Community guidelines.
yolo. is for the things you actually did. We want it to feel like a friend's group chat, not the open internet at its worst. These rules apply to every YOLO, every Bucket entry, every comment, every DM — even the ones you scope to your Inner ring. End-to-end encryption protects you from us reading along; it does not exempt you from the rules.
The big idea
Two ideas, kept tightly:
- This is a clean platform. yolo. is open to teenagers and to families who share moments across generations. There are plenty of platforms for adult content, drug culture, or scrolling fights. This is not one of them.
- Be the friend, not the algorithm. If you'd say it to a friend over coffee, you can say it here. If you'd only say it from behind an anonymous account, don't say it here.
The rules below are the ways we keep those two ideas alive at scale. If they ever read as bureaucratic — let us know. They're meant to feel obvious.
The rules
1. No adult content. None.
No nudity, no sexually explicit imagery, no sexually suggestive content — in YOLOs, Bucket entries, profile photos, captions, comments, or direct messages. This includes nominally artistic nudity, cropped-just-enough teasers, and "the implication" jokes.
Yes: a couple kissing on a Lisbon balcony. A shirtless surfer hauling a board. The line is sexual content, not the human body.
No: anything from a porn site, anything from an OnlyFans-style account, anything sexually suggestive enough that you'd feel weird showing it to your mum.
Why: yolo. is built around real-life moments shared with the people closest to you. There are platforms for adult content. This is not one of them.
2. Zero tolerance for content involving minors in a sexual or exploitative way.
Reports involving the sexualisation or exploitation of minors are forwarded to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the United States and to the relevant authorities in the user's jurisdiction. Accounts are removed immediately and permanently. We will cooperate with law enforcement to the fullest extent the law requires.
This includes — without limitation — sexualised content involving real or AI-generated minors, grooming behaviour, requests for nude photos from minors, and the sharing of sexually explicit content with minors.
3. No promotion of illicit substances.
Don't post content that depicts, promotes, glorifies, or facilitates the use, sale, or production of illegal drugs.
Yes: a glass of wine with dinner in Tuscany. A craft beer at a brewery you visited. A coffee at a Lisbon roastery. Cannabis content in a jurisdiction where it's legal AND scoped to an age-appropriate audience.
No: photos of obviously illegal drugs in jurisdictions where they're illegal. Captions that read like a "how to find a dealer" guide. Content promoting use among minors regardless of jurisdiction.
Why: yolo. is open to people of every age — including teenagers we want to keep safe.
4. Don't hurt people. Or animals. Or property.
No threats of violence, no incitement, no content that depicts or encourages physical harm to a person, animal, or property they don't own. No "swatting", no doxxing-with-implied-threat, no harassment campaigns. No content depicting animal cruelty (training a dog firmly is not cruelty; making a dog fight another dog is). No content depicting the destruction of property that isn't yours.
Content depicting violence as news, education, or survivor testimony — handled with care, not glorifying — has a place, but yolo. is not the right venue for it. Take news to a news platform.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, see the resources at the bottom of this page.
5. No self-harm or eating-disorder promotion.
Allowed: first-person reflection on lived experience, recovery posts, educational content from a place of knowledge.
Not allowed: content that promotes, glamorises, or instructs others in self-harm. Pro-ana / pro-mia content. "Tips" framed as transparency. Before-and-after weight-loss content that hits restriction-as-aspiration framing.
If you post in this territory, we may add an in-app safety overlay that links to crisis resources before the content shows. We err on the side of helping the next person who sees it.
6. No hate speech or harassment.
Content that attacks, dehumanises, or incites violence against people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, caste, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, disability, or serious disease is removed.
Coordinated harassment — even when individual comments are technically civil — is removed. Pile-ons, dogpiles, and "let's get this person" campaigns are removed.
Heated disagreement is fine. Disagreeing with an idea is not harassment. Targeting a person is.
7. No illegal content.
Anything illegal under the laws applicable to you, your audience, or to Code Op (Pty) Ltd: weapons trafficking, human trafficking, fraud, financial scams, intellectual-property theft, malware distribution, counterfeit goods, illegal gambling, sanctions violations, etc.
We comply with valid legal requests from law enforcement and produce data we have under the conditions of the request. We cannot produce E2E content (DMs, private bucket entries, Inner/Close YOLOs) because we don't have the keys.
