines: We have strict rules to make sure that discussions between users are respectful and similar to those they would have in real life – everyone has to agree to adhere to these guidelines. Topics covered include nudity, violence, drugs, hate speech, fake profiles and bullying. 

Muted Words: This feature, which was introduced in 2021, allows Yubo users to block any word, abbreviation or emoji that they find offensive, harmful or triggering from comments or content in the app. 

Cautions about inappropriate content requests: If a Yubo user attempts to make inappropriate requests in private chat, we’ll caution them by sending a pop-up alert, and we’ll block that content from being shared.  

Real-time intervention in Lives: If we see inappropriate behaviour or content in a livestream (e.g. if someone asks for nudes), we send a pop-up alert and use the opportunity to explain how the user has crossed the line, how to change their behaviour and what further action we’ll take if they don’t comply. 

Find out more about Safer Internet Day 2022 in our recent blog. We’d also encourage you to check out the Yubo Safety Hub, where you’ll find information about our approach to safety, advice about key concerns, details of our safety tools, short guides for young people and parents, carers and educators, and a list of support organisations by country.

Safer Internet Day 2022: Yubo x NoFiltr

Music? TV? Gaming? Yubo, the leading platform for Gen Z to socialise online, has made it even easier for users to connect and make friends based on their interests with its new in-app onboarding interface and updates to its tags feature. 

Now users can add tags to their profiles when they create their account to show their new friends the latest topics that they’re keen to chat about. By including the feature in the account creation flow, it’s now easier for Gen Z to find the right tags to add to their profile showing their love for food, tv, music, gaming and much more. 

It will also be possible to add friends by tags too! If a user comes across a profile with a tag that interests them, they can click on it to find other users who share that interest. Users' top tags will appear directly in their "friends" tab. So everyone can create communities of friends sharing the same interests. 

Over six million Yubo users worldwide are already using the tag feature to make new meaningful connections on the app and, connecting over shared interests with their love of Rick and Morty, Arctic Monkeys and Grand Theft Auto V starting new discussions and budding friendships. 

In addition to the Add by tag feature, the new update includes a change to the live-streaming feature. Yubo redesigned the whole onboarding process and has made it clearer to those on livestream if they are a “watcher” (viewer of a livestream) or a “streamer” (hosting or appearing in the livestream) via a tooltip which will be visible the entire livestream to make users feel more connected and comfortable. 

Sacha Lazimi, Co-founder and CEO of Yubo, said “We want to ensure that our users have the best possible experience on the app, meeting new like-minded people and creating building friendships and connections with others. The launch of the new updates and features has already proven to improve the user experience and remove any barriers that were previously in the way with over six million users now making use of our tag updates and features. We will continue to listen to our community and introduce changes on the app to reflect their needs and their experience.”

Yubo is proud to be leading the way when it comes to creating a personalised user experience and bringing communities together who have similar interests and values.

Music? TV? Gaming? Yubo, the leading platform for Gen Z to socialise online, has made it even easier for users to connect and make friends based on their interests with it’s new in-app onboarding interface and updates to its tags feature. 

Yubo Introduces Features to Unite Gen Z by Interests

Cyberbullying has been on the rise among young people and has reportedly risen by 50% over the course of the lockdowns, increasing the conversations around the measures that can be taken to protect kids and teens online.

This Anti-Bullying Week (15th -21st November) Yubo is educating its user base on the impacts of bullying by working alongside UK Charity The Diana Award with the aim to make the Yubo community aware of the actions they should do when you have been bullied, through a campaign directly on the App and an educational quiz. It’s now urging other social media platforms to proactively take measures to protect younger online users as well as educate teens on how to act kindly online in order to protect them in the long term. 

Earlier this year, Yubo took action against online bullying and harmful content with the introduction of its new ‘Muted Words’ feature, which enables its users to block specific words and phrases that they find personally triggering from appearing to them on the app.

The Muted Words feature allows users to specify a number of words and abbreviations that they find offensive, harmful and triggering to them that they no longer wish to see in comments or content on the app. Users will also be able to choose from whom to mute the words - for example, they can block from all users or just those that aren’t on their friends' list. Yubo will then automatically hide comments containing these words from the user's view.

Sacha Lazimi, CEO and co-founder of Yubo says, “Social media plays a huge role in Gen Z’s lives - they are the very first digital natives, to them there is no difference between socialising online or offline. As they spend more time online, it is our job as social media organisations to protect them against online bullying and inappropriate behaviour. 

Now more than ever, this generation needs a space to safely socialise with like-minded people and experience social interaction online. However, it is our responsibility as a business to ensure that they are protected and educated on how to behave responsibly online, not just on Yubo, but on any social media or online forum. That is why we have introduced these new features and will continue to proactively work with our safety and moderation experts to ensure Yubo is a safe space to make new and meaningful connections.” 

This Anti-Bullying Week (15th -21st November) Yubo is educating its user base on the impacts of bullying by working alongside UK Charity The Diana Award with the aim to make the Yubo community aware of the actions they should do when you have been bullied, through a campaign directly on the App and an educational quiz.

