Kids & Child-Safe Apps Moderation

The moderation problem

Child-safe environments are the highest-stakes surface there is. The goal isn't just blocking profanity — it's catching predatory behavior, grooming patterns, attempts to move kids off-platform, and any sexual content, with no tolerance for ambiguity.

Why a word list isn't enough

Profanity lists are useless against grooming, which is almost entirely clean of swear words. 'You're so mature for your age, let's keep this our secret' contains nothing a word list would catch.

How The Profanity API handles it

Use context `child_safe` with `strict` mode: every single match flags, the strictness ceiling is maxed, and intent classification prioritizes detecting sexual and predatory patterns over every other category. This is the one surface where false positives are the acceptable trade.

const res = await fetch("https://api.theprofanityapi.com/v1/check", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "Authorization": "Bearer " + process.env.PROFANITY_API_KEY,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({ text, context: "child_safe", mode: "strict" }),
});

const { flagged, intent, score } = await res.json();