8. No spam, scams, or fraud.
- No mass-posting of the same content across many accounts. No follow-for-follow rings.
- No automated engagement (bots that comment, cheer, or follow).
- No phishing, no fake-airdrop crypto pitches, no investment "opportunities" in DMs, no romance scams.
- No fake reviews, astroturfed enthusiasm, or paid posts without disclosure.
- No deceptive affiliate-link practices. (Sharing a link to your favourite hotel is fine; presenting it as objective when it's affiliate-tagged is not.)
9. No impersonation. No deepfakes.
Don't pretend to be someone you're not. Parody accounts are allowed if clearly labelled as such in both the display name AND the bio (e.g. "Parody · not affiliated").
Don't post deepfakes or AI-generated content presented as real, especially when the subject is an identifiable person. Even with permission, label clearly: "AI-generated", "deepfake", or similar.
Don't fabricate achievements (claiming to have done something you didn't). The whole product depends on YOLOs being real moments.
10. Respect other people's privacy.
- Don't post other people's private information (home addresses, phone numbers, ID numbers, financial details, etc.) without their consent.
- Don't post intimate images of other people without explicit consent — even if the images aren't sexually explicit. "Non-consensual intimate imagery" includes someone changing, in private spaces, or unaware of being photographed.
- Don't tag people who've asked not to be tagged. If someone asks you to remove a tag, remove it.
- If a YOLO of yours captures a stranger in a way that identifies them, consider whether you'd want their permission. In most cases — for crowd shots, public spaces, public events — you don't need it. For close-ups of people who aren't part of the moment with you, ask.
Using the audience picker
Every YOLO carries an audience setting. The default is what you chose last time. Pick carefully — it's the main control you have over who sees what.
| Ring | For | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Inner | Family, ride-or-die — ~10 people max | The really personal stuff. The first ultrasound. The reconciliation. The diagnosis. |
| Close | Friends you'd grab dinner with this week | Mid-week wins. Inside jokes. The story-with-a-photo of your weekend. |
| Friends Circle | Wider trusted ring — coworkers, regulars, old crowd | "I'm in Lisbon for the week, ping me." Mid-stakes life updates. |
| Followers | Anyone who follows you | Trip recaps, milestone moments, things you don't mind a wider crowd seeing. |
| Public | The open internet, including search engines | The Instagram-equivalent. Magazine-cover moments. Things you'd put on a postcard. |
If something feels even slightly private, scope it. Followers and Public are not undoable in practice — once it's out, it's out. Screenshots exist.
If you tag someone (the "with" feature), that person can see the YOLO regardless of your audience setting. If they ask you to remove the tag, remove it.
Comments
Comments are public to the audience of the YOLO they're under. Apply the same rules — but with extra slack for warmth and extra strictness for cruelty.
- Encourage over critique. yolo. is about real moments, not graded performances.
- If you wouldn't say it to their face at the kitchen counter, don't comment it.
- You can disable comments on any of your YOLOs after posting. You can also delete individual comments.
- You can hide a commenter from your own posts without blocking them.
Direct messages
DMs (1:1 and group) are end-to-end encrypted. We cannot read them. They are still subject to these rules.
- The rules above apply in DMs. We can't see the content, but we will act on reports.
- When you report a DM, the reporter can attach a decrypted screenshot or transcript as evidence. We act on what's reported.
- Repeated unsolicited DMs to people you don't know are spam. Don't.
- Sending intimate imagery to anyone who hasn't asked for it is harassment.
- You can leave any group DM at any time. You can block any individual DMer.
Bookings & partner content
The Discover, Stays, and Flights tabs include partner-sourced content (e.g. hotel listings, flight options, activity recommendations). When you book through yolo., you're contracting with the underlying provider — see the Terms for the details.
- Discover constellations are AI-generated suggestions. Treat them as starting points, not gospel. Verify safety, legality, and feasibility before you act on them.
- Reviews of bookings you post to yolo. as YOLOs are subject to the rules above. No fake reviews, no astroturfing.
- Disclose affiliate links if you're using them to promote a destination commercially.
Age-restricted content
Some content is legal but only appropriate for adults — alcohol, tobacco, gambling, similar. yolo. is open to teenagers. You are responsible for ensuring such content reaches only audiences for whom it is age-appropriate in your jurisdiction.
