Community Standards

What this document is.

The Village is one moderated community for parents and carers inside A Place to Land. Members of In My Room have no access to it, and that is enforced in the software.

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].

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. 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. One community, adults only

Members of In My Room have no access to The Village. They cannot read it, post in it or reach anybody in it, and this is enforced in the software rather than by policy alone.

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

2. The rules

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 or carer 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 this community safe.
• No contact details or arrangements to meet.
• 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 place 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

To report something, email hello@thetrueself.me, or write to Teri directly in your own space. Tell her which post you mean and what is wrong with it. The author is not told who raised it.

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 care about children who are written about

Members here are adults, but the children they write about are not, and the community is built around that.

• Personal details are removed on sight, not on report, if a post identifies a child.
• Nothing is recommended, ranked or amplified. Posts appear in the order they were written. There is no algorithm deciding what anybody sees more of.
• No private messaging between members. If somebody wants to talk privately, it is to Teri.

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

• Reports, decisions, appeals and outcomes are kept as correspondence, 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 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. Its users are adults, and it is not designed for or aimed at children.

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.

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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 2.0 · [DATE] Forms part of: [Terms of Use]. Related: [Safeguarding Policy] · [Online Safety Act Risk Assessments]