Gaia-Appropriate Content in Detail
Gaia Online is available to users as young as 13, and as such, all site content, including roleplays, must adhere strictly to the Terms of Service to ensure it is appropriate. Many users have asked what is considered inappropriate in a roleplay context. Below is a list of guidelines to help you judge what is appropriate and what is crossing the line.
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Summary
Sexually explicit roleplaying is a violation and not permitted.
Graphically violent roleplaying is a violation and not permitted.
Encouraging or condoning these violations in your roleplay may result in the roleplay thread being removed and a warning issued to the involved accounts. Refrain from using adult ratings or directing explicit content to the private messaging system.
Romance
Roleplays that revolve around two or more characters meeting and falling in love are perfectly safe on Gaia. However, certain romantic interactions and themes are not considered appropriate and may result in a warning for those involved. Roleplay threads based heavily on sexual themes or fetishes, such as cybering, rape or bondage, will be removed from the forums, and participants in the violating content will receive appropriate penalties against their account.
The roleplay of non-sexual interactions, such as hugging and kissing, is allowed on Gaia Online. This is a general display of affection and breaks no rules. However, there are several activities that are considered to cross the line and be inappropriate. The list below outlines such common violations:
Grabbing/touching of private areas, fondling
Sexual encounters, also known as cybering
Inappropriate, sexually-explicit dialogue, "talking dirty"
Nudity, a character stripping or being stripped in detail, or for acts of seduction
If you find users breaking these guidelines in your roleplay thread, or any other roleplay thread, please report their posts so that a moderator can review them.
Fighting and Violence
Many roleplayers enjoy a good fight now and again, but please use your discretion when depicting violence. A general portrayal of violence is allowed; this includes bloodshed, slicing, killing, beating, and other general actions. However, extremely graphic depictions of violence are not permitted. Going into explicit details down to the last organ hitting the floor is considered inappropriate and may result in a warning for graphic content. "Gore" as a roleplay concept or request is not appropriate.
Slave, Master, Kidnapping, and Pet
These kinds of roleplays are based around a dominant/submissive style and may be a common sight in the roleplay forums, but they are very prone to containing or encouraging Terms of Service violations. These types of roleplays belong in the Series-related/Miscellaneous Roleplay forum and MUST NOT contain the following:
Sexual content
Abusive content
Collar/charm/other slave systems which categorise slaves as targets of/preferring abuse or sexual advances
Slave roleplays which encourage or contain sexual or abusive content will be removed and those involved in the violating content will receive appropriate penalties against their accounts. Remember, as a roleplay creator it is your responsibility to monitor roleplay content within your thread. If you see someone violating the rules, report them.
How to keep a roleplay free of content violations
When setting up the rules of a roleplay, the following guidelines should help you enforce appropriate content in your thread:
Cybering is not allowed anywhere on Gaia. This includes the forums, private messages (PMs), Gaia Towns, and the game chats. Therefore, you should not post something like "take cybering to PMs". If your roleplay is found with something like this, you may be asked to change it and/or receive a warning for encouraging explicit content violations.
Some users post "PG"-type ratings in their rules threads, such as "PG-13". This in itself is not a violation, but if a roleplay rating clearly supports or encourages explicit violations using the rating and other elements, the moderators may take action. Examples include "Rated R", "Rated XXX", "No limits!".
Be especially careful with 'borderline' roleplay concepts, such as slave roleplays. Given the context, any suggestion of sexual or abuse-based content (e.g. through a collar/charm category system) may be viewed as encouraging content violations and result in the thread's removal.
If at any point you spot roleplays or roleplay posts violating the above guidelines,
report the post or thread. You will NOT be punished for roleplayers violating the Terms of Service in your own roleplaying thread if you have not encouraged the behavior, and have taken appropriate action to stop the behavior by reporting the relevant posts.
Daddy Dom/Little Girl and similar BDSM roleplays are not allowed on Gaia.
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Daddy Dom/Little Girl, Mommy Dom/Little Boy, etc (noted as dd/lg from here on out) refers to a BDSM relationship between an adult male/female and someone portraying a younger/underage childlike persona with the adult persona being in a father/mother/caregiver type of role.
While this kind of fetish/subculture is often between two consenting adults, because of the nature of these sorts of roleplays we do not allow them on Gaia. Many explore this as a sexual fetish and the nature of adultxchild relationships that are involved is not appropriate on the site. Gaia has never allowed BDSM roleplays, and we are now considering dd/lg as being under the same category. Any roleplaying or attempting to find partners for roleplays of this nature is strictly forbidden on Gaia.
We understand that for many, it is not their intent to have a sexual roleplay. However, we cannot risk the potential of underage users being involved in a roleplay with an adult where the nature of the roleplay may become sexual on one or both sides. As Gaia does allow anyone aged 13 and older to join the site, any attempts to engage in a dd/lg relationship or roleplay with another user will be removed with the potential for warnings and/or bans being placed on the account.
