Grounders Community Guidelines

Last updated: 2026-04-27

Grounders is a place to share moments tied to real places. These guidelines exist so it stays a place worth being. They apply to every post, reaction, friend request, and message on the Service.

If something on Grounders breaks one of these rules, report it from inside the app: tap the post → "Report" → pick a reason. Reports go to our moderation queue and we review them.

What's not allowed

1. Nudity and sexual content

No nude or partially nude images. No sexually explicit content of any kind. No sexual language or descriptions in captions.

2. Minors

No content involving anyone under 18 in a sexualized, suggestive, or exploitative context — ever, full stop. We report any such content to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the equivalent in your jurisdiction, and we report the account to law enforcement.

Photos and videos of children in everyday family contexts (your kid at the park, a school event you have permission to share) are fine if you have the right to post them. Don't post photos of other people's children without their guardian's consent.

3. Harassment, hate, and threats

• No targeting individuals or groups with hostile content based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, or serious illness.
• No threats of violence against any person or group.
• No posts intended to humiliate, intimidate, or out a person.
• No coordinated harassment.

4. Violence and gore

• No graphic violence, gore, or content that glorifies violence.
• No content that promotes self-harm, suicide, or eating disorders.
• News-style documentation of newsworthy events is permitted with appropriate context — but the bar for "graphic" is conservative.

5. Illegal activity

• No promotion or facilitation of illegal activity, including (but not limited to) drug sales, weapons trafficking, human trafficking, or fraud.
• No content that infringes copyright, trademark, or other intellectual-property rights.
• No spam, phishing, or scams.
• No content that violates the law in your jurisdiction or in the jurisdiction where the post was created.

6. Privacy of others

• No posting other people's private information (phone numbers, addresses, ID documents, financial info) without consent.
• No posting identifiable photos or videos of other people in a context where they had a reasonable expectation of privacy.
• No using Grounders to track, follow, or surveil another person.

7. Impersonation and deception

• Don't impersonate another person, brand, or organization.
• Don't misrepresent where or when a post was created (the GPS tag is the point of the app — don't try to spoof it).

8. Spam and platform abuse

• No mass-posting low-quality content.
• No automated activity (bots, scripts, scrapers).
• No abusing the friend-request, reaction, or report systems.
• No attempting to bypass safety features like safe zones or the proximity gate on reactions.

9. Other

• No content that promotes terrorism or violent extremism.
• No content that exploits a current crisis (natural disaster, conflict, public-health emergency) for shock value or scams.

What we do when content breaks the rules

When we receive a report (or our team finds violating content):

1. We review the post in context.
2. If it violates these guidelines, we remove it.
3. If the violation is severe (anything in sections 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 above), we may also suspend or permanently terminate the account.
4. If the violation is criminal (CSAM, credible threats, IP infringement of an identifiable rights-holder), we may report it to law enforcement and/or to the affected rights-holder.

We typically aim to act on reports within 24–48 hours. Severe reports — anything involving minors or imminent harm — get reviewed first.

What you can do as a user

• Block any user from inside their profile (Profile → Block). Once blocked, neither of you can see the other's content or interact.
• Report any post (Post → Report → pick a reason).
• Delete your own posts at any time (your own post → Manage → Delete).
• Set safe zones to keep entire areas off the map for both posting and reactions.
• Delete your account at any time from your profile menu — this is permanent and removes all your posts, reactions, friends, and devices.

Appeals

If we remove your content or suspend your account and you believe we got it wrong, reply to the notification email with "Appeal" in the subject line. We re-review every appeal manually. We aim to respond within 7 days.

Contact

Report illegal content (CSAM, credible threats, IP infringement) urgently to:

moderation@grounders.app — subject line URGENT — Report

General moderation, appeals, or questions:

moderation@grounders.app