Content Policy

This is the full version of what is not allowed on Treehouse, what happens when somebody breaks it, and how to tell us. The short version is in section 4 of the Terms of Service.

Treehouse is a small app for small circles. It is run by RunCodesRun in the Philippines, and it is moderated by people. The one exception is photos, including those in messages: a computer program checks them before they are shown (see Photos the check blocks). That shapes everything below: the rules are the ones a person can actually enforce, and we would rather write down what we really do than promise a scale we do not have.

Who this is for

Treehouse is 18 and over. That is not a formality. It means we do not build for children, and an account we believe belongs to somebody under 18 is removed rather than corrected.

What is not allowed

Sexual content

No nudity and no sexual content, whether in a post, a photo, a group or a private message. This is a flat rule and not a matter of context or intent.

We know other platforms allow it behind a setting. We are not building that, because doing it safely needs age verification, image scanning and a moderation team, and an app that allows it without those is not a permissive app — it is an unsafe one.

Anything sexualising a child

Removed, preserved as evidence, and reported to the authorities as the law requires.

There is no version of this where the account is warned first. This includes drawings, edited images and text. The moment it is reported, we keep a record of it and stop its photos from being deleted — by the post being deleted, the account being deleted, or anything else — so that it can be handed over.

It is also the one rule where we would rather be wrong in the strict direction. If you think we have judged something wrongly here, that conversation happens after the report, not instead of it.

Harassment and abuse

No bullying, threats, stalking, or campaigns against a person. Repeatedly contacting somebody who has blocked you or asked you to stop is harassment, whatever the content of the messages.

Hate

No attacks on people for who they are — race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, disability, sex, gender, sexual orientation.

Violence

No threats of violence, no glorifying it, no organising it.

Self-harm and suicide

No encouraging it and no instructions for it. Talking about your own struggle is allowed and always will be — the line is between somebody describing pain and somebody promoting harm.

If you are the person struggling: reporting is not the only thing that happens. See When somebody is in danger below.

Impersonation

Do not pretend to be somebody else. Parody and commentary are fine when it is clear what they are.

Spam and scams

No bulk unsolicited messages, no fraud, no phishing, no selling other people's data.

Other people's things

Do not post what you do not have the right to post — somebody else's photographs included. Do not post anybody's private information without their permission: address, phone number, identity documents, anything of that kind.

Breaking the law

Do not use Treehouse to break Philippine law or to help somebody else break it. That includes selling drugs, and selling or advertising alcohol, tobacco or vapes.

Photos the check blocks

A computer program checks every photo you add to a post, your profile or a message, before anyone else sees it. Photos already in posts and on profiles when the check started are checked too. While a photo is being checked, the post it is in is hidden, and if the photo is blocked, the post stays hidden until you change it. A message with a photo is delivered once the photo has been checked; if the photo is blocked, the message is not delivered at all, words included. It blocks photos that show:

• nudity or sexual content
• sexually suggestive poses or clothing. Ordinary swimwear and shirtless men are fine
• violence, weapons used to hurt someone, or injury
• gore, or other disturbing images
• hate symbols
• drugs, or drug use
• gambling
• rude gestures

Photos of drinking, smoking or vaping are fine. A beer at dinner, a cigarette or a vape is not blocked. Selling or advertising alcohol, tobacco or vapes is still not allowed (see Breaking the law).

Gambling is legal, and may be ordinary for you, but Treehouse still does not show it. That is our choice for this app, not a judgement about you, and it never counts against your account.

A block is final, and the program makes mistakes. A blocked photo is never seen by anybody at Treehouse and cannot be brought back, so there is nothing a person could review. If you think the program got one wrong, tell us at support@thetreehouse.me. Please describe the photo; do not attach it. We use what you tell us to make the check better.

How to report

You can report a post, a comment, a message or an account:

• A post — tap ••• on the post and choose Report.
• A comment — press and hold the comment and choose Report.
• A message — open the menu on the message, or the chat's own menu, and choose Report. If you do not see Report on messages in the app yet, update the app, use Treehouse in a web browser, or write to us.
• An account — open their profile, tap ••• and choose Report account. This is the place to tell us somebody is under 18.

Choose the reason that fits best; if none does, use Something else and tell us in your own words.

When a message is reported, the moderator sees it and a few messages around it, and nothing else from the chat. The privacy policy says exactly what they see.

