Community Guidelines

Last updated: March 14, 2026

Our Commitment

VanChat is built to foster respectful, genuine connections. We want this to be a place where people can be themselves, have real conversations, and build communities they care about.

We expect all users to treat others with dignity and to contribute to a welcoming environment. These Community Guidelines exist to keep VanChat a place worth being.

Expected Behavior

  • Be respectful. Treat others the way you want to be treated.
  • Be constructive. Offer helpful feedback and engage in good faith.
  • Respect boundaries. If someone asks you to stop, stop.
  • Keep it legal. Do not use VanChat to break any laws, either in your jurisdiction, or in Canada.

Prohibited Content and Behavior

The following are not allowed on VanChat. This list is not exhaustive — we may act on behavior that violates the spirit of these Community Guidelines even if it isn’t explicitly listed.

  • Hate speech and discrimination — Slurs, dehumanizing language, or content that promotes hatred against people based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion, or national origin. Example: posting racial slurs or calling for violence against an ethnic group.
  • Violence, extremism, and terrorism — Content that incites, glorifies, or promotes acts of violence, violent extremism, or terrorism. This includes recruiting for or providing material support to terrorist organizations. Example: posting manifestos calling for attacks, or sharing propaganda from designated terrorist groups.
  • Harassment and threats — Bullying, intimidation, doxxing (sharing someone’s private information to cause harm), stalking, or sustained unwanted contact. Example: repeatedly messaging someone after they’ve asked you to stop, or posting someone’s home address.
  • Non-consensual intimate images — Sharing, threatening to share, or soliciting intimate or sexual images of another person without their consent. This includes “revenge porn” and digitally altered or AI-generated intimate imagery. Example: posting private photos of an ex-partner, or threatening to share them.
  • Sexual exploitation of minors — Any sexual content involving minors in any form. See also the Child Safety section below.
  • Spam and scams — Unsolicited bulk messages, phishing links, pyramid schemes, or malware distribution. Example: posting the same promotional link in multiple channels, or sending fake login pages.
  • Impersonation — Pretending to be another user, public figure, or VanChat staff. Example: creating an account with someone else’s name and photo to deceive others.
  • Privacy violations — Sharing someone’s personal information (real name, location, photos) without their consent. Example: screenshotting and posting a private DM conversation without the other person’s permission.
  • Disruption — Repeated or deliberate disruption of conversations, channels, or communities. Example: flooding a channel with nonsense messages to drown out conversation.
  • Intellectual property infringement — Uploading content you don’t have the right to share. Example: posting entire copyrighted movies or music albums.

Child Safety

VanChat has a zero-tolerance policy for child sexual abuse material (CSAM), grooming, and predatory behavior toward minors. Any such content or conduct results in immediate and permanent account termination, with no appeal.

Misrepresenting your age to circumvent age restrictions is also a violation of these Community Guidelines and our Terms of Service.

VanChat is subject to mandatory reporting obligations under Canadian law, including the Criminal Code (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-46) and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection Act. We will report suspected CSAM and child exploitation to the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (Cybertip.ca), the RCMP, and any other applicable law enforcement agencies.

Community Rules

Individual Communities on VanChat may have additional rules dictated by their members. Community-level rules apply in addition to these Community Guidelines. Community members are responsible for moderating their own spaces, but VanChat reserves the right to act on platform-level violations.

Enforcement

Violations of these Community Guidelines may result in the following actions, depending on severity, context, and pattern:

  • Warning — A notice that specific content or behavior violates these Community Guidelines. You’ll be told what the violation was and asked to stop. Typical for: first-time minor violations like light spam, off-topic disruption, or heated language that crosses a line.
  • Content removal — Removal of specific content that violates our policies, with a warning. Typical for: content that violates our prohibited content categories but appears to be a one-time lapse rather than a pattern.
  • Temporary suspension — Loss of access to VanChat for 1 to 30 days. Typical for: repeated violations after a warning, harassment that continues after being asked to stop, or a single serious violation that doesn’t rise to the level of permanent termination.
  • Permanent termination — Permanent loss of access to VanChat with no option to create a new account. Typical for: CSAM (always immediate), sustained harassment campaigns, hate speech with clear intent to harm, or repeated violations after temporary suspension.

A first offense can result in any level of enforcement depending on severity. CSAM and non-consensual intimate images always result in immediate permanent termination with no appeal.

VanChat maintains records of all reports received, enforcement actions taken, and appeals processed. These records are used to ensure consistent enforcement and to support our transparency reporting commitments.

Reporting

If you see content or behavior that violates these Community Guidelines, please contact support and include:

  • What happened
  • Where it happened (channel name, community name)
  • When it happened (approximate time)

Screenshots are helpful but not required. All reports are reviewed confidentially. You will not face retaliation for making a good-faith report. We aim to review and respond to reports within 48 hours.

Appeals

If your account receives a warning, suspension, or termination that you believe was made in error, you can appeal by contacting support within 30 days. Include your username and a brief explanation of why you believe the action was incorrect.

Appeals are reviewed by a different member of the VanChat team than the person who made the original decision. We will respond to appeals within 14 days.

Appeals are not available for CSAM-related terminations.