House rules

1. What ChatNow is for

ChatNow is a place to talk with people in real time: public rooms, private messages, photos, voice notes and webcam. It is run by a French company and these rules are a plain-English summary of the parts of the Terms of use that matter day to day. The full Terms apply to everyone who joins; their French version is the one that counts if the two ever differ.

2. Adults only

You must be 18 or over to use ChatNow. Accounts that turn out to belong to minors are removed. French law may require an age check on chatnow.fr; when it does, it is done through a third party that never learns which site you are visiting, and we only receive a yes-or-no answer.

3. What is not allowed

Sexual content between consenting adults is allowed in the rooms set aside for it. The following is strictly prohibited everywhere on the service:

• Any content involving minors — zero tolerance. Every uploaded image is checked automatically against the Canadian Centre for Child Protection's Project Arachnid. Detected content leads to an immediate ban and a report to the authorities.
• Child sexual abuse material or paedophilic content in any form.
• Prostitution and soliciting paid sexual services.
• Sharing intimate images of someone without their consent.
• Hate speech: racist, antisemitic, xenophobic, homophobic or sexist abuse.
• Glorifying terrorism or inciting violence.
• Harassment, threats, intimidation and doxing (publishing someone's personal details).
• Defamation and insults.
• Promoting or selling drugs and other illegal substances.
• Scams, fraud and phishing.
• Spam, flooding, mass messaging and unsolicited advertising.
• Hacking attempts, evading security or moderation, and creating multiple accounts to get around a ban.
• Sharing copyrighted content without permission.

4. How the chat is moderated

Moderation works on several levels at once:

• Human moderators and administrators watch the rooms and can step in at any time.
• Automated moderation: public and private messages are analysed by an AI system to detect content that breaks the rules. Flagged content is removed automatically. Profile bios are checked before they go live.
• Anti-spam filters: duplicates, flooding, cross-room spam and banned words.
• Image scanning: every uploaded image is checked for child sexual abuse material.

5. Sanctions

• Temporary mute: you cannot send messages for a while.
• Temporary or permanent ban: by account and/or device.
• Reduced visibility: in some cases the reach of your messages may be limited for a time, without prior notice, to protect the community. You can contest this at contact@chatnow.fr.
• Content removal: anything that breaks the Terms can be removed without notice.

As required by the EU Digital Services Act (Regulation 2022/2065, article 17), every moderation decision is notified to the person concerned, with the reasons, the legal or contractual basis, and whether automated tools were involved.

6. Reporting and appeals

You can report any user or message from inside the chat, at any time. To report illegal content or contest a moderation decision, write to contact@chatnow.fr. Reports are reviewed by a human.

7. Be decent

Beyond the list above: treat people the way you would like to be treated, take no for an answer, and remember there is a real person behind every username. Moderators have the final say in the rooms.