Content Policy

1. General Provisions

1.1. This Content Policy (the "Policy") sets out the requirements for Stories and other materials created, published and distributed by Users through the Skaz service available at https://skaz.io/ (the "Service").

1.2. The Policy forms an integral part of the Terms of Service available at https://skaz.io/terms and is binding on every User. Using the Service — including creating, saving or publishing a Story — constitutes full and unconditional acceptance of this Policy.

1.3. Terms not defined here have the meaning given to them in the Terms of Service.

Author — a User who creates and/or publishes a Story using the Service.

Story — an interactive work created in the Service, including text, images, branches, titles, descriptions, covers and any other material uploaded or entered by the Author.

Reader — a User who plays a published Story.

18+ mark — the flag set by the Author in the Service indicating that the Story is intended for an adult audience and must not be distributed to minors.

Administration — the operator of the Service.

1.4. The Policy applies to all content regardless of whether it is published, available by direct link or kept as a draft, and to any content the Author submits to the AI models built into the Service.

2. Basis and Scope

2.1. The Service is available to Users worldwide. This Policy is built on international standards for the protection of children, freedom of expression and online content moderation, and applies uniformly to every User regardless of the country they are in. It does not reproduce the requirements of any single national jurisdiction.

2.2. The following instruments informed this Policy in particular:

• the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) and its Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (2000);
• the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (Lanzarote, 2007);
• the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest, 2001), including Article 9;
• the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966): Article 19 — freedom of expression and the admissibility of only necessary and proportionate restrictions; Article 20 — the prohibition of war propaganda and of incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence;
• the UN Rabat Plan of Action (2012) — criteria distinguishing protected speech from incitement to hatred;
• Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 on a Single Market for Digital Services (Digital Services Act) — notice, statement of reasons and appeal procedures;
• Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) — processing of personal data;
• the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the WIPO Copyright Treaty (1996);
• the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (2011).

2.3. This Policy sets a minimum standard binding on everyone. In addition, the Author is responsible for ensuring that a Story complies with the mandatory law of the country the Author is in and of the countries where the Story is available to Readers. Compliance with this Policy does not relieve the Author of that responsibility and is not a confirmation that a Story is lawful in any particular jurisdiction.

2.4. The Administration acts as a hosting service provider: it does not initiate the placement of Stories, does not select their recipient and does not modify their content, save for technically necessary changes and the measures set out in Section 7. The Administration carries out no general monitoring of published content.

2.5. The restrictions in this Policy pursue legitimate aims — protecting minors, protecting the rights of others and preventing harm — and are applied only to the extent necessary to achieve those aims.

3. Stories Marked 18+

3.1. The Service permits Stories intended for an adult audience. Such a Story must be marked 18+ by the Author before publication. The Service restricts access to such Stories for Readers who have not confirmed that they are at least eighteen years old.

3.2. Age marking depends solely on the nature and explicitness of the depiction, never on the subject matter of the Story or on the identity of its characters.

3.3. The following are never, in themselves, grounds for an 18+ mark and are not subject to any restriction:

• the presence of LGBTQ+ characters, same-sex relationships, falling in love, dating, kissing, marriage, family and parenting;
• transgender and non-binary characters, themes of gender identity, coming out and self-acceptance;
• interracial, interethnic and interfaith relationships;
• characters with disabilities, chronic illness or neurodivergence;
• the religious or cultural affiliation of characters, or the absence of one;
• discussion of discrimination, human rights and social issues in a critical, educational or artistic register;
• accurate information on sex education, reproductive and mental health, presented without explicit depiction.

A scene is assessed identically regardless of the sex, gender identity, orientation, race, nationality, religion or disability of the characters involved: a kiss is a kiss and an intimate scene is an intimate scene, whichever couple it concerns.

3.4. Provided the 18+ mark is set, Section 4 is observed and the material is justified by the plot, the characters or an educational purpose, the following are permitted in particular:

• references to and depictions of alcohol, tobacco, narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances as an element of the plot or of a character, without encouragement and without any information on how such substances are produced, acquired or consumed;
• scenes of violence, cruelty, warfare, crime and their consequences, without excessive naturalism, without dwelling on suffering for its own sake, and without justifying or encouraging such acts;
• moderate erotic content: attraction, flirtation, romantic and sexual intimacy conveyed through literary means, implication or a scene cut ("closed door"), without detailed naturalistic description or depiction of genitals or sexual acts;
• profanity and coarse speech by characters;
• dark and difficult themes — death, loss, addiction, mental illness, discrimination, war — provided they are treated critically or neutrally rather than as a call to action, an instruction or encouragement;
• horror, terror and psychological tension.

