If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. For Crisis Support (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.
Read the community guidelines before posting ✨
Want to share your experience of using our Community?
We're collecting Community Case Studies which could be used on our website, on social media, shared with our volunteers, or shared with third parties who may be interested to hear how online communities help people.
Click here to fill out our anonymous form
We're collecting Community Case Studies which could be used on our website, on social media, shared with our volunteers, or shared with third parties who may be interested to hear how online communities help people.
Click here to fill out our anonymous form
Community Updates 2026
TheMix
Posts: 3,320 Boards Guru
We want to let you know about a couple of changes to the Community, where we will be introducing Pre Moderation and Age Verification.
These updates are about making sure Community continues to be a safe space. Even though some parts are still being worked on we wanted to inform you as early as possible to give you the opportunity to ask any questions ahead of the changes.
To make these changes happen, we’ll need to update the look and theme of the Discussion Boards. This might cause a few technical glitches at first, but we’ll be working closely with our platform team to fix anything as quickly as possible if it comes up.
What will be changing?
Age verification
As we began to share in March 2025, we will soon be introducing age verification on Community to make sure the people using our spaces are within our age range (13–25) and to help keep everyone safe. This means we’ll be using a trusted external provider - YOTI - to check ages, without storing photos or personal images. We’ve been testing this carefully and working closely with our provider to make sure it meets safeguarding and legal requirements. Our plan is to roll this out for everyone after the end of January 2026, and we’ll always give you clear notice before anything changes, along with information about what it means for you.
Pre-moderation of Discussion Boards
We will also be moving the Discussion Boards to a fully pre-moderated system, which means posts and comments will be checked by our team before they go live. This is an extra safety step to help us respond more quickly to high-risk posts and meet expectations under the Online Safety Act. To make this work, we’ve increased staffing and are changing how moderation works so posts can be approved as quickly as possible. A further long term aim is to prevent overnight posting (between the hours of 10pm-9am) to help encourage members to engage with our services during the daytime operational hours, but also to discourage members from posting in crisis overnight when there is no staff available to support them.
We realize this is a significant change, and will be sure to keep you updated on when this will come into effect.
While it may feel different at first, this change is about keeping the Community safe, supportive and sustainable for everyone who uses it.
We know that changes like this can raise questions or worries. If anything feels unclear, or you just want to talk it through, you can share your thoughts by sharing your thoughts below on this thread or submitting a question anonymously via this Google Form: https://forms.gle/sobYaEUFBXKFAqWF7.
Please note, it may take the team a number of days to respond to questions as we work together with our internal teams to give you accurate answers, but we will respond as fast as we can.
Thank you so much for being part of our Community and for the care and thought you bring to the space. We’re committed to doing everything we can to keep the Community supportive, welcoming and safe for everyone.
Take care,
The Community Team
These updates are about making sure Community continues to be a safe space. Even though some parts are still being worked on we wanted to inform you as early as possible to give you the opportunity to ask any questions ahead of the changes.
To make these changes happen, we’ll need to update the look and theme of the Discussion Boards. This might cause a few technical glitches at first, but we’ll be working closely with our platform team to fix anything as quickly as possible if it comes up.
What will be changing?
Age verification
As we began to share in March 2025, we will soon be introducing age verification on Community to make sure the people using our spaces are within our age range (13–25) and to help keep everyone safe. This means we’ll be using a trusted external provider - YOTI - to check ages, without storing photos or personal images. We’ve been testing this carefully and working closely with our provider to make sure it meets safeguarding and legal requirements. Our plan is to roll this out for everyone after the end of January 2026, and we’ll always give you clear notice before anything changes, along with information about what it means for you.
Pre-moderation of Discussion Boards
We will also be moving the Discussion Boards to a fully pre-moderated system, which means posts and comments will be checked by our team before they go live. This is an extra safety step to help us respond more quickly to high-risk posts and meet expectations under the Online Safety Act. To make this work, we’ve increased staffing and are changing how moderation works so posts can be approved as quickly as possible. A further long term aim is to prevent overnight posting (between the hours of 10pm-9am) to help encourage members to engage with our services during the daytime operational hours, but also to discourage members from posting in crisis overnight when there is no staff available to support them.
