Child Safety Standards
Effective date: 1 October 2026
Qahwa (developer: Itani, the trading name of Ahmed Itani, Ontario, Canada) has zero tolerance for child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE), including child sexual abuse material (CSAM), grooming, sextortion, trafficking, and any sexualisation of minors. This page sets out the standards that apply to everyone who uses the app, and how I enforce them.
1. What is prohibited
Using Qahwa in any way to:
- create, share, request or link to sexual content involving anyone under 18;
- groom, sexualise, threaten, extort or exploit a child, or try to meet a child or move a conversation with a child to another app or platform;
- ask a child for personal information, photos or contact details;
- send gifts or anything else to a child to gain their trust for any of the above;
- choose names, clan names or any other content that sexualises minors or refers to child abuse.
Any of these leads to an immediate, permanent ban and a report to the authorities (see section 4).
2. How the app is designed to protect children
- Age requirement: online features are for players aged 13 and over. The app asks for the year of birth before the first online action. Players under 13 can only play offline against the computer: no account is created for them, and they see no store, no ads and no other players. Players aged 13 to 17 get safer defaults (for example, throwables from other players are off).
- No free-text chat, no private messages, no photo or file sharing: communication is limited to preset phrases, stickers and playful reactions chosen from a fixed list. Players cannot send each other links, pictures or contact details.
- Filtered names: player names and clan names are checked on the server against Arabic, English and Arabizi filters of offensive and sexual terms, with protections against look-alike spellings.
- Report and block everywhere people meet: at online tables, in clan chat, in clan member lists, on profiles and on clan pages.
- Human review: reports are reviewed by a person. Reports involving a child's safety are handled first, with a target of 24 hours.
- No real-money gambling and no personalised ads for teens.
3. How to report
- In the app: tap the player's seat or name and choose Report (reason "Abuse" or "Something else", and say in the note that it concerns a child), or press and hold a clan chat message and choose Report. Then Block the player, and also email safety@playqahwa.com so that the report is handled first.
- By email: safety@playqahwa.com with the subject "CHILD SAFETY". Include the player's display name, the clan name or table code if known, the time, and your own Player ID if you have one. Please do not send copies of any abusive image.
- If a child is in immediate danger, contact local police or emergency services first.
- In Canada you can also report online child sexual exploitation to Cybertip.ca; in the United States to the NCMEC CyberTipline (report.cybertip.org).
4. What I do when I receive a report
- Review it and preserve the relevant records.
- Remove the content, reset the name or archive the clan, and ban the account(s) involved.
- Where there is apparent CSAM or child exploitation, report it as the law requires: in Canada to the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (Cybertip.ca) and the police, and, where relevant, to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) CyberTipline or the competent authority in the relevant country. I cooperate with lawful requests from law enforcement.
- Keep the records needed for the report for as long as the law requires, even if the account is deleted.
5. Compliance with law
I comply with the child safety laws that apply to the app, including Canada's law on the mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse material by internet service providers, and I follow Google Play's child safety requirements (and Apple's, if an iPhone version is released). I review these standards at least once a year and whenever the app's social features change.
6. Child safety point of contact
Ahmed Itani is the designated point of contact for child safety matters and can speak to Google Play about the app's CSAM prevention practices and compliance.
- Email: safety@playqahwa.com
- General contact: support@playqahwa.com
Related: Terms of Use and Community Rules, Privacy Policy.
© 2026 Itani · Ontario, Canada · support@playqahwa.com