Questions About the 18+ iFriends ID Card:

I have a fully-documented VCH screenname. Why do I need an iFriends ID Card?

Where do I go to create my ID Card?

Does it take long to create my ID Card?

How do I edit/manage my ID Card?

I created my ID Card, what do I do next?

How do I add/edit/remove participants to my VCH screenname?

What is a Chathost Representative?

Where is the Chathost Representive log-in link to the ID-Card Manager?

I'm a Chathost Representative. How does all this work?

What's the best way to get status on my ID Card application

Questions About Supporting your ID-Card with Hard-Copy Documentation:

What Documentation is required from me?

I have multiple screennames. Will my my single set of age documents and ADS apply to all of them?

What is the VCH License Agreement, and why is it necessary?

What is the Age Release Form, and why is it necessary?

What is the Age Documentation Session, and why is it necessary?

Is it necessary to upload copies of my Age-Release Form, photo ID, and other ID?

Can I take screenshots of the paperwork, and email or upload those to you?

Do I also have to mail iFriends originals of my documentation?

Questions About Supporting your ID-Card with the "ADS" (Age Documentation Session):

If I've uploaded my Age Documentation Form and IDs, do I still need to host an Age Documentation Session?

Can anyone view my Age Documentation Session?

What happens to the images submitted during the Age Documentation Session?

You already have my age documents on file, why must I now perform an Age Documentation Session?

Will I be required to perform a new Age Documentation Session if I change my look (new hair color or style)?

Questions About Video Age Documentation Sessions:

If I've uploaded my Age Documentation Form and IDs, do I still need to host a Video Age Documentation Session?

Can anyone view my Video Age Documentation Session?

What happens to the images submitted during the Video Age Documentation Session?

You already have my age documents on file, why must I now perform a Video Age Documentation Session?

Will I be required to perform a new Video Age Documentation Session if I change my look (new hair color or style)?

Questions About Handles:

What are "handles" and what are they used for?

Why are handles important in terms of the proof-of-age documentation that I provide to iFriends?

Are my handles going to expire?

Can I change the information on my handles?

I have created 4 handles, but the person who was hosting under one of the handles will no longer be hosting.Can I update this handle with information for a new person?

OK, I'm ready to submit my age documentation and host an Age Documentation Session, so where do I go?

Questions About the 18+ iFriends ID Card:

There are many, many reasons. Click here to review all the benefits. What are some of the best reasons? 1.) Your ID Card gets you access to the ID-Card Manager, a supertool which lets you manage all of your screennames, handles, and documentation, from one screen. 2.) Your 18+ iFriends ID Card is your all-access pass to all chathost features. With it, you can perform any task on iFriends without having to perform repetitive or duplicative documentation. Want to show replays 24/7 under a new VCH screenname? Bingo -- your existing ID Cardd applies to your new VCH screenname. 3.) Perhaps best of all, your iFriends ID Card never expires -- once you obtain your ID Card, you'll never be asked to prove that you're "still" over 18 again!

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Regardless of whether you are new to iFriends, or are a veteran chathost, getting your ID Card is quick and easy. Start by clicking here. After you create your ID Card, it's easy to link your existing VCH screennames to it, or add new VCH screennames.

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Not at all. To create your ID Card, choose a name for your ID Card (such as, "John Q. Public"), and fill out a few quick web forms. Once your ID Card is created, you can add and edit VCH screennames, participant handles, and perform other tasks. To activate your ID-Card for hosting, use the handy-dandy "early-approval uploader" tool from within your ID-Card Manager to upload or fax iFriends your signed paperwork (age-release form, VCH license agreement, etc), and photo IDs. Preliminary approval for hosting is typically granted the same day, provided that all submitted materials are in good order. (Your ID Card is given "permanent approval" status once you overnight or mail iFriends with hard copies of your paperwork and proof-of-age/photo IDs.)

