Safety Rules

These rules are part of the Terms and Conditions and apply to everyone, everywhere on the site. For practical tips on looking after yourself, see Staying Safe.

1. Harassment and Bullying

Treat other members with respect. The following behavior is not allowed:

• Repeatedly contacting someone after they have asked you to stop.
• Sending threatening, abusive, intimidating, or deliberately humiliating messages.
• Targeting someone with unwanted attention, insults, or personal attacks.
• Stalking, monitoring, or following someone across the site to make them uncomfortable.
• Organizing others to harass, threaten, or intimidate a member.
• Sharing someone's private information without their permission, including their real name, address, private conversations, or other identifying details.

Disagreements are normal. Harassment is not. You are not required to continue a conversation or maintain contact with anyone.

2. Unwanted Contact and Boundaries

Every member has the right to decide who can contact them and how they interact with others.

• Respect refusals, boundaries, and requests to stop contacting someone.
• Private messages are only for fellows, and a fellow request is a question, not a demand. Don't keep sending requests to someone who hasn't accepted, and don't pressure anyone to accept or to stay fellows.
• Do not create alternate accounts to get around a block, a declined or removed fellowship, or any other contact restriction.
• Do not pressure anyone into conversations, friendships, sharing personal information, or continuing a relationship.
• Do not send unsolicited sexual messages, explicit images, or other sexually suggestive material.
• Do not use guilt, threats, blackmail, or emotional pressure to make someone respond or comply.

A member's silence is not consent. Blocking someone means you must respect their decision to end contact.

3. Grooming and Manipulation

Grooming, coercion, and attempts to manipulate people into exploitative situations are strictly prohibited.

This includes:

• Building trust with someone for the purpose of sexually exploiting, abusing, or otherwise taking advantage of them.
• Using deception, threats, gifts, money, favors, or emotional manipulation to gain control over another person.
• Pressuring someone to keep harmful interactions secret or to move conversations somewhere they feel less safe.
• Attempting to isolate someone from friends, family, or other sources of support as a means of control.
• Using a position of trust, vulnerability, or influence to manipulate someone into sexual activity or other exploitation.

These rules apply to private messages, public areas, profiles, ProfiRings and their group chats, Personals, Heartbeats, the Plaza, and any other part of Handmade Hearts.

4. Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

Handmade Hearts does not tolerate sexual exploitation, coercion, or abuse.

The following are prohibited:

• Pressuring or coercing someone into sexual activity or the creation or sharing of intimate material.
• Threatening to publish, or publishing, intimate images or videos without the person's consent.
• Using intimate material to threaten, blackmail, humiliate, or control another person.
• Sharing sexual content involving anyone under 18, including sexual images, videos, or other exploitative material.
• Soliciting, creating, distributing, or facilitating child sexual abuse material.
• Promoting or facilitating human trafficking, sexual exploitation, or other abusive activities.

Consent must be freely given and can be withdrawn at any time. Consent to one interaction does not imply consent to another.

5. Impersonation and Deception

Do not impersonate another person, create fake identities to deceive or exploit members, or misrepresent yourself to obtain intimate material, money, personal information, or access to someone's accounts.

Roleplay and fictional characters are welcome where otherwise permitted, but must not be used as a cover for harassment, coercion, or exploitation.

6. Reporting and Enforcement

If someone makes you feel unsafe, you can stop responding, block them, and report their behavior to the Handmade Hearts administration. Contact & Reporting explains how, including for people who aren't members.

When a report is received, the administration may review available information and take action appropriate to the situation. Actions may include removing content, restricting messaging, suspending an account, or permanently banning a member.

Serious violations, including grooming, sexual exploitation, credible threats, and child sexual abuse material, may result in immediate account suspension or termination. Where appropriate and lawful, serious matters may be referred to the relevant authorities.

Do not retaliate against anyone for making a good-faith report or helping with an investigation. Deliberately false or malicious reports may also result in account restrictions.

If you believe someone is in immediate danger, contact the appropriate local emergency services.

7. Adults-Only Community

Handmade Hearts is intended for people aged 18 and older. You must meet this age requirement to register or use the site. High school students may not use the site either, whatever their age.

Do not misrepresent your age or help someone evade the site's age restrictions. If the administration has reasonable grounds to believe an account belongs to someone under 18, it may restrict or suspend the account while reviewing the situation.

8. Our Commitment

These rules apply to all members, regardless of their popularity, account age, supporter status, or relationship with the administration.

Handmade Hearts is meant to be a small, welcoming corner of the internet. Helping keep it safe is a shared responsibility, and the administration reserves the right to act against behavior that threatens the safety or well-being of the community.