Community Guidelines

1. Our standard

These guidelines apply to everything on Forky: published stories, episodes and branches, character descriptions, thumbnails and titles, comments, reactions, profiles, and anything you publish from Forky to a connected social account. They are part of our Terms of Service. We write them in plain language on purpose; if something is not listed but clearly causes the same harm, it is still not allowed.

2. Never allowed

We remove the following on sight and, where the law requires, report it to the authorities:

• Child sexual abuse or exploitation: any sexual content involving minors, real or fictional, including drawn or AI-generated depictions; sexual solicitation of minors; grooming; or sharing content that sexualises a real minor.
• Non-consensual intimate images, including AI-generated or manipulated ones, and threats to share them.
• Credible threats of violence against any person or group, and content that incites violence.
• Terrorism and violent extremism: promotion, recruitment or glorification.
• Doxxing: sharing someone’s private information, such as address, phone number, workplace or identity documents, without consent.
• Hateful abuse targeting people for their race, ethnicity, caste, religion, nationality, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, serious illness or immigration status.
• Scams and fraud, including fake giveaways, investment schemes and phishing.
• Deceptive impersonation of a real person, organisation or brand. Parody is allowed if it is clearly labelled.
• Instructions for serious harm, such as making weapons or drugs, or encouraging self-harm, suicide or eating disorders.
• Illegal content of any other kind, including sale of illegal goods.

3. Mature storytelling

Fiction on Forky can explore violence, horror, crime, sexuality, substance use, self-harm and other difficult themes, within limits:

• Label it. When you publish, you set an age rating (13+, 16+ or 18+) and content notes. Choose honestly; stories that are mislabelled are re-rated or removed, and repeated mislabelling counts as a violation.
• No explicit sexual content: no pornography, no explicit sexual acts, no nudity meant to arouse. Romance, intimacy and sexuality handled without explicit depiction are allowed with the right rating.
• No gratuitous gore. Violence should serve the story. Prolonged, graphic or sadistic depictions of real-looking violence are not allowed.
• Self-harm and suicide may be depicted with care, never as instruction, encouragement or glamour. We may add support resources to such stories.
• Mature stories are hidden from users whose age does not meet the rating, and may be excluded from recommendations.
• Thumbnails, titles and previews are seen before anyone logs in, so they must be suitable for a general audience regardless of the story’s rating.

4. Copyright, likeness and AI

• You must own or have permission for everything you upload: scripts, music, film and TV clips, images, voices, performers and characters. Popular franchises, trademarked characters and commercial music are not free to use because other apps host them. See the Copyright & IP policy.
• Fan fiction and remixes are only allowed where the rights holder permits it, or where the original creator on Forky has enabled remixing for their story.
• Real people: do not depict a real person, including a celebrity, in a way that is sexual, defamatory, deceptive or that implies endorsement. Do not replicate a real person’s face or voice without their written consent.
• AI-generated content is welcome, but you are responsible for it as if you made it by hand. Realistic synthetic depictions of real people or events must be labelled as AI-generated. See the AI & Social Connections notice.
• Do not imply that a brand sponsors or is involved with your story unless it is. Disclose paid partnerships.

5. Behaviour and manipulation

• No spam, repetitive posting, or deceptive external links.
• No fake plays, bought followers, bot accounts, vote manipulation or coordinated brigading.
• No fraudulent monetization: do not use stolen cards, refund abuse or fake purchases, and do not hide material conditions of paid content.
• Do not pressure or target minors to buy Forky Bucks or unlock stories, and do not ask minors for personal contact details.
• Do not harass people in comments, or follow them across stories to do so.
• Do not evade a suspension or age restriction with another account.

6. Comments

Comments are public and are held to the same rules as stories. Creators can hide comments on their own stories and block users. We use automated filters to hold back comments that look like spam or abuse for review. Comments that break the rules are removed and count towards enforcement on your account.

7. Report and block

Every public story, episode, comment and profile has a Report option, and every profile has Block. Blocking stops someone from seeing your profile and stories, commenting on them, or following you. Reports are confidential; we do not tell the person who reported them.

You can also report by email to admin@ethereallabs.in with the subject “Forky Report”, or for anything involving a child, “Child Safety”. We acknowledge reports within 24 hours. Urgent safety reports, including anything involving a minor, non-consensual intimate images or a credible threat, are reviewed first and acted on within 24 hours. Other reports are resolved within 15 days. If someone is in immediate danger, contact your local emergency services first.

8. Enforcement

Depending on the severity and your history, we may:

• re-rate or add content notes to a story;
• remove a story, episode, comment or profile element;
• limit the reach of your content or exclude it from recommendations;
• warn you, or temporarily restrict commenting, publishing or monetization;
• suspend or permanently close your account;
• withhold creator earnings connected to a violation;
• report you to the relevant authorities where the law requires or permits it.

We tell you what action we took and which rule it relates to, unless the law prevents us or telling you would put someone at risk. Severe violations, in particular anything in section 2, result in immediate permanent closure on the first offence.

9. Appeals

If you think we got it wrong, appeal in the app from the notification we sent you, or email admin@ethereallabs.in with the subject “Forky Appeal” within 30 days. A different reviewer looks at the decision. We acknowledge appeals within 24 hours and aim to decide within 15 days. Users in India may also complain to the Grievance Appellate Committee; users in the EU may use an out-of-court dispute settlement body.