Use the audience picker. Drop a celebratory drink to your Close ring (which is people you know), not Public (which is the world). If you post age-restricted content with a Public audience and a minor sees it, that's on you, not us.
We may add platform-side gating in future versions (e.g. auto-blurring alcohol posts for under-18 viewers); in the meantime, common sense and the picker.
Reporting & what happens next
How to report
From inside the app: tap the ••• on any YOLO, profile, comment, or DM. Choose Report. Pick a reason. Optionally add a sentence of context. Submit.
From outside the app: email safety@codeop.io with the URL or post ID, the reason, and a screenshot if helpful.
For urgent situations involving immediate danger to a person, contact your local emergency services first.
What the reasons mean
- Minor safety
- Anything involving the safety or exploitation of a person under 18. Goes to the top of the queue.
- Self-harm
- Content that promotes or instructs self-harm or restrictive eating. Triaged urgently.
- Violence or threats
- Threats of violence, glorification of violence, content depicting harm.
- Hate speech
- Attacks on people based on protected characteristics.
- Harassment
- Targeted attacks, pile-ons, coordinated bullying.
- Sexual or explicit content
- Any of rule 1 — nudity, sexual content, suggestive content.
- Spam
- Mass-posted content, follow-spam, link-blasts, bot behaviour.
- Impersonation
- Someone pretending to be a person, brand, or institution they're not.
- Illegal substances
- Content promoting illegal drug use, sale, or production.
- Copyright
- Use of copyrighted work without permission. For formal DMCA notices use dmca@codeop.io instead.
- Something else
- Add context in the optional body field.
What happens after you report
- Your report enters our triage queue. High-severity reports (the first three above) are triaged within hours.
- A human on our trust & safety team reads the report and looks at the target.
- If the target violates the rules, we take action — content removed, account warned / restricted / suspended / terminated depending on severity and history.
- If it doesn't, we note the report as reviewed and move on.
- We send a brief notification when your report is resolved, with the outcome.
- The target is never told who reported them.
The enforcement ladder
For non-severe violations, we walk the ladder:
- First strike
- Content removed. In-app warning. No restriction on the account.
- Second within 90 days
- Content removed. 24-hour read-only restriction (can browse, cannot post or message).
- Third within 90 days
- Content removed. 7-day suspension. Account is hidden from feeds during suspension.
- Repeated or severe
- Indefinite suspension or termination. Future signups from the same identifiers may be blocked.
For severe violations (minor safety, CSAM, doxxing, credible threats of violence, coordinated harassment campaigns), the ladder is bypassed. Termination is immediate.
Appeals
If we acted on your content or your account and you think we were wrong, you can appeal.
- Appeal via the in-app banner that appears on your suspension screen, or email appeals@codeop.io within 30 days of the action.
- Include: your handle, what was removed or restricted, when, and why you think it was wrong.
- Appeals are reviewed by someone other than the original moderator.
- We aim to respond within 5 business days. We'll either lift the action (and apologise) or explain why we're standing by it.
- If you appeal in good faith and we got it wrong, the strike doesn't count against you. If your appeal is bad-faith or trolling, the strike stays.
If you or someone you know is in crisis
yolo. isn't an emergency service. Please reach out to someone who is.
- United States & Canada: dial or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
- United Kingdom: Samaritans, call 116 123 free, any time.
- Republic of Ireland: Samaritans, call 116 123.
- Australia: Lifeline, call 13 11 14.
- New Zealand: Lifeline, call 0800 543 354.
- South Africa: SADAG suicide crisis line, call 0800 567 567.
- Anywhere else: the International Association for Suicide Prevention maintains a global directory at iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres.
If someone is in immediate danger, contact your local emergency services first.
Our promises back to you
- We don't read your encrypted content. Reports of encrypted content work via decrypted screenshots or transcripts the reporter shares with us.
- We act on reports as quickly as we can. High-severity within hours, the rest within a couple of days at most.
- We tell you what we did when you report something.
- If we suspend or terminate your account, we tell you why and how to appeal.
- We don't run ads. We don't sell your data. We don't train external AI models on your content. (See the Privacy Policy.)
- We publish a transparency report annually, starting one year after public launch, covering moderation actions, government requests, and policy changes.
- We listen. If a rule here reads as unfair or inconsistent, email hello@codeop.io — these are living documents.
Live a little, would you? Just not at someone else's expense.