We realize this is a significant change, and will be sure to keep you updated on when this will come into effect.
While it may feel different at first, this change is about keeping the Community safe, supportive and sustainable for everyone who uses it.
We know that changes like this can raise questions or worries. If anything feels unclear, or you just want to talk it through, you can share your thoughts by sharing your thoughts below on this thread or submitting a question anonymously via this Google Form: https://forms.gle/sobYaEUFBXKFAqWF7.
Please note, it may take the team a number of days to respond to questions as we work together with our internal teams to give you accurate answers, but we will respond as fast as we can.
Thank you so much for being part of our Community and for the care and thought you bring to the space. We’re committed to doing everything we can to keep the Community supportive, welcoming and safe for everyone.
Take care,
The Community Team
Post edited by Sian321 on
0
Comments
The age verification is one thing i have already shared my concerns about in other threads so I won’t repeat those here.
But pre moderation? Ok hear me out. I’m a 23 year old woman. I could serve my country. I can vote in elections, I have lifelong tattoos, I’m trusted with loans and credit cards, could own my own home if I had the money. But I can’t post on a forum I have been posting on without issue for 10 years without it being checked, and can’t post overnight at all?
And tbh, aren’t these boards more active overnight, because mental health struggles are not limited to daytime operational hours. Nighttime is when people are at their loneliest, and is when I have received countless supportive messages that quite frankly have meant the difference between full on crisis and going to bed feeling calmer because someone has been just there, listening. And that is a credit to the members here.
I suspect a lot of people here will agree with me but it won’t be explained or taken onboard
exactly its pretty odd to say the least. i mean childline has been doing this pre-moderation thing for years mainly because of its younger users which is completely understandable but posts usually get checked in a matter of minutes to a few hours if posted in operational hours. in this case i dont know how often the posts are gonna get checked because ive only seen a handful of staff and mods on here.
There used to be such a community spirit on here and lifelong friendships were formed, many of my closest friends are former members on here (you know who you are if you’re reading) and current members. Which was the draw of moving from childline to here. People have formed long term friendships and even relationships on here. I’m sure i read once that people have even got married and had children from meeting on here.
It feels totally impersonal now in most cases (with the exception of volunteer mods and certain staff members).
First, it's the erasure of DM's, wiping out a huge thing for many community members, then there was a large exodus of people who formerly was on boards because of the merger (i wasn't here for these two), then there's mandatory ID (i don't personally object provided that the third party is under GDPR jurisdiction and has a good history of effective cyber security), and then it's the closure of boards overnight, the time when people are lonely the most. I feel like the mix is going to extreme lengths to meet the OSA's requirements, which is a law that doesn't even make itself clear. (not to brag, but i did warn that organisations would have to take extreme measures to avoid fines, just because of how vague the act is). I just think there's far better ways than slowly lobotomising what this site is bit by bit over time.
For me, i think a fair amount, if not most of my post's tend to be at night, because that's when i don't have to be a 24/7 carer during the daytime, with one or two exceptions. So that makes things a bit tricky for me. I struggle to see how the mix can brand itself like an community based organisation, whilst simultaneously closing the community during the loneliest hours without attempting other alternatives first.
Discord not only said the same, but also made the same claims that photo's and personal images would not be stored, and we saw how that turned out in practice: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8jmzd972leo
I would at least ask that before I upload photo id, there's more information about whoever this third party is, and let's be clear here, it is a third party, not the mix, who we'll be sending photo's of ourselves, or our photo ID's to, right?
I'm mindful that you mentioned that the IT services you get are from the united states in the past, not a GDPR country, which is the exact thing i warned about months ago in my OSA article, about services outsourcing personal data to countries outside the acts jurisdiction. Could we have more clarification about this.
yeah i remember the discord situation. i wont upload photo id either until i get more information about who this third party provider is. because i dont want anything to get leaked.
many members here are lonely or need to vent ( not in a crisis way ) but in a way talking abt their feelings etc at night when life i personally think is most toughest and now bc this stupid thing is coming into place like? most support services aren’t open at night nor for example shout can take hours on end to answer. so this is just ridiculous imo.
