Safety Report/Enforcement
Open Chat
Kakao always supports users’ freedom of expression and hopes that KakaoTalk Open Chat serves as a space where users can freely share opinions and discuss shared interests through open and diverse connections.
Unlike KakaoTalk’s General Chat, which is a friends-based service, Open Chat is a service that everyone can view or join, and therefore, are operated under stricter standards to protect users’ safety and prevent the distribution of harmful information. Since the service is also open to children and youth, KakaoTalk is making strenuous efforts to make sure no information that is harmful to children or youth is displayed in the public area.
Like KakaoTalk’s General Chat, Kakao does not view Open Chat’s private contents (messages and contents in the chatroom) in order to protect users’ privacy, If a user uses the service’s “Report” feature to report a problematic message or content, we determine whether the reported message or content violates any related laws, terms or Operation Policy provisions and impose any necessary service restrictions.
However, since content in the public domain (e.g., Open Chat covers, profiles, posts) is visible to general users and can be accessed by anyone, it is necessary to manage it to prevent illegal or harmful information from being displayed in Open Chat search results, especially information that is harmful to children and juveniles.
Therefore, to protect users, a database of prohibited keywords that contain unhealthy, illegal, or harmful information, or words that can potentially harm users, has been developed in Open Chat to prevent any harmful information from being displayed in search results.
In the case of contents in public areas, user reports are used alongside machine learning, which automatically detects contents that need to be reviewed. These contents are reviewed by the reviewer and processed with the appropriate measures.
This report contains data on measures that were taken on Open Chats, Open Chat boards, Open Chat Voicerooms, Open Chat covers, Open Profiles, and the Open Profile post areas.
Summary
In the second half of 2025, approximately 470K accounts were subject to service restrictions in the Open Chat service, a 15% decrease compared to the previous half.
Private ContentFor private content (messages, boards, Voicerooms) circulated within chatrooms, approximately 278K accounts were subject to service restrictions, a decrease of approximately 20.7% compared to the previous half.
By reason, Profanity, Hate Speech, Violence, and Hatred accounted for the largest share at 39.8%, followed by Obscene・Sexual Behavior at 27.8%, Spam and Platform Manipulation at 25.7%, Fraud and Impersonation at 2.5%, Illegal Goods & Services at 2.0%, Investment Advising and Related Policy Violations at 1.6%, and Private Information at 0.5%.
Profanity, Hate Speech, Violence, and Hatred decreased by approximately 28% compared to the previous half. This category typically arises during emotional conflicts in chats or friction within groups, and showed an overall declining trend after August in the second half.
Obscene・Sexual Behavior decreased by approximately 8% compared to the previous half. It remained stable at a monthly level of 27,000–36,000 cases throughout the second half; toward year-end, a gradual increase was observed in video-call requests and approaches disguised as adult content.
Spam and Platform Manipulation decreased by approximately 13% compared to the previous half; however, the volume of reports increased significantly toward the end of the second half. In particular, between November and December, patterns such as online gambling promotions, business-style approaches, and redirects to external messengers spread intensively. Kakao continuously enhances its handling system to enable rapid blocking when the same account or pattern recurs.
Fraud and Impersonation decreased by approximately 24% compared to the previous half. After a decline in reports from August through October, a re-emergence in new forms was observed from November. The shopping-mall "experiencer" impersonation approach that dominated through the first half noticeably decreased after September, and toward the end of the half, approaches that used remote/simple-task side hustles as bait to induce deposits into specific financial accounts spread widely.
Illegal Goods and Services, as well as Investment Advising and Related Policy Violations, decreased by approximately 37% and 51%, respectively, compared to the previous half. Across the second half, typical leading-room recruitment tactics and unofficial product promotions showed a gradual downward trend.
Public ContentIn the second half of 2025, approximately 191K accounts were subject to service restrictions in the Open Chat public-content area, a 6.2% decrease compared to the previous half.