There are other websites where this sort of roleplay/relationship is welcome and ask those users that are interested to seek it elsewhere.
So we can't roleplay family roleplays anymore?
This rule is not meant to restrict genuine family roleplays. If you are wanting to roleplay a non-BDSM relationship between members of a family, such as those often found in Barton Town, you are still allowed as long as you are not engaging in one related to dd/lg and the like as described above.
These are just a few examples of what is and is not allowed;
I'm a Mommy just looking for her Little. - Not appropriate
I'm a 32 y/o Daddy wanting to play house with his Little - Not appropriate
Looking for a Family. Wanted: Mom, Son, and Grandma - Appropriate
Wanting Mother/Daughter crime-fighting duo! - Appropriate
Daddy wants to "play" with his lg - Not appropriate
Will I be banned if I call someone Daddy?
No. We recognize that the term 'daddy' can be applied in various scenarios that are not sexual in nature and are only disallowing those that apply specifically to the dd/lg relationship type roleplays regardless of if they are sexual or not. Users casually calling their significant other/friend 'daddy' and not otherwise violating our Terms of Service is fine.
Does this mean we can't discuss dd/lg relationships?
In terms of a discussion topic, Gaia does allow many topics of content that we do not otherwise allow you to engage in. Users who wish to discuss dd/lg relationships in a mature way that doesn't result in the solicitation or engagement of this type of relationship is allowed within reason as long as users are doing so in a way that follows our Terms of Service and is not graphic, explicit, descriptive or otherwise an attempt to solicit others or find partners.
Clarifications and Reminders: Alpha/Beta/Omega (A/B/O) or "Omegaverse" roleplays are deemed inappropriate for Gaia Online and are not allowed.
The moderation team would like to take this opportunity to clarify our stance on Alpha/Beta/Omega (from here on referred to as "A/B/O"
) or "Omegaverse" roleplays. We recognize that Gaia has a large population of adults on the site. However, we would like to remind you that Gaia Online caters to users
as young as 13 years old, and therefore, we have a duty to ensure that all content is suitable for audiences as young as 13. We create and enforce our policies with this audience in mind. We also seek to balance the appropriateness of content with the least possible effect on our community members' creative writing in roleplaying spaces.
First, what are A/B/O or "Omegaverse" roleplays?
These terms describe a subgenre of erotic (and often pornographic) roleplay that focuses on dominance hierarchies like those associated with certain animal species, such as wolves. However, unlike traditional wolf pack genres, characters in the Omegaverse have a "secondary gender" that gives a secondary set of romantic and sexual characteristics to the character. These characteristics include their own set of genitalia, physiology, and sexual behaviors. These roleplays often feature themes that lead to inappropriate sexual material, such as breeding, rutting, navigating heat cycles, scent marking, and other mating rites. This also may involve certain kinks associated with the Omegaverse, which include sexual exploitation.
Why are A/B/O or "Omegaverse" roleplays not allowed? What if I choose not to roleplay the explicit content, but keep the themes of A/B/O?
Unfortunately, because A/B/O is inherently centered around sexual constructs and characteristics and is a driving force in this genre, we are taking a firm stance against it. It is by nature an erotic subgenre of literature, and is therefore not allowed. It is too easy for a roleplay to cross the line into being inappropriate even without roleplaying heavily explicit themes. Users have never been allowed to roleplay explicit, erotic, or pornographic genres in the past, and we are defining A/B/O roleplays as erotic literature.
Does this mean we can no longer roleplay as wolf packs or other animal societies?
Roleplaying as wolf packs or other animals is still welcome on Gaia, provided the roleplay follows Gaia Online's site-wide content guidelines. A/B/O is a specific subgenre and has no effect on being able to roleplay as animals or animal-like creatures. While there is some crossover in themes and while there are inappropriate roleplays outside of Gaia within wolf pack roleplays, we recognize the inherent differences between the two.
Requesting A/B/O or "Omegaverse" roleplays going forward is not allowed.
Users may not post, request, link to, or otherwise make available inappropriate material, or any other material prohibited by the Terms of Service. If a person is found to be requesting, participating in, linking to, or recruiting for A/B/O roleplays, it is considered a Terms of Service violation. This includes if you are requesting off-site roleplay or roleplay in private messages as requesting inappropriate content is in itself a violation. Breaching the Terms of Service may result in warnings and/or bans being placed on any account in violation. If you are currently requesting or engaging in this genre of roleplay, we request that you cease immediately. If you have any questions about this policy or about any other rules on Gaia, we encourage you to reach out to a moderator for further clarification.
button when an individual post in a topic contains inappropriate content.