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Go to the ID-Card Manager, or, alternatively, from within the Chathost Console, select the "ID Card Manager" option. (Note: The ID-Card Manager is password-protected; you must login using the ID-Card Name, and ID-Card Password you selected when first creating your ID Card)

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First, associate VCH screennames with your ID Card. Here's how – Existing chathosts: From within your ID-Card Manager, under "VCH Screenname Options", select "Link an Existing Screenname". New Chathosts: From within your ID-Card Manager, under "VCH Screenname Options", select "Create a New VCH Screenname".

Once you have attached your ID Card to any new or existing VCH Screennames that you control, the next order of business is to associate your ID Card with one or more participant handles under those VCH screennames. (See next Q&A topic).

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From within your ID-Card Manager, look for "Participant Handle Options". (A "Participant Handle" is the shorthand nickname to represent each person who might appear live on webcam under that VCH screenname. For example, if you are a single woman and host under "Women Home Alone" or "Dating", you'll likely have just one such handle. VCH screennames that host under "couples" will typically have two such handles). Managing participant handles is easy. If you create a new handle from within your ID-Card Manager (select "Create New Handle"), your ID Card will be attached to the new handle you create. If you want to add a participant handle to represent another individual (for example, your spouse/partner/friend), the other person must have their own ID Card, and must provide his permission to be added under your VCH screenname, which he can do by logging into his ID-Card Manager and granting your request. (Note: There's another way to accomplish the same objective: The other person can use his ID-Card manager to attempt to add himself as a participant to your VCH screenname. When he does so, you'll see his pending request in your ID-Card Manager, and you can choose to grant or deny his request.)

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A Chathost Representative is a person or company who represents one or more iFriends video chathosts, and who performs services for such chathost(s), such as receiving payments on behalf of the chathost(s). Because Chathost Representatives have special obligations, such as providing iFriends with business names, business addresses, and contact information, and are also responsible for ensuring that all represented chathosts fulfill all obligations under their respective Video Chathost License agreements, iFriends enters into a separate agreement with each Chathost Representative. Further, authorized representatives of the Chathost Representative must also obtain iFriends 18+ ID Cards, to ensure that iFriends engages only legal adults, regardless of whether or not those adults are chathosts which appear on iFriends.

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The universal access page for the ID-Card Manager (for Chathost Reps and individual Chathosts alike) is http://chathosts.iFriends.net

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It's really quite easy, especially when you understand that there are two kinds of ID Cards: 1.) Individual ID Cards: Individual models are documented by their own individual ID cards. When they access their ID-Card Manager, they can add, edit and control their own VCH screennames and their own participant handles. 2.) VCH Representative ID Cards: You, as a Chathost Representative, also have an ID Card. And with your ID Card, you can add, edit and control the Individual ID-Cards that you represent. (And, through those individual ID cards, you can also manage VCH screennames and participant handles). Got it? Here it is, in a nutshell: Individual ID Cards -- which document an actual person -- are used to control screennames and handles. VCH Representative ID Cards -- which document a representative or company -- control individual ID Cards. Consider the following example:

(Suzy) Suzy is a striking brunette super-model who, when she's not strutting down the fashion runways in Milan, appears on iFriends four days a week, under the VCH screenname "GORGEOUS-SUZY". Using her ID-Card Manager, Suzy logs in under the individual ID Card she has created, which she has named, "SUZY Q. SMITH". From within her ID-Card Manager, Suzy can take ADS screenshots for her age-documentation, upload paperwork and photo IDs to iFriends, create and edit VCH screennames, and control participant handles for those same VCH screennames.

(Suzy's Representative): SuperModel Suzy knows very little about PCs, and is represented by an elite modeling studio, "Ford Modeling", who takes care of all the technical stuff. Ford Modeling also acts as Suzy's "Chathost Representative", and has its own special iFriends ID Card, which it has chosen to name "FORD MODELS". Once Suzy's Individual ID Card is created, Ford Modeling can log in to its ID-Card Manager under its own "FORD MODELS" card, and include Suzy's ID Card among those that it represents.