I thought the closure of the initial hug thread to prevent crisis posting was bad enough at the time but this is a step backwards in terms of mental health support. Like you say, support services are generally not open overnight, and those that are have long queues or are telephone only, which just doesn’t suit many young people.
And I think sometimes, that loneliness is what can lead to a crisis. It has for me. You’re alone with your thoughts, and sometimes just getting those thoughts out and having someone acknowledge it can be the difference between requiring crisis support, and feeling calm enough to go to bed and rest.
The points about age verification and the privacy of it are valid too, and what 13 year old has a valid form of ID that is easily accessible and would be accepted for this purpose? My mum kept my passport in a cupboard when i was that age that I had no idea where it was because I’d never needed to ask. I can just imagine how that conversation would go if a young teen doesn’t know where their ID is and needs it to sign up for this. I know you can use your face as a selfie and that has worked for me as an adult, but age is a lot harder to determine that way for teenagers. And many teens wouldn’t want their parents to know they want to use a site like this - heck I’m a full grown adult and have been here 10 years and my parents still don’t know I use it, because it’s a space i come with some very private things.
well said!! you couldn’t of said it better!
"The way that I have found the light in my life is through the expressive arts because I know that I will be accepted for the way I am." ~ Me
"I'm going to get strong again and see you soon. " ~ Anonymous
Can you please share the exact extract from the online safety act please
We are allowed to know this information.
"The way that I have found the light in my life is through the expressive arts because I know that I will be accepted for the way I am." ~ Me
"I'm going to get strong again and see you soon. " ~ Anonymous
I could get act up and read it my self to find Clause (if there is one) but i rather mix tell us what clause they are referencing
They won`t want you to do that. They`ll think you`re being uncooperative or snarky.
"The way that I have found the light in my life is through the expressive arts because I know that I will be accepted for the way I am." ~ Me
"I'm going to get strong again and see you soon. " ~ Anonymous
I agree with the thing about not submitting ID to a third party provider.
"The way that I have found the light in my life is through the expressive arts because I know that I will be accepted for the way I am." ~ Me
"I'm going to get strong again and see you soon. " ~ Anonymous
yeah yoti ID is good.
@BensonE I warned of this endlessly. The Online safety act is so extremely vague that much is up to interpretation, and they jump to immediate worst case interpretations to avoid the risk of getting fined. If they can't show that harmful content is actively being prevented from being posted under section 10 of the Online safety act 2023, then in risk wary minds, Ofcom could decide to say that is not sufficiant action to uphold this part of act. They simply won't take the risk.
Exact wording is as follows under the act. I assume this is what they are basing it off:
10 (2) A duty, in relation to a service, to take or use proportionate measures relating to the design or operation of the service to—
(a) prevent individuals from encountering priority illegal content by means of the service,
(b) effectively mitigate and manage the risk of the service being used for the commission or facilitation of a priority offence, as identified in the most recent illegal content risk assessment of the service, and
(c) effectively mitigate and manage the risks of harm to individuals, as identified in the most recent illegal content risk assessment of the service.
10 (3) A duty to operate a service using proportionate systems and processes designed to—
(a) minimise the length of time for which any priority illegal content is present;
(b) where the provider is alerted by a person to the presence of any illegal content, or becomes aware of it in any other way, swiftly take down such content.
10 (4) These duties apply across all areas of a service — including how it is designed, operated and used — and require the provider to take or use measures in areas including: content moderation, policies on user access, features and algorithms, user controls, etc.
I recommend people read my Online safety act piece to understand my concerns around the act, and to see why this was a predictable outcome of it.
Nathan im asking @TheMix as before you have massive hatred for online safety act and anyone of us could read act and make assumptions hence I was asking the mix directly
We don`t know for certain that it will be though.
"The way that I have found the light in my life is through the expressive arts because I know that I will be accepted for the way I am." ~ Me
"I'm going to get strong again and see you soon. " ~ Anonymous
i don’t think you should speak to nathan like that when he’s done nothing but speak abt what his opinion is 🤷🏼♀️. and he’s allowed to talk abt his opinion like anyone else is..
I totally agree im just saying lets wait and see what provider they use as there are some that banks have been using for many years now