1. Corporate and service identity
The dedicated UK pages do not represent a separately incorporated UK company or a claim of UK Government, Ofcom, or ICO endorsement.
2. Safety governance
SPHERE's safety approach is built around a 16+ community, member reporting, content and account controls, investigation, proportionate enforcement, and records that can support review. Safety priorities include child sexual exploitation and abuse, grooming, terrorism, credible violence, suicide and self-harm encouragement, fraud, trafficking, illegal goods, non-consensual intimate content, hateful abuse, stalking, and malicious exposure of personal information.
SPHERE may use automated signals, rules, filters, member reports, and manual assessment to identify risk. Automated technology can assist with scale and consistency, but context and error remain possible. Where appropriate and feasible, significant account actions should be open to further review.
3. Reports and enforcement
Members and visitors can use Report a Concern for posts, messages, profiles, threats, impersonation, grooming, scams, privacy issues, or other harmful activity. A report may lead to review, content restriction or removal, a warning, feature limitation, suspension, account closure, evidence preservation, or referral to an appropriate authority.
Not every report establishes a violation, and the same conduct may require different action depending on context, severity, history, and immediate risk. SPHERE may be unable to reveal private information, security methods, or details that could endanger another person or interfere with an investigation.
Review principles
- consider the relevant content and surrounding context;
- prioritise imminent and severe harm;
- avoid penalties based solely on popularity or status;
- apply the published rules as consistently as reasonably possible;
- correct decisions when reliable new information shows an error; and
- preserve lawful expression while acting against illegal and prohibited conduct.
4. OUDI D2 and automated assistance
OUDI D2 is SPHERE's intelligent assistance identity. It may support navigation, learning, discovery, safety prompts, classification, or moderation workflows as features develop. Members should be told when they are interacting with an automated assistant where confusion is reasonably possible.
Automated output can be incomplete or wrong and should not be treated as professional medical, legal, financial, or emergency advice. SPHERE does not promise that automated screening will detect every violation. Members remain encouraged to report harmful content directly.
5. Age assurance and younger members
SPHERE is designed as a 16+ service. Registration may use date of birth, email, telephone, payment, identity, behavioural, or other proportionate checks depending on risk and the capabilities available. A self-entered date of birth alone should not be treated as conclusive where stronger assurance is required.
SPHERE does not claim that every check is infallible. Suspected under-16 access should be reported. Information used for age assurance should be limited, protected, and retained only as reasonably necessary, consistent with the UK Privacy Notice.
Ofcom's official guidance explains that services must assess whether children are likely to access them and that conclusions based on exclusion require highly effective age assurance. Read the Ofcom guidance.
6. Visibility, recommendations, and advertising
SPHERE features may organise content using time, connections, member choices, relevance signals, location or language, safety controls, and other service signals. The precise mix may change as features are tested or improved. SPHERE should not describe paid placement as an independent recommendation.
- Paid advertising or sponsored placement should be recognisable as advertising.
- Advertisers remain responsible for the truth and legality of their claims.
- Members should have a route to report misleading or unsafe advertising.
- SPHERE may restrict sensitive categories, targeting methods, or advertisers to protect members.
SPHERE does not currently claim that every feed is fully personalised or controlled by a single algorithm. Feature-specific explanations will be added as the product develops.
7. Payments, taxes, and commercial transparency
Where SPHERE charges a one-time verification or membership amount, the checkout should display the price, currency, payment provider, and any recurring nature before payment. The current advertised verification amount may be US $5; a UK payer may see conversion by PayPal, their bank, or card provider.
PayPal's processing does not by itself mean that PayPal assumes every tax, VAT, refund, or consumer-law responsibility belonging to SPHERE. SPHERE will review its obligations based on the nature and location of its supplies and will update checkout information when required.
8. Government and legal requests
SPHERE may receive lawful requests to preserve or disclose information, restrict content, or assist an investigation. Requests should be reviewed for authority, scope, authenticity, and legal validity. Where lawful and reasonably possible, SPHERE should resist requests that are defective, excessive, or inconsistent with applicable rights.
SPHERE may be prohibited from notifying a member about a request. Emergency disclosure may be considered where permitted by law and reasonably necessary to prevent imminent death or serious physical harm. This page does not publish a number of requests because a verified reporting dataset has not yet been released.
9. Transparency statistics
SPHERE intends to publish periodic figures once reporting systems can produce complete, checked, and meaningful information. Until then, a blank or unavailable figure is more honest than an estimate presented as fact.
| Planned measure | Current publication status |
|---|---|
| Member safety reports received | Not yet published |
| Content removed or restricted by category | Not yet published |
| Accounts warned, suspended, or closed | Not yet published |
| Appeals or review requests and reversals | Not yet published |
| Detected CSEA reports made to an authorised body | Not yet published; disclosure may be limited for safety and law-enforcement reasons |
| Government information or restriction requests | Not yet published |
| Average or median response time | Not yet published |
Future reports should state the reporting period, definitions, geographic scope, known limitations, and whether numbers represent reports, pieces of content, accounts, or enforcement actions.
10. Regulatory status and updates
Ofcom explains that mandatory transparency-report publication applies only to providers of certain services placed on its public register of categorised services and served with relevant transparency requirements. SPHERE voluntarily publishes this centre; it does not claim to be categorised, certified, approved, or exempt.
Online-safety duties vary according to a service's functions, reach, risks, and legal status. SPHERE will review this page as its features, UK audience, record systems, and applicable requirements develop. Official guidance is available from Ofcom Online Safety.
Questions and accountability
To report content, use Report a Concern. For questions about this page or SPHERE's practices, email info@spheresocialmediallc.com.
Public commitment Material corrections to this page should be dated and explained rather than silently hidden.