🔐 Stars Is Safe by Design. What Does That Really Mean?

Stars is a Safe by Design messaging service for kids. But what does Safe by Design actually mean?

It means safety isn’t an add-on, a toggle, or something parents have to constantly manage. Safety is the starting point. It is the first question we asked when building Stars — and the question we continue to ask for every feature we ship. It’s the foundation of everything we build. Most importantly, it means staying safe on Stars should just work, without adding extra burden to already busy parents.

For us, Safe by Design means:

• Preventing unwanted contact before it happens

• Blocking harmful content automatically

• Giving parents visibility and kids control without friction and overhead

• Designing safety into identity, discovery, media, and conversations

👋 Safe Contacts

One of the biggest challenges in kids’ communication service is preventing unwanted contact. For kids, that initial message can already cause harm. It also gives bad actors an opening to start seemingly harmless conversations.

Traditional messaging relies on phone numbers or usernames—both of which are:

• Easy to guess / discover people

• Hard to change once compromised

• Reactive rather than preventative (you can only block after messages arrive)

Fundamentally, we’re still using the same identity and discovery model created for telephony centuries ago—and then trying to patch it with blocking and parental controls.

How Stars Solves This

Stars fixes the core problem: static, universally discoverable identities. Instead of relying on phone numbers / Username alone, Stars uses a Username + Friend Code combination.

Only people who know both can send a friend request. If a Friend Code is overshared or compromised, it can be changed instantly with a single tap—without losing existing friends or rebuilding your contact list. 👏

What This Means in Practice

With Stars, you can:

• Share your contact details only with people you choose

• Change your contact details easily, without starting over

• Remove contacts permanently, without worrying about future harassment from new numbers or accounts, or by posting your contact information online.

By default, Stars blocks the entire world—and only lets in the people you explicitly allow.

👨‍👨‍👦‍👦 Safe Group Chats

Group chats are fun and efficient—but they can also get out of control.

A friend might:

• Add you to groups with people you don’t want to interact with

• Re-add you to groups you’ve already left

You shouldn’t have to unfriend someone just to avoid this problem.

The Stars Solution

Stars includes an “Approve Group Adds” setting.

When enabled:

• You approve every new group chat before joining

• You stay in control of which group conversations you participate in

No surprises. No repeated re-adds. No awkward situations.

📷 Safe Media

Even with safe contacts and groups, someone might still attempt to send inappropriate images.

Stars Shield

Stars Shield automatically blocks images (and soon videos) containing nudity or pornography before they ever reach the child. There’s nothing to report. Nothing to block. Nothing for parents to react to. The content simply never appears.

Shield+

For families using Parent View Shield+, Stars goes even further by blocking images that include:

• Drugs

• Guns

• Alcohol

• Sexually suggestive content

• Excessive violence

• Self-harm

Parents can approve what content is appropriate for their child—and Shield+ also prevents kids from accidentally sending such images themselves.

💬 Safe Conversations

Sometimes, even trusted contacts can start using abusive or inappropriate language.

Stars addresses this with the Profanity Filter, which blocks messages containing abusive words before they reach the recipient.

You can enable it:

• Per conversation

• Across all contacts

This gives families flexibility while keeping conversations respectful and age-appropriate.

✅ In Summary

Stars is built from the inside out to:

• Give you full control over who can communicate with you

• Prevent harmful content from ever reaching you

• Make safety proactive, not reactive

• Reduce parental burden instead of increasing it

Our promise is simple: Safety isn’t a bolt-on at Stars. It’s the foundation. We will continue improving and expanding our safety systems to make Stars the safest messaging service for both younger and older kids.