FenceChat is operated by ROHAJO Pty Ltd t/a FenceChat (ABN 94 699 691 640). FenceChat exists to protect people from abusive messages. This page explains our rules on harmful and unlawful material, how anyone can report it to us, and what we do when we receive a report.

How FenceChat is designed

FenceChat is a private, one-to-one service. Each user has their own FenceChat email address and, on some plans, a FenceChat number. Messages sent to them are filtered and delivered only to that user. There are no public profiles, no posts, no groups and no search, and people cannot find or contact each other through FenceChat. Each user’s message archive is private to them.

What is not allowed

Our Terms prohibit using FenceChat for anything unlawful, including to harass, stalk or threaten anyone, and prohibit sending, receiving, storing or distributing:

• child sexual exploitation or abuse material;
• pro-terror material;
• material depicting or promoting extreme violence or serious crime.

We may suspend or close an account, or block a sender, that breaks these rules.

Report harmful or unlawful material

Anyone can report material to us, whether or not they use FenceChat.

• Email safety@fencechat.com.
• FenceChat users can also go to Support in their Dashboard and choose Report harmful or unlawful material.
• Or use our contact form and choose the same topic.

Please tell us the FenceChat address or number involved, roughly when it happened, and what the material was. Do not send us copies of child sexual abuse material. Describe it instead, and report it directly to the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation.

We aim to acknowledge every report within one business day, and we act on serious reports straight away.

What we do with a report

• We assess the report and look only at what we need to in order to act on it.
• We secure and preserve the material and the related account details, so they are available to the authorities.
• Where we can, we stop the material being passed on, and we may suspend the account or block the sender.
• We report child sexual exploitation material and pro-terror material to the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation or the eSafety Commissioner, and serious threats to the police.
• We tell you what we did, unless the law stops us. In some cases we are not allowed to tell anyone, including the account holder or the person who reported it, that a report to the authorities has been made.

The eSafety Commissioner

Australia’s independent regulator for online safety is the eSafety Commissioner. eSafety can help with serious online abuse of adults, image-based abuse (sharing or threatening to share intimate images without consent) and illegal or restricted online content. You can report directly to eSafety at esafety.gov.au/report, whether or not you have reported to us first.

We respond to notices from the eSafety Commissioner, including removal notices, within the time the notice sets.

Complaints

If you are not happy with how we handled a report, email safety@fencechat.com and tell us why. Someone other than the person who first handled it will review it, and we will reply. If we cannot resolve a complaint about how we meet our online safety obligations, you can take it to the eSafety Commissioner.