3.5. The 18+ mark broadens the permitted subject matter of a Story but never legalises the content listed in Section 4. The prohibitions in Section 4 apply irrespective of age marking, access restrictions, whether the Story is paid, or a Reader's consent.

3.6. The Author must set the 18+ mark whenever a Story contains material listed in clause 3.4. Failure to apply the required marking is itself a breach of this Policy.

3.7. The title, description and cover of a Story are shown to Readers before age confirmation and must therefore meet the requirements applicable to unrestricted material: no explicit imagery, no naturalistic descriptions and no other 18+ content.

4. Prohibited Content

4.1. Pornography. Creating, uploading, storing and distributing pornographic material through the Service is prohibited outright, in any form — textual, graphic, audiovisual or interactive.

4.2. For the purposes of this Policy, material is pornographic where it, at the same time:

• records, describes or depicts sexual acts, sexual conduct or exposed genitals in a detailed, naturalistic manner and as an end in itself; and
• has as its principal purpose the sexual arousal of the recipient rather than the development of plot, character or conflict, or any other artistic, journalistic, scientific, medical or educational purpose.

4.3. The line between erotic content permitted under clause 3.4 and prohibited pornography is drawn by the degree of naturalism and by the purpose of the material, and is applied identically to all characters and relationships. Doubt is resolved in favour of the prohibition: if a scene exists primarily to sexually arouse the Reader, it is not permitted in the Service.

4.4. Irrespective of marking or context, content is prohibited where it:

• depicts or describes a minor in a sexual context, including where the character is fictional, stylised, or described as looking or behaving like a minor; this prohibition is absolute and admits no exception;
• constitutes pornographic material, or material involving sexual violence, rape, incest, bestiality, necrophilia, human trafficking or sexual exploitation where such acts are portrayed as approved, encouraged, appealing or normal;
• offers or advertises sexual services, escort services or prostitution, or serves as a means of sexual correspondence with real persons;
• sexualises a real, identifiable person without their consent, including synthetic (deepfake) sexual imagery of such a person or intimate imagery shared without the consent of the person depicted;
• promotes, justifies or calls for terrorism, armed violence, genocide or ethnic cleansing, or glorifies the perpetrators of such crimes or internationally designated terrorist organisations;
• incites discrimination, hostility or violence against a person or group on the grounds of race, ethnic or national origin, language, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, migration status or any other protected characteristic, or denies or justifies genocide and crimes against humanity;
• encourages the use of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances, or provides information on how or where they are produced, acquired or consumed;
• provides instructions for making weapons, explosives, poisons or malicious software, or other information capable of causing harm to life, health or property;
• encourages suicide or self-harm, provides instructions for it, romanticises or rewards it — including pro-eating-disorder material — or encourages refusal of life-saving medical care;
• promotes cruelty to animals;
• infringes the intellectual property rights of third parties, including the use of others' works, characters, images, fonts or trademarks without a legal basis;
• discloses personal data or other legally protected information about third parties without their consent, including doxing, or is aimed at harassing, bullying or intimidating a specific person;
• misleads Readers in order to obtain money, credentials, payment details or other confidential information, including phishing and fraud;
• operates gambling, lotteries or other risk-based games involving real stakes;
• presents fiction as a factual account in order to mislead Readers in a way capable of causing harm to life, health, property or public safety, including dangerous medical advice;
• otherwise infringes the rights of third parties or is aimed at causing them harm.

4.5. Using the AI models built into the Service to produce any content listed in this Section is prohibited, as are attempts to circumvent the technical or content restrictions of those models.

5. Author's Undertakings and Warranties

5.1. By publishing a Story, the Author confirms and warrants that:

• they hold all rights necessary to use the material included in the Story and that such use does not infringe the rights of third parties;
• the content of the Story complies with this Policy;
• the age marking of the Story has been set accurately, based on its actual content;
• the Author has reached the age at which they may enter into the relevant transactions independently under the law of the country they are in and, for a Story marked 18+, the age of eighteen.