If you cannot report something in the app, write to support@thetreehouse.me with a screenshot, and block the person if you want them gone from your app straight away.

A report is evidence, not an action. It hides nothing on its own. A person reads it and decides. Twenty reports do not remove a post — one decision does, and one report is enough if it is right.

Photos, including those in messages, are also checked by a computer program before they are shown, and some are blocked. See Photos the check blocks.

You are not told who reported what. Neither is the person reported.

You can also block. Blocking is instant, needs no reason and no approval, and does not wait for us: you both disappear from each other's app, and only the person who blocked is told it happened. Reporting and blocking are separate — doing one does not do the other.

If you cannot use the app, the same address works for anything.

What happens after a report

Reports are read by a small team of moderators. Child-safety reports are read only by our most senior moderators.

Urgent reports are read first. Child safety, self-harm, violence and under-age accounts jump the queue ahead of everything else, and we aim to reach them within 24 hours.

Other reports we aim to reach within 72 hours. If a report has not been answered in that time, it is because a person has not read it yet — not because it was rejected.

When something breaks these rules we can:

• hide a post, a comment or a message
• suspend, close or delete the account, as below
• report it to the authorities where the law requires, which it does for anything sexualising a child

When an account breaks these rules, we can do one of three things:

• Suspend it — for a set time, up to a year, depending on how serious the problem is and whether it has happened before. It lifts by itself on the date we tell you. We can lift it early.
• Close it — for good. We do this for anything that puts a child at risk, straight away and with no suspension first, and for an account that keeps breaking the rules after being suspended.
• Delete it — we close it straight away, and erase it 30 days later, the same way as when you delete your own account. Until then we can undo it if we got it wrong. We do this:
  • for fake, spam and automated accounts;
  • for accounts we have closed, once there is nothing left to decide about them;
  • when you ask us to delete your account and cannot do it yourself, once we are sure the request comes from you;
  • when we find an account belongs to someone under 18.

Child safety is never a suspension. An account that puts a child at risk is closed.

While your account is suspended you cannot: post; comment; like a post or a comment; react to a message; send a message or start a conversation; share a post or forward a message; edit a post, comment, message or your profile (name, bio, photo, cover); upload a photo; create a group, change a group's name or photo, add or invite anybody to a group or a group conversation; post in a group; or, as a group admin, delete the group, remove a member, or remove somebody else's post or comment.

You can still: sign in and read everything you could before; follow and unfollow; accept or decline follow requests and message requests; join a group you were invited to; block, mute and report; delete your own posts, comments and messages; leave a group or conversation, even one you run; remove a follower; change your settings and password; deactivate or delete your account; and ask for a copy of your data.

We tell you. A notice in the app and on the website says your account is suspended, which rule it broke, and the date and time it lifts. We do not tell you who reported you. Nobody else is told. Your profile looks the same to other people as it always does.

We record why. Every decision is written down with its reason, so it can be reviewed later, reversed, or explained to somebody who asks.

Content is withheld, not destroyed. A hidden post, comment or message keeps existing where nobody can see it, so that a wrong decision can be undone and an appeal has something to read. Anything held for a child-safety report is kept regardless of anything else in this policy or in the privacy policy.

When somebody is in danger

If a report suggests somebody is about to be hurt or is about to hurt themselves, we treat it as urgent and we may contact the authorities.

We are not an emergency service, and we are not always awake. If somebody is in immediate danger, call 911 in the Philippines rather than waiting for us.

If you think we got it wrong

Write to support@thetreehouse.me and a person will look again. Say what was removed and why you think the decision was wrong.

We do not have a formal appeals board, and pretending otherwise would be theatre. What we have is a record of every decision and somebody willing to re-read it.

What we do not do

Said plainly, because an unstated promise is the one that gets broken:

• Nobody here reads your messages unless somebody in the chat reports one, and then only as the privacy policy describes. A computer program checks the photos in them before they are delivered; it does not read what you write.
• We do not read posts proactively. A computer program checks photos, including those in messages, before they are shown, and blocking a photo is its decision alone. Everything else, including every suspension and closure, is decided by a person.
• We are not neutral about the rules above. They are ours, and we enforce them on our own judgement.

Changes

We will change this as the app grows. When a change affects what we look at rather than only what is allowed, we will update the version and date at the top and email you before it takes effect, rather than quietly updating the page.

Every change is listed, in plain words, on our What's changed page.

Contact: support@thetreehouse.me Operator: RunCodesRun, Philippines