(How does Ford lay claim to Suzy's ID-Card?): When Ford Modeling logs into the ID-Card Manger under "FORD MODELS", and attempts to add Individual ID Card "SUZY Q. SMITH" to the list of individuals it represents, iFriends sends a confirmation message to Suzy's ID-Card Manager: "Accept request to be represented by 'FORD MODELS'?" To complete the transaction, Suzy must log into her ID Card Manager, where the request will be waiting for her, and approve the request. Suzy can also initiate the process from within her own ID-Card manager: She can attempt to add herself under the "FORD MODELS" VCH Rep ID-Card Name. To approve her request to be represented by Ford, Ford must log in under the "FORD MODELS" ID-Card Name and approve Suzy's request.

Finally, if you are a Chathost Representative, in addition to the Chathost Representative Agreement you are required to submit, there's also a portion of each individual chathost's paperwork that you are responsible for. On the individual chathost's Age Release Agreement, you must ndash; and sign – the section labeled "Chathost Representative Information".

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At different stages throughout the documentation-submission process, you can expect to receive automated emails from iFriends acknowledging receipt. However, that's neither the most current, nor the most comprehensive status information available to you. The BEST source of information on the current status of your pending ID-Card is to go to your ID-Card Manager select the "Review My ID-Card Documentation" link, where the right column will tell you the current status on each component of your pending ID-Card, plus give you a hotlink into specific messages that iFriends' verification staff has waiting for you. (IF there are any such messages, look for the red hotlink, "You have current messages from iFriends' staff".)

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Questions About Supporting your ID-Card with Hard-Copy Documentation:

To activate your ID Card for hosting, you must sign some paperwork and prove to iFriends that you are at least 18 years of age. The ID-Card Manager makes it super-easy, and even provides an "early-approval" facility whereby you can fax or upload most materials to iFriends for same-day review, so you could be hosting later today. (Permanent approval, however, is not granted until hardcopy materials are received from you by iFriends via regular or overnight mail).

Individual chathosts must provide iFriends with a documentation package that consists of three elements, each of which are accessed through the "Review My Documentation" link in ID-Card Manager: The VCH License Agreement (paperwork; see next Q&A), the Age-Release Form (paperwork plus photo IDs, see next Q&A), and an "Age Documentation Session" (an interactive session where you take webcam snapshots and videoclips of yourself, for iFriends' documentation files). For more information about these three forms of documentation, please see the Q&A below, or, alternatively, consult iFriends' Guide to Age Documentation resource.

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Yes. The iFriends ID Card is all about convenience. Your convenience. With the ID Card, documentation no longer supports a single VCH Screenname, it supports a person (like you), and travels with that person whereever they go on iFriends. Whether it's one VCH screenname or ten, you only need a single ID Card. Once you get your ID Card, you can upload your documentation once, perform your ADS once, and then apply that same ID Card to an unlimited number of new or existing screennames, and an unlimited number of new or existing handles.

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The Video Chathost License Agreement is the document that sets forth the obligations and responsibilities between iFriends and the individual video chathost. It explains what iFriends is, what it can do, and what it can't do. It explains what the chathost function is, what chathosts can do and what they cannot do. The VCH License agreement is available in both HTML and PDF formats. The VCH License Agreement may be faxed or uploaded to iFriends, through the "Early-Approval Uploader" facility in your ID-Card Manager. (select the "Review my ID-Card Documentation" option).

To submit this material to iFriends, use your ID-Card Manager, and select the "Review my ID-Card Documentation" link.

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The Age-Release Form (and accompanying photo IDs) is a document package that iFriends requires to 1.) Prove that you are an adult at least 18 years of age, 2.) Comply with federal documentation laws that require us to maintain records concerning the legal ages of all participants on the service, 3.) obtain your consent to perform all necessary research and background investigations to confirm your representations on this document, and 4.) other purposes as stated within the document itself. The Age Release Form is available in both HTML and PDF formats. The Age Release Form may be faxed or uploaded to iFriends, through the "Early-Approval Uploader" facility in your ID-Card Manager. (select the "Review my ID-Card Documentation" option). Note: Due to legibility problems, iFriends does not accept photo IDs via fax. To qualify for Early-Approval consideration, your photo IDs must be uploaded using the web form in your ID-Card Manager

To submit this material to iFriends, use your ID-Card Manager, and select the "Review my ID-Card Documentation" link.

