Community Standards

What this document is.

The Village is a moderated community that runs in two entirely separate halves: one for parents inside A Place to Land, one for young people inside In My Room. Neither can see the other, and that will not change.

This document sets out what is allowed, what is not, how anything is reported, what happens next, and how to challenge a decision. It forms part of the [Terms of Use] and, in its short form, the [In My Room Terms].

It also does a job under the Online Safety Act 2023. The Village is a user to user service, so the law requires clear and accessible terms explaining how members are protected from illegal content and, because young people are here, from content that is harmful to children. Those duties are met by this document together with the [Safeguarding Policy] and the risk assessments that sit behind it.

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1. Two communities, kept apart

There is no crossover, no shared thread, and no route by which an adult member can reach a young person or see what they have written. This is enforced in the software.

Nothing in either Village is private. Members are told this before they post, on the posting screen itself, not only in a document.

2. The rules

These apply in both communities. The young people's version is written in their own words in section 9 of the [In My Room Terms], and says the same things.

2.1 The three that are not negotiable

1. Nothing that encourages or assists suicide or serious self harm. No methods, no comparisons, no images, no glamorising, no "how much would it take". Encouraging or assisting serious self harm became a priority offence under the Online Safety Act on 25 June 2026, and it is the single most serious thing that could happen in a community of people in emotional difficulty. Content of this kind is removed immediately, not hidden pending review, and the author is contacted.

Talking about your own feelings, including that you have felt suicidal or have self harmed, is not this. Describing how, or telling somebody else to, is.

2. Nothing that identifies a child. No full names, no schools, no photographs, no home areas, no social media handles, no dates and places that would let a stranger find them. This applies to your own child as much as anybody else's. A parent naming their own child in a public community is still putting that child into a searchable record they did not consent to.

3. Nothing illegal. Including but not limited to: child sexual abuse material, threats to kill, harassment or stalking, controlling or coercive behaviour, inciting violence or hatred against a group, terrorism content, drug supply, fraud, sharing intimate images without consent, and cyberflashing.

2.2 The rest

• Be kind. You do not know what kind of day the person on the other end is having.
• No medical, legal, crisis or diagnostic advice to another member. Point them to the numbers in the terms instead. This includes telling somebody what medication to ask for, what a diagnosis means, or what to do about a social worker.
• No abuse, cruelty, contempt or pile ons. Disagreeing is fine. Making somebody feel small is not.
• No hatred or harassment on the basis of race, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, or anything else.
• No selling, promoting, recruiting or advertising, including your own practice, another service, a course, a book or a fundraiser.
• No screenshots. Do not take what somebody wrote here and put it anywhere else, including group chats, other forums, or social media. This is the rule that keeps the room safe.
• No contact details or arrangements to meet, in either community.
• No impersonation, and no pretending to be a different age.
• No AI generated posts presented as your own experience. If a machine wrote it, this is not the room for it.

3. What Teri does, and what she does not

She reads the community regularly. She does not read it in real time, and members are told so, so nobody assumes a post has been seen.

She can:

• hide a post or comment immediately while she considers it
• remove it permanently
• ask a member to edit or reword something
• suspend a member from the community while keeping their private space and their correspondence with her open
• in a serious case, end a membership under the relevant terms

She does not:

• edit what somebody wrote and leave it looking as though they wrote it
• remove something simply because she disagrees with it
• remove somebody for being upset, angry, blunt or difficult

Freedom of expression. These are private, paid, moderated spaces, not a public square, and the standards are higher than the law's minimum on purpose. But moderation is applied to what was written, not to who wrote it, and a decision is never made because a member is unpopular, has complained before, or has been awkward with Teri. Anyone whose post is removed is told which rule it broke and why.

4. Reporting something

There is a report button on every post and every comment. It takes one tap, it asks a single question about what is wrong, and it does not tell the author who reported them.