By reason, Obscene・Sexual Behavior accounted for the largest share at 64.4%, followed by Profanity, Hate Speech, Violence, and Hatred at 30.0%, Illegal Goods & Services at 4.1%, Private Information at 0.9%, Service Disruption at 0.5%, Investment Advising and Related Policy Violations at 0.1%, and Fraud and Impersonation at 0.1%.
Obscene・Sexual Behavior decreased by approximately 0.7% compared to the previous half — essentially unchanged. It maintained the largest share throughout the second half, continuing at a stable level after peaking in August. Major patterns included chatroom titles and descriptions, as well as links redirecting to external adult sites; toward year-end, an increase in bypass expressions using emojis or slang was observed.
Profanity, Hate Speech, Violence, and Hatred decreased by approximately 10% compared to the previous half. The main targets are aggressive or abusive expressions in public-facing areas, including chatroom titles/covers or Open Profiles, showing a gradual reduction after a short-term spike in August. Compared with other categories, the share of detections based on posts and images was high, and some inflows of meme- or image-based hate expressions were also confirmed.
Illegal Goods & Services decreased by approximately 30% compared to the previous half, with unofficial product promotion attempts gradually diminishing.
Spam and Platform Manipulation showed the most pronounced increasing trend in the public area. After remaining at a low level from July through October, it surged about 3.5× month-over-month in November, and the upward trend continued in December. Major patterns included gambling/betting-site promotions and redirects to external messengers; Kakao has accelerated its response by excluding such content from search and applying rapid blocking systems.
Fraud and Impersonation, as well as Investment Advising and Related Policy Violations, decreased by approximately 93% and 35%, respectively, compared to the previous half, remaining at very low levels. This indicates that impersonation/scam phrases and typical leading-room recruitment attempts are being effectively curbed by the preemptive blocking system.
In the second half of 2025, while overall Open Chat service restrictions trended downward, the patterns related to Profanity, Hate Speech, Violence, and Hatred, as well as Obscene/Sexual Behavior, remained prominent in private areas, while Obscene/Sexual Behavior continued to be the dominant pattern in public areas. Toward year-end, spam-style attempts such as online gambling promotions and redirects to external messengers were observed to increase across both areas. Kakao is continuously enhancing its response system through report-pattern analysis, rapid blocking of recurring accounts, and immediate search/content-exposure blocking upon detection. Going forward, we will continue monitoring and improving policies so that users can enjoy Open Chat in a safer environment.
Private Content
Private contents are contents distributed in chatrooms and pertains to Open Chats, Open Chat boards and Open Chat Voicerooms. To protect users’ privacy, measures against these contents are enforced when reports are submitted.
How many accounts were restricted from Open Chats, Boards and Voicerooms because they were reported?
| Period | Accounts |
|---|---|
| Jan - Jun 2024 | 303,448 |
| Jul - Dec 2024 | 344,595 |
| Jan - Jun 2025 | 351,515 |
| Jul - Dec 2025 | 278,814 |
In order to create a comfortable service use environment, KakaoTalk enforces measures that temporarily restricts accounts, that have been reported by multiple users, from using the service (Ensure Stability and Reliability > A Large Number of Reports Accumulated), and also temporarily prohibits users, who have accumulated multiple message reports from the Open Chat service, from using Open Chat. However, there are cases where the policy that restricts users who have accumulated reports has been abused and innocent users have been reported. Users who have been falsely reported can file an appeal, which will be quickly reviewed by the reviewer, and the falsely reported user’s service restriction will be removed when necessary.
The above data contains the number of accounts that have been restricted from using the service following the reviewer’s review, as well as the number of accounts that have been temporarily prohibited from using Open Chat due to a large number of accumulated reports.
