Community Guidelines

SwapUs works because every swap goes both ways: you teach someone, and they teach you. Prepare for the session you teach as carefully as you’d want your partner to prepare for the one you learn. These guidelines apply everywhere in the Service: profiles, swap requests, sessions, chat, voice and video calls, feedback and the anonymous community.

Anonymity is there so people can ask honest questions without fear. It is not a licence to harm anyone.

• Treat people with patience and courtesy, especially beginners.
• Disagree with ideas, not people. Give feedback that is honest, specific and kind.
• Respect boundaries. If someone says no or stops replying, let it go.

• No bullying, intimidation, repeated unwanted contact or targeted insults.
• No hate speech or discrimination based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, caste, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age or any other protected characteristic.
• No threats of violence or harm, and no glorification of violence.

SwapUs is a learning community. Sexual content, nudity, sexual solicitation and sexualised comments are not allowed anywhere in the Service.

Zero tolerance for any sexual content involving minors. Any such content, or any attempt to sexualise, groom or exploit a minor, leads to immediate permanent removal and is reported to the relevant authorities.

Don’t encourage, promote or give instructions for suicide, self-harm or eating disorders. Talking about your own struggles in a supportive way is allowed; content that could put someone at risk is not.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, please contact your local emergency services or a crisis line right away. SwapUs members and moderators are not a substitute for professional help.

• No unsolicited advertising, repetitive posting or engagement farming.
• No scams, phishing or requests for money. Swaps are skills for skills; nobody pays or gets paid.
• No malware or links designed to mislead or harm. Sessions run on SwapUs’s own calls, so there’s no need to share external meeting links.

• Never share someone else’s private information (real name, address, phone number, workplace, photos or account details) without their consent.
• Don’t try to uncover who is behind an anonymous post or alias.
• Be careful with your own details in the anonymous community; posting them can undo your anonymity.

• Don’t pretend to be another person, a brand, or SwapUs staff.
• One person, one account. Don’t create accounts to get around a restriction, a block or a ban, or to game ratings or achievements.

• Describe your level and experience accurately. Skills are shown as self-reported unless verified.
• Only submit evidence that is genuinely yours.
• Teach what you offered. If a session isn’t a good fit, say so early.

• Show up on time. If you need to cancel, do it as early as possible and before the cancellation deadline.
• Confirm sessions honestly. Don’t confirm sessions that didn’t happen, or dispute sessions that did.
• Late cancellations and no-shows are recorded and affect your reliability and matching.

Swaps happen only inside SwapUs. Once a swap is accepted, chat, voice and video calls open between you and your partner, and that’s where both sessions take place. There are no in-person sessions and no external meeting links.

• Don’t share personal contact details: phone numbers, email addresses, links, social media accounts or handles.
• Don’t ask your partner to talk, message or meet anywhere else, and never pressure anyone to move off SwapUs.
• SwapUs checks messages, swap requests, notes, posts and profiles for contact details and stops them from being sent. Each attempt counts as a warning. After 3 warnings, the next attempt pauses your chat, calls and swap requests for 24 hours. You can still sign in and browse while paused.
• If someone asks for your details or to move elsewhere, don’t share them. Report the person instead.

We combine automated checks with human review. Depending on the severity and history, we may:

• Warn you, or ask you to edit content before it is published.
• Hold content for human review, or hide content that has received several independent reports while it’s reviewed.
• Block or remove content that clearly breaks these rules.
• Escalate serious cases, including threats and child safety concerns, to the platform owner and, where required, to authorities.

Restrictions are proportionate: from a warning, to temporary limits on posting, messaging or requesting, to suspension or a permanent ban for severe or repeated violations. Restrictions on accounts are decided by people, never by AI alone, and enforcement against anonymous content is normally applied without revealing who posted it.

Appeals

If you think a decision about your content or account was wrong, you can appeal it in the Service. Appeals are reviewed by a person, and we will tell you the outcome.

Use the report option on any profile, message, post or comment, or on the session page for session problems. Reports are confidential: the person you report is not told who reported them. See Help for more.