Yubo is at the forefront of online safety innovation, working closely with organizations like AFNOR and other industry leaders.
With the recent Congressional hearings, online safety is on everyone’s mind right now — something that’s been a cornerstone of Yubo, a Paris-based social media platform that recently struck a multi-stakeholder partnership to usher in a new era of online child safety measures.
In a significant move toward bolstering online safety for young users, Yubo, a social media platform popular with Generation Z, is sharing its smart strategies for protecting young users, detailed in a thorough guide it created with the help of the Association Française de Normalisation.
Sharone Franco, who leads legal and public policy at the live social discovery app, played a pivotal role in driving this initiative, working in close collaboration with AFNOR. “To limit the safety risks that kids and teens encounter online today and equip platforms with the tools that can ensure young people can remain safely engaged with the world around them, a collective and collaborative response that is globalized is essential,” she stated.
During a recent appearance on the online news program Bloomberg Technology, Franco said, “Yubo is a French company, so privacy is something that comes naturally to us. We know the impact of [artificial intelligence] and the risks our children are facing. Now we need to focus on operational solutions and do the work that we have been doing at Yubo since the beginning of the company, working on finding practical solutions.”
Franco pointed out that child protection and social media legislation are not the same everywhere, but noted, “We are all heading in the same direction. [What] we should keep in mind is that multi-stakeholder work is the way we will achieve this purpose [of] having a social platform that protects children, that is safe for them. That is really the goal we all want to achieve.”
The policy document results from collaboration with over 20 partner organizations from various regulatory bodies and the public and private sectors, including Meta, Yoti, French Data Protection Authority (CNIL), and Arcom, France’s audiovisual and digital communication regulatory authority. This coalition reflects a broad spectrum of expertise and insight, shaping a policy that addresses the complexities of online safety for young users.
Franco described the document on Bloomberg Technology as “One hundred pages of operational solutions, giving guidelines and recommendations on how to protect minors online, how to moderate content, and work on agent referents.”
The Yubo-AFNOR report, now available in English, is structured around three key pillars: account verification, content moderation, and enhancing user awareness and transparency. This strategic document has already earned the live social discovery app the Trophées Or Normes award for Trusted and Responsible Digitization, recognizing the platform’s commitment to creating a safer online environment for youth.
Social Media Safety Under Scrutiny
This collaboration comes at a critical time, with Europe’s recent adoption of the Digital Service Act and the U.K.’s Online Safety Bill and ongoing debates in the U.S. and its Supreme Court regarding online regulation.
On Jan. 31, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a nearly four-hour-long hearing on online child safety, featuring intense interactions between senators and executives from major technology companies, including Meta, TikTok, Discord, Snap, and X, formerly known as Twitter.
The discussion touched on legislation, with two of the five executives, Evan Spiegel of Snap and Linda Yaccarino of X, expressing their support for the Kids Online Safety Act. This proposed legislation aims to compel online services to implement measures that prevent various forms of harm to minors, including bullying, harassment, and exploitation.
The Yubo-AFNOR document is designed to stimulate reflection and offer actionable strategies for safeguarding minors online. “Protecting minors, who are using social media at an increasingly early age, is becoming a matter of urgency,” stated Julie Latawiec, AFNOR’s head of development and innovation. “The legislative framework is necessary but not sufficient. This document provides common sense and food for thought.”
Yubo: Prioritizing Safety in Social Discovery
The live social discovery app offers a dynamic platform for social discovery tailored to Gen Z’s desire to make new friends and socialize online in a genuine way. Unlike many social media sites, Yubo doesn’t have performance metrics such as likes, comments, or follower counts. This allows users to focus on real-world connections, hang out, create new friends, and play games without the pressure of generating the highest number of likes. Users swipe between profiles and livestreaming to meet new people worldwide in real-time.
The app prioritizes the safety of its teen and young adult users, building every feature and policy on the advice of a seasoned safety advisory board. This board includes experts from esteemed organizations like the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Thorn, and The Diana Award.
Since its launch in 2015, the platform has attracted over 80 million users from over 140 countries, establishing a vast global community. The live social discovery app has consistently sought to innovate in online safety. This initiative further solidifies the platform’s commitment to reducing harm and promoting safer online interactions for its global community of young users.
“As the online landscape continues to change, we, too, are constantly evolving and upgrading our practices and systems to ensure safety is built in by design,” said CEO Sacha Lazimi. “As a leading social platform for teens and young adults, we are committed to prioritizing the safety of our users.”