Why were accounts restricted from Open Chats, Boards and Voicerooms?
| Reason | Accounts |
|---|---|
| Profanity, Hate Speech, Violence & Hatred | 111,031 |
| Obscene・Sexual Behavior | 77,564 |
| Spam & Platform Manipulation | 71,781 |
| Fraud & Impersonation | 6,958 |
| Illegal Goods & Services | 5,618 |
| Investment Advising, etc. | 4,454 |
| Private Information | 1,408 |
For details on each policy, please click the button next to it.
How quickly were measures imposed on contents reported in Open Chats, Boards and Voicerooms?
| Time | Ratio |
|---|---|
| Within 1 hour | 97.9% |
| Within 1–4 hours | 1.1% |
| Within 4–8 hours | 0.2% |
| More than 8 hours | 0.6% |
Reported contents are quickly reviewed and handled by expert reviewers and our Automated Monitoring System. Kakao continues to make improvements to the system to quickly take action against accounts that violate policies and monitors the influx of reports to allocate the adequate number of operational staff. However, processing time may increase if there is an unexpected inflow of reports.
Public Content
Public content refers to content visible to general users and accessible by anyone — namely Open Chat covers, Open Profiles, and Open Profile posts. In addition to user reports, machine learning detects content that requires review and routes it to operators, strictly managing public content so that harmful information does not appear in Open Chat search results.
How many accounts in Open Chat covers, Open Profiles, and Open Profile posts were restricted based on user reports or system detection?
| Period | Accounts |
|---|---|
| Jan - Jun 2024 | 219,800 |
| Jul - Dec 2024 | 215,207 |
| Jan - Jun 2025 | 204,024 |
| Jul - Dec 2025 | 191,579 |
Contents that are detected through user reports and other monitoring methods are reviewed by both human moderators and automated systems. In cases of minor violations, the content may simply be hidden from Open Chat or KakaoTalk search results. However, if the reported contents are harmful to children and youth, have explicit indecent intent, or are obviously illegal, various measures are implemented, such as restricting the content creator from using the service, hiding the content in question from view and restricting the use of the chatroom.
The above data contains information on the number of accounts that have been restricted from using the entire KakaoTalk service or the Open Chat service, as well as the number of accounts that have been restricted from using contents, including those who have been restricted from being searched or displayed or been imposed with the chatroom service restrictions.
Why were accounts restricted from Open Chat covers, Open Profiles and Open Profile posts?
| Reason | Accounts |
|---|---|
| Obscene・Sexual Behavior | 123,392 |
| Profanity, Hate Speech, Violence & Hatred | 57,533 |
| Illegal Goods & Services | 7,782 |
| Private Information | 1,636 |
| Service Disruption | 957 |
| Investment Advising, etc. | 180 |
| Fraud & Impersonation | 99 |
For details on each policy, please click the button next to it.
How many harmful contents in Open Chat covers, Open Profiles and Open Profile posts were imposed with restrictive measures before it was reported by users or detected by the system?
| Category | Ratio |
|---|---|
| Action before report | 98.2% |
| Action after report | 1.8% |
Open Chatroom’s public contents are strictly managed by user reports and machine learning, which detects and filters contents that need to be reviewed by the reviewer, to ensure that harmful information is not displayed in Open Chat search results.
Proactive rate is the ratio of contents that were detected by Kakao and had restriction measures imposed before the violating contents were reported by users. The proactive rate may be impacted if reports on private contents increase, since Open Chatrooms or Open Profile posts that users do not allow to be searched are not subject to detection and can only be reviewed once it is reported.
How quickly was reported or system-detected content in Open Chat covers, Open Profiles, and Open Profile posts handled?
| Time | Ratio |
|---|---|
| Within 1 hour | 68.6% |
| Within 1–4 hours | 5.8% |
| Within 4–8 hours | 6.2% |
| More than 8 hours | 19.4% |
Reported contents are quickly reviewed and handled by expert reviewers and our Automated Monitoring System. Kakao continues to make improvements to the system to quickly take action against users who violate policies and monitors newly created and edited reports and contents to allocate the adequate number of operational staff. However, processing time may increase if there is an unexpected inflow of reports.