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The Age Documentation Session (ADS) is an interactive session where you take webcam snapshots and videoclips of yourself, as well as your photo ID, and which are automatically submitted to iFriends' documentation files.

To perform an ADS and submit this material to iFriends, use your ID-Card Manager, and select the "Review my ID-Card Documentation" link.

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No. While it is not necessary to upload copies of the signed Age Release Form, photo id, and other id, your ID-Card document submission will receive expedited -- and often same-day -- attention when received via fax or via web upload. Remember, however, that even if you choose to obtain early approval of your ID Card by uploading or faxing to iFriends the supporting documentation materials, iFriends will not designate your ID-Card with permanent-approval status until it has received, by mail or other courier, original hardcopies of your two IDs, in addition to the original signed documents

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No. You must print out the paperwork, so that you can 1.) initial it, and 2.) sign it. (If you use the form-fill-in features, you can use your keyboard to type in all the information that the form asks, except for your initials and signature, which you must provide in writing, by first printing out the document, and initialing and signing it. ) Once you have initialed and signed the document, you can use the Early-Approval features to either upload or fax the documents to iFriends. (And don't forget to send via overnight courier or regular postal mail the originals for iFriends' files, and to obtain "permanent approval" status on your ID Card)

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Yes. While the "Early Approval" web-upload/fax features enable you to begin hosting on iFriends prior to iFriends' receipt of originals of your documentation by mail, you do still have to send originals of all documents to iFriends via regular mail, or via courier such as Federal Express, Airborne Express, United Parcel Service or USPS. iFriends does not designate your ID-Card with "Permanent Approval" status until it has received these hardcopy materials. (For additional details, see instructions on VCH License Agreement and Age Release Form). Why does iFriends require hardcopy originals? For one, our age-documentation department requires your actual, original signature and initials -- in your own handwriting -- on each document. Second, getting a high-quality version of your photo IDs in hardcopy formats enables our compliance department to better recognize you from your live sessions or archive materials. (And the easier it is for our compliance operations to identify you from your live sessions or archives, the less chance there is that this personnel will ever have to suspend your account because they observed somebody in front of your webcam that they could not recognize).

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Questions About Supporting your ID-Card with the "ADS" (Age Documentation Session):

Yes. Everyone must successfully complete an Age Documentation Session AND mail in their original signed documents (Age Documentation Form, photo ids, and license agreements.) In order to get a head start, you can upload the documents and IDs, before mailing them in, but you still must complete the Age Documentation Session prior to hosting any sessions.

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Absolutely Not. Your Age Documentation Session is only visible to you and our iFriends staff. None of the iFriends users can see your session or view any images you submit to us during the process.

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The images you submit to us are reviewed by iFriends staff. If our staff determines that the images are of good quality and help identify and prove that you are of legal age, then you will be approved. If the images are such that we cannot discern your identity clearly, or they do not match other identification we have on file for you, they will be rejected. Note: These images are NOT archive images and are only available to iFriends staff.

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iFriends believes vehemently in preventing people who are not of legal age from using the adult areas of our site, in any way. We are always looking for new and improved ways to protect our chathosts, users and ourselves from any unauthorized use. The Age Documentation Session further ensures the greatest level of protection. We do what we can to make our process as easy as possible so that we can get you on the site as quickly as possible. We try to design our systems so that they are easy and hope you understand that, while this may require a few extra minutes of your time once a year, there are benefits gained from it and it actually saves time throughout the year.

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No. You do not need to perform a new Age Documentation Session if your hair color changes or if you have a new 'look'. You will, however, need to perform a new Age Documentation Session once a year, whether or not you have changed your look.

