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🛡️ Account, privacy and safety

Verify your ID

What ID verification unlocks, how to verify right where you need it (even during a call), IDCheck (Beta) and the check by a person, what happens if CageCheck asks you to verify again, and what CageCheck keeps.

ID verification confirms you're an adult. You send photos of your government ID and a selfie of you holding it. It's how CageCheck keeps video and photo sharing adults-only. Most members are verified in a few seconds by IDCheck (Beta), CageCheck's automatic check; anything it can't confirm goes to a person.

What it unlocks

You need a verified ID to:

You also get the gold ✓ next to your name on your profile and posts.

Verify right where you need it

You don't have to go looking for it. When you try something that needs a verified ID, like hosting an event, going live or turning on video in a call, the ID check opens right there, on top of what you were doing. If everything checks out, you carry straight on: the event form opens, your live starts, or your camera comes on in the call (the call keeps going while you verify).

Verifying right where you need it, here from Host an event

You can also verify any time from Settings: find ID verification and tap Verify.

How to verify

  1. Your details: type your full legal name as it's written on your ID, and your date of birth.
  2. Your ID: choose which kind you have, then tap 📷 Take photo for each photo. Get all four corners in the frame, in good light, without glare.
    • License or state ID: a photo of the front and one of the back. The back has the big barcode, and that's what IDCheck reads, so fill the frame with it and keep it sharp.
    • Passport or other ID: a photo of the page with your photo, including the two lines of letters and <<< along the bottom.
  3. Selfie holding your ID: tap 🤳 Take selfie and hold the same ID up beside your face, with its photo toward the camera, so your face and the photo on the ID are both clear. The selfie has to be taken with the in-app camera, and it's stamped with a one-time code.
  4. How it's checked: choose Check it now with IDCheck or Have a person check it (see below).
  5. Tap Check my ID (or Submit for review if a person is checking it).

By submitting, you confirm it's your own ID and the details are true.

The Verify your ID page

IDCheck (Beta), or a person

Choosing how your ID is checked

Check it now with IDCheck usually takes a few seconds. IDCheck is new, so it's marked Beta. It's software on CageCheck's own servers that:

  • reads the barcode on the back of your driver's license, or the lines on your passport, and checks that your name and date of birth match what you typed, that you're 18 or older, and that the ID hasn't expired;
  • checks that the barcode is on the back of your license, and that the front shows the same date of birth and expiry date;
  • compares your face in the selfie with the photo on your ID, and looks for the ID you're holding up;
  • only works with photos taken in the app's camera: photos chosen from your library always go to a person.

Comparing faces uses biometric information, so this choice asks you to agree to the Biometric Data Notice and Consent first. Nothing is sent to any other company, and the face measurements are thrown away as soon as the comparison is done. CageCheck keeps only the result.

Have a person check it uses no face matching at all. A CageCheck admin looks at your ID and selfie, usually within a day or two.

After you submit

  • You're verified: everything checked out. Your ✓ appears and everything above is unlocked straight away. A CageCheck admin may still look over your ID afterwards.
  • Flagged for manual review: IDCheck couldn't confirm everything, for example the barcode wasn't readable, a photo was chosen from your library, or the selfie wasn't clear enough. It never turns you down by itself: a person looks at it, usually within a day or two, and you get a notification when it's done. Until then you'll see We're checking your ID, and in Settings your status shows In review.
  • Not approved (after a person's review): you'll see the reason, for example the ID photo was blurry or cropped, the selfie didn't clearly match the ID, or the ID looked expired. Tap Submit again (or Try again in Settings) and fix what's needed. You can submit up to 8 times a day.

Admins can double-check IDCheck's approvals afterwards. An admin can also remove a verification later, giving a reason. If that happens, you're told why, and anything you're on camera in (a live you're hosting or on stage in) ends or takes you off camera; a call carries on as voice. You can verify again.

