Community Guidelines

1. Treat people like people

Disagreement is fine. Targeted harassment, humiliation, threats, stalking, coordinated abuse and repeated unwanted contact are not.

2. No hate or dehumanising abuse

Do not attack or degrade people because of protected characteristics or use HESSY to promote hatred, exclusion or violence against a group.

3. Protect young people

Sexual exploitation of children, grooming, coercive sexual behaviour, requests for sexual images from a minor, sexualised content involving minors, or attempts to move a young person into unsafe private contact are prohibited. Report these immediately.

4. Sexual and intimate content

Do not share intimate images without the subject’s consent. Do not threaten to share them. Pornographic or explicit sexual material is not appropriate for a service that can be used by 16- and 17-year-olds.

5. Self-harm, suicide and eating disorders

People may talk honestly about difficult experiences and seek support. Content that encourages, instructs, glamorises or meaningfully facilitates suicide, self-harm or eating-disorder behaviour may be removed or restricted.

6. Violence and dangerous behaviour

Do not make credible threats, celebrate serious violence, encourage somebody to hurt themselves or another person, or provide instructions intended to enable serious harm.

7. Privacy

Do not publish somebody else’s home address, private phone number, school timetable, precise live location, private messages or other sensitive personal information without permission.

8. Be genuine

Do not impersonate another person, run scams, manipulate engagement, create deceptive fake accounts, send bulk spam or use malicious links.

9. Respect creators

Post work you made, have permission to use, or are lawfully entitled to share. Credit does not automatically replace permission. Use HESSY’s source/reshare tools where possible rather than passing somebody else’s work off as your own.

10. Finds and recommendations

Do not use Finds to sell prohibited or illegal goods, deceive members about a product, or hide a paid commercial relationship. If a recommendation is sponsored or you benefit financially, say so clearly.

11. Enforcement

Context matters. HESSY may remove content, reduce its visibility, restrict features, issue warnings, suspend accounts or close accounts. Severe safety issues may result in immediate restriction.

12. Report rather than pile on

If something crosses the line, use the Report control. Do not organise dogpiles or public campaigns against another member. Reports can also be raised at royscarrott@rsbse.co.uk.