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Questions About Video Age Documentation Sessions:

Yes. Everyone must successfully complete a Video Age Documentation Session AND mail in their original signed documents (including Age Documentation Form, photo ids, and license agreement.) In order to get a head start, you can upload the documents and IDs before mailing them in, but you still must complete the Video Age Documentation Session prior to hosting any sessions.

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Absolutely not. Your Video Age Documentation Session is only visible to you and our iFriends staff. None of the iFriends users can see your session or view any images that you submit to us during this process.

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The video you submit to us is reviewed by iFriends staff. If our staff determines that the video is of good quality and helps to identify and prove that you are of legal age, it will be approved. If the video is such that we cannot discern your identity clearly or it does not match other identification we have on file for you, it will be rejected. Note: These videos are NOT public videos and are only available to iFriends staff.

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iFriends believes vehemently in preventing people who are not of legal age from using the adult areas of our site, in any way. We are always looking for new and improved ways to protect our chathosts, users and ourselves from any unauthorized use. The Video Age Documentation Session further ensures the greatest level of protection. We do what we can to make our process as easy as possible so that we can get you on the site as quickly as possible. We try to design our systems so that they are convenient and hope you understand that, while this may require a few extra minutes of your time, there are benefits gained from it and it actually saves time in the long run.

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No. You do not need to perform a new Video Documentation Session if your hair color changes or if you have a new 'look'.

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Questions About Handles:

Handles have been a part of iFriends -- and your Video Chathost account -- since day one. If your screenname is AWESOME_JANET, for example, your handle is likely "Janet". A handle is like a nickname, or a character's name in a movie; it is used to identify each of the different people who may host under one screenname. For example, if a couple is hosting under one screenname, they would each have their own separate handle. Each screenname must have a minimum of one handle. When logging in to start a new session, you will have to select which handle(s) are going to be present in that session. Each handle has information associated with it about the host that helps users find a host with certain characteristics that he or she is looking for. Each handle also has information associated with it that is available ONLY to iFriends staff - it allows us to know that the person is of legal age and has already been pre-approved by iFriends to host a session.

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iFriends doesn't just need to verify that the owner of the chathost account is at least 18, we also need to verify that each participant in your videochat room is at least 18. That's why iFriends links your photo IDs, Age Documentation Sessions, Video Documentation Sessions and the iFriends agreements to your ID Card and/or account.

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It is not your handle that expires, it is the underlying Age Documentation Session (ADS) that expired and must be renewed -- at least once a year. Here's how it works: Each person who hosts under a screenname should have a unique handle. That handle will be associated with an actual person's legal name and birthday. For each person that has a handle, we must have a valid Age Documentation Session and a Video Age Documentation Session and original copies of all required forms and agreements, government issued photo id, and other ID. The Age Documentation Session is the ONLY part of the process that must be renewed each year. The Age Documentation Session is good for one year, and then it expires. When a handle no longer has a current Age Documentation Session on file, the handle cannot host under any screenname because, until the Age Documentation Session is renewed, the whole account has expired. If the person hosts under the screenname AFTER the Age Documentation Session has expired, the entire account will be closed until the Age Documentation Session has been renewed. Once a new Age Documentation Session has been submitted and approved for that ID Card, the ID Card/account will be opened again and can be used to host sessions.

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It is EXTREMELY important that the information you provide to iFriends for each ID Card is correct. In fact, you have a legal obligation to update any of your information. If the information is incorrect, you won't be able to host any sessions on iFriends. Once a handle has been established, this information CANNOT be changed. If a mistake is made, another handle can be established. All of your ID Card information and documentation is tied to the handle. Note: if your BIRTHDAY had been entered into our system incorrectly, please email us at vchhelp@ifriends.net or call us at (561) 963-5842 (Option 2) and we will make the correction for you, provided we have valid documentation stating your correct birthday.

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No. Once the handle has been established, for a given screenname, the information assigned to the handle cannot be changed. You will need to create a new handle for the new person who wants to host. In this case, since all 4 handles have been used, it would be necessary to create a new screenname and a new handle for that screenname. (Because we only allow up to 4 handles per screenname.)

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Just visit here with your ID Card to get started.

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