Yubo collaborates with the Diana Awards

Yubo, the leading platform for young people to socialise online, has today launched ‘Express Sessions’ to support Gen Z users with mental health. 

Within ‘Express Sessions’, users can find a safe space to talk, vent and seek help and peer support from the Yubo community for their everyday life issues. Several sessions will be organised every month for the rest of the year.

The network, which has a Gen Z user base of over 50 million across 40 different countries, is continuing to take steps to ensure the platform is a safe space for young people to interact with their friends. Unlike other social media platforms, Yubo does not have influencers or likes, instead, users are encouraged to meet new people and develop meaningful connections online via livestreams. 

In continued efforts to promote and support digital wellness, Yubo is giving all of its UK users direct access to online mental health support and resources via Partnership for Young London. This is part of a wider global initiative, where all users in Yubo's four key global markets - UK, US, Canada, Australia and NZ - will have access to localised helplines to support them.  

Ahead of World Mental Health Day on the 10th of October, Yubo is also holding a series of events to help support its users and educate them on where additional support resources can be accessed. The events include interactive talks and Q&A sessions with transgender model AJ Clementine on her experience with mental health issues and body positivity; and mental health advocate Emily Rios focused on the fight against suicide. As well as this, users get free access to a meditation session hosted by power users already involved on the App and a relaxing bedtime story session with Irish-based influencer Shane.  

Alongside this, Yubo recently released a number of safety features on the app, including Muted Words feature, which allows users to specify any word, abbreviation or emoji that they find offensive, harmful and triggering to them which they no longer wish to see in comments or content on the app. Users will also be able to choose from whom to mute the words - for example, they can block from all users or just those that aren’t on their friends list. Yubo will then automatically hide comments containing these words from the user's view.

Yubo Launches Express Sessions

Muted Words offers personalised in-app moderation to create a safer space online for each individual

Yubo, the leading platform for young people to socialise online, is taking action against online bullying and harmful content with the introduction of its new ‘Muted Words’ feature, which enables its users to block specific words, emojis or phrases that they find personally triggering from appearing to them on the app.

Cyber-bullying has been on the rise among young people during lockdown with 24% of children estimated to experience some form of cyberbullying. Yubo, which has a Gen Z user base of over 50 million across 40 different countries, is continuing to take steps to ensure that the platform is a safe space for young people to interact with their friends, giving users the control to customise their experience on the platform with this latest feature.

The Muted Words feature allows users to specify any word, abbreviation or emoji that they find offensive, harmful and triggering to them that they no longer wish to see in comments or content on the app. Users will also be able to choose from whom to mute the words - for example, they can block from all users or just those that aren’t on their friends list. Yubo will then automatically hide comments containing these words from the user's view.

This new feature has been developed with the users’ safety and mental health front of mind. Yubo understands that triggering and harmful words are not universal, different words have different effects depending on the individual, who has used this word and the context the word has been used in. Giving individuals control of their experience means that alongside being able to report harmful behaviour, Yubo users can quickly and easily block conversations that they find upsetting.

Margaux Liquard, Lead Safety Manager at Yubo says, “There is nothing more important to us than the safety and wellbeing of our users. The introduction of our Muted Words feature is another step we are taking to ensure that everyone can use the app without fear of judgement or harassment, and empower our community to choose what they want or don’t want to be exposed to. As more and more young people connect online it’s never been more imperative to educate them on online behaviours and the consequences that certain words can have on others.”

Alongside the introduction of Muted Words, Yubo is also helping to combat online bullying through different partnerships and in-app campaigns. To help change behaviour and educate its user base on the impacts of bullying it is working alongside the NCMEC (US), Childnet and The Diana Award (UK), and E-enfance (France).

Yubo fights sexual harassment online with NGOs

Together they aim to make the internet a safe place for young people, and by partnering with these NGOs, Yubo reminds its users that there is no tolerance for inappropriate behaviour and online abuse as well as providing resources for those affected by abuse online. Working with The Diana Award, Yubo will be engaging its community to ask questions and have a constructive discussion through an in-app talk that the Diana Award will be hosting.

Will Gardner, Director at Childnet says, “At Childnet, we have been actively working to tackle online sexual harassment amongst young people, and we are excited to be partnering with Yubo to help reach out to young people directly using their service to give them the information and advice on what to do about online sexual harassment when it happens. Online sexual harassment is a form of sexual violence and can have a real and lasting impact on those that are targeted as well as on those that witness this behaviour. Supporting young people with this issue is vital and this collaboration with Yubo makes this possible.”

Yubo aims to proactively educate its users on how to safely operate online as well as create a secure environment on the app. The launch of Muted Words builds upon Yubo's existing safety features launched earlier this year that prevent the sharing of personal information or inappropriate messages by intervening in real-time. If a user is about to share sensitive information, such as a personal number, address or an inappropriate image they'll receive a pop-up alert from Yubo highlighting the dangers of sharing this information.

Yubo Launches Personalised Moderation Feature

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