5.2. Where a Story collects Reader data (including email addresses, names and other information entered through input blocks), the Author acts as an independent controller in respect of that data and must ensure a lawful basis for processing, inform data subjects and respect their rights, including those under the GDPR and comparable applicable regimes.

5.3. The Author undertakes not to use the Service for unsolicited messaging, automated mass creation of Stories, or circumvention of technical restrictions and plan limits.

6. Reporting Violations

6.1. Reports of content that breaches this Policy should be sent to abuse@skaz.io. A notice must contain the link to the Story, a sufficiently substantiated explanation of the alleged violation, the reporter's contact details and a statement that the information provided is accurate and complete and submitted in good faith. This mirrors the notice-and-action mechanism of Article 16 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065.

6.2. A notice of intellectual property infringement must additionally identify the rights holder, identify the work claimed to have been infringed, state that use of the material was not authorised, and be signed (including electronically) by the rights holder or their authorised representative.

6.3. The Administration reviews reports within a reasonable time, not exceeding twenty-four hours for material covered by clauses 4.1 and 4.4 and seven business days in all other cases. The reporter is informed of the decision taken.

6.4. Manifestly unfounded or abusive notices, and the repeated submission of unfounded complaints, may result in the reporter's ability to submit notices being suspended.

7. Enforcement

7.1. Where a breach of this Policy is identified — on the Administration's own initiative, following a report, or under a binding order of a competent authority — the Administration may apply one or more of the following measures:

• change the age marking of the Story;
• restrict access to the Story, including in a specific jurisdiction only, or unpublish it;
• delete the Story and related material;
• suspend or terminate the Author's access to the Service, including blocking the account;
• notify the competent authorities where the content indicates a threat to the life or safety of persons, or where such an obligation applies to the Administration by law.

7.2. Measures are chosen proportionately to the nature of the breach. Breaches of clauses 4.1 and 4.4 result in deletion of the content and blocking of the account without warning.

7.3. The Author receives a statement of reasons identifying the provision breached, the facts relied on, the nature of the measure and the available redress, unless notification is prohibited by law or would obstruct an investigation.

7.4. The Author may appeal a measure by sending a reasoned objection to support@skaz.io within six months of the notification. The Administration reviews the objection within ten business days through a person who was not involved in the original decision and, if the objection is well-founded, restores access to the Story or the account.

7.5. Termination of access to the Service due to a breach of this Policy does not entitle the Author to a refund for the unused period, except where such a right is granted by mandatory consumer protection law.

7.6. The Administration does not pre-moderate Stories and does not guarantee that every violation will be detected. The absence of a response to a particular item does not constitute approval and does not prevent the Administration from acting later.

8. Liability

8.1. The Author is liable for the content of a Story, its age marking and the consequences of its distribution.

8.2. The Author shall indemnify the Administration for documented losses, including fines, compensation and legal costs, arising from claims brought by third parties or competent authorities in connection with the Author's breach of this Policy.

8.3. The Administration is not liable for the content of User-created Stories to the extent provided by applicable hosting-provider liability limitations, including Article 6 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 and comparable provisions in other legal systems.

9. Final Provisions

9.1. The Administration may amend this Policy unilaterally by publishing a new version at https://skaz.io/rules. Material changes are communicated to Users at least fifteen days before they take effect, except for changes required to comply with the law or to address an immediate security risk. Continued use of the Service constitutes acceptance of the new version.

9.2. The parties shall seek to resolve disputes through negotiation; a claim is to be sent to support@skaz.io and answered within thirty calendar days. Governing law and jurisdiction are determined by the Terms of Service. This Policy does not limit the mandatory rights granted to a User by the law of their country of residence, including consumer protection law.

9.3. If any provision of this Policy is held invalid, the remaining provisions continue in force.

9.4. In the event of a conflict between this Policy and the Terms of Service regarding content requirements, this Policy prevails.

10. Contacts

Service operator: Skaz

General enquiries and appeals: support@skaz.io

Abuse reports: abuse@skaz.io

Intellectual property notices: abuse@skaz.io