Submitting a fake ID, or someone else's, breaks the Terms of Service: the verification is removed and the account is suspended.

Age checks in some US states

Many US states have laws that require sites with adult content to check that their users are adults. If you haven't verified your ID and you connect from one of those states, CageCheck shows Verify your age to continue first, naming the state. Verify once, the usual way, and you won't be asked again, wherever you are.

  • CageCheck works out the state from your connection's address, on its own server (IP Geolocation by DB-IP). Where you are isn't stored.
  • A VPN, a work network or mobile data can make it look like you're somewhere else. Verifying still works the same.
  • While you're on that screen, Emergency unlock, your safeword, support and signing out always work.
  • Public live links aren't open to guests in those states: join CageCheck and verify to watch.

If CageCheck asks you to verify again

Sometimes CageCheck needs to check a member's ID again, even if they're already verified. If that's you:

  • You get a notification and an email: Please verify your ID to keep using CageCheck.
  • When you open CageCheck you see Please verify your ID instead of the app. Tap Verify my ID: it's the same check as above, with IDCheck or, if you prefer, a person. An earlier verification doesn't count, so send new photos.
  • If IDCheck approves it, the app comes straight back. If a person is checking it, you'll see "Thanks. A person is checking your ID; you'll get a notification." When it's approved, you're told You're verified. Thanks!
  • If it isn't approved, you'll see why, and you can try again.
Please verify your ID

Until it's approved you can't check in, post or send messages. Your lock and its check-in times carry on meanwhile. Nothing counts as missed while you wait (no missed check-ins, missed tasks or overdue penances). Once you're verified you have 24 hours to catch up, and anything still overdue after that counts, so verify as soon as you can. One thing keeps counting: a lock with no check-in for 5 days still ends on its own, because that's also a way out. Other members can't see your profile, posts or comments, or message or call you meanwhile. Nothing is deleted: it all comes back once you're verified. Your keyholder can still see your lock.

What always works on that screen:

  • Emergency unlock, and your lockbox code or box release if you use a Beta lockbox.
  • Release myself, if your keyholder has been away for a week (see If your keyholder is away).
  • Use my safeword on any open task or penance.
  • End the pairing or Block the person you're paired with.
  • Contact support: write to the CageCheck team and read their answers right there.
  • Sign out.

Your privacy

  • Your ID photos and selfie are encrypted. Only CageCheck admins can open them, and every view is logged.
  • Your legal name and birthday are never shown to other members, including your keyholder.
  • Location and camera details are removed from the photos.
  • Face measurements are never stored, and never sold or shared. See the Biometric Data Notice and Consent.

What's kept, and for how long

  • Your ID photos and selfie are kept, encrypted, for at most 30 days after your check is decided (approved or not), then deleted automatically. CageCheck may set a shorter time: the Biometric Data Notice shows the current one. While a person is still checking them, they're kept until it's decided.
  • Your verified badge stays after the photos are deleted. If CageCheck ever needs to check again, it asks you to send your ID again (see If CageCheck asks you to verify again).
  • What IDCheck read off your ID (name, birth date, expiry date) is deleted along with the photos. The result of each check (passed or not, and the face-match score) stays as a record of how you were verified.
  • Your name, date of birth and the review decision stay with your account.
  • Deleting your account deletes all of it: the photos and the verification record.

Under 18

CageCheck is only for adults. If the date of birth you enter is under 18, the verification is refused, nothing you uploaded is kept, and the account is flagged for admins to review. If the ID shows someone under 18, it's never approved, by IDCheck or by an admin: the account is flagged at once, anything that needs a verified ID is switched off, and an admin reviews it straight away. When an admin confirms the ID belongs to someone under 18, the photos are deleted and the account is suspended or deleted. An account that's been flagged is never verified automatically: a person always looks.

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Still stuck? Ask in the community, or report a problem from the ••• menu on any post or profile. In an emergency, use emergency unlock or your safeword: they always work and never cost anything.