You can also email hello@thetrueself.me, or write to Teri directly in your own space if you would rather not use the button.

What happens then

If you are the person reported, you are told what was reported, which rule is engaged, and what has been decided. You are not told who reported you.

Reports made in bad faith, to silence or harass another member, are themselves a breach of these standards.

5. Illegal content

Where content appears to be illegal, it is removed and, depending on what it is:

• Child sexual abuse or exploitation: reported to the police and to CEOP, and preserved rather than deleted where they ask for it. Since 7 April 2026 there is also a duty to report child sexual exploitation and abuse content to the National Crime Agency.
• Threats to life, or content suggesting somebody is in immediate danger: emergency services, and the [Safeguarding Policy] route.
• Terrorism content: reported to the police, under the duty in section 38B of the Terrorism Act 2000 which applies to everybody.
• Anything else criminal: reported where there is a person at risk, and always recorded.

Members are not asked to make legal judgements. If something looks wrong, report it and let it be assessed.

6. Extra protections in the young people's Village

Because members there are aged 13 to 17, more applies.

• Age assurance at the door. Access to the young people's community requires In My Room membership, and In My Room requires age assurance rather than a self declared birthday. [TO CONFIRM: the method chosen. The ICO's position since March 2026 is that self declaration is not sufficient for services at this risk level.]
• No adults. No parent, no member of A Place to Land, and no member of the public can see it, post in it, or reach anyone in it.
• Personal details are removed on sight, not on report, if a young person posts something that identifies them or another young person.
• The self harm rule is applied more strictly, and where a post suggests a young person is at risk, the [Safeguarding Policy] section 8 route is followed, which means talking to them first wherever it is safe.
• Nothing is recommended, ranked or amplified. Posts appear in the order they were written. There is no algorithm deciding what a young person sees more of, because the ordinary harm in services like this is a feed that learns what somebody is upset about and gives them more of it.
• No private messaging between members, in either community. If a young person wants to talk privately, it is to Teri.
• A young person can report a post without their parent knowing, and reporting is never mentioned to a parent unless the [Safeguarding Policy] requires it.

7. Sanctions

Ending somebody's community access does not end their private space or their correspondence with Teri, unless the behaviour was directed at her or makes continuing impossible. Somebody who behaves badly in a community may still be a person in real difficulty, and cutting them off entirely is rarely the right answer.

8. Appealing a decision

Any moderation decision can be appealed. Reply to the message telling you about the decision, or email hello@thetrueself.me with the word "appeal".

• An appeal is looked at within 5 working days.
• It is looked at afresh, not simply confirmed.
• You are told the outcome and the reason.
• If content is restored, it goes back with its original date.

If you are unhappy with the outcome of an appeal, the general complaints route in section 20 of the [Terms of Use] applies, and nothing here affects your right to go to court or, on an information matter, to the Information Commissioner's Office.

9. Records

• Every report, decision, appeal and outcome is recorded, with dates and reasons.
• Removed content is retained for 12 months so that a decision can be reviewed or appealed, then deleted, unless a safeguarding record or a legal claim requires longer.
• These records are reviewed when the risk assessments are refreshed.

10. Our Online Safety Act position, in short

The Village is a user to user service under section 3 of the Online Safety Act 2023, and no Schedule 1 exemption applies to it. It is likely to be accessed by children, because children are its intended users on one side.

Accordingly:

The service is well below the £250 million qualifying worldwide revenue threshold, so no notification to Ofcom and no fee is due. Every substantive duty still applies.

11. Changes

We may update these standards. If a change matters to members we will say so inside the community at least 14 days before it takes effect, and in the young people's community we will say it in their words.

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If you need help now

The Village is not crisis support and nobody is watching it right now.

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The True Self · The Village, Community Standards · Version 1.0 · [DATE] Forms part of: [Terms of Use] · [In My Room Terms]. Related: [Safeguarding Policy] · [Online Safety Act Risk Assessments]