Terms of use
Last updated 29 October 2026
1. The basics
- John is a place to talk honestly about how you're doing. John is made for men, and open to anyone aged 18 or over.
- John is run by We Are John Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17551042), registered office 120 Icarus Avenue, Burgess Hill, RH15 0XX. By using John you agree to these terms. The privacy policy explains what we do with your information.
- John is not a medical or emergency service. Nothing on John is medical advice. If you're in danger, call 999. Samaritans are free on 116 123, any time.
2. Your account
- One account per person. You can post under your name (Public) or a made-up name (Anonymous). Other members can't see who is behind an anonymous profile.
- Keep your password to yourself. You're responsible for what's posted from your account.
- You can delete your account at any time in Settings > Delete my account.
3. What's not allowed
Anything illegal. That includes:
- encouraging or helping anyone to take their own life or seriously hurt themselves;
- sharing, or threatening to share, private sexual photos or videos of someone without their agreement;
- anything that sexualises children, of any kind;
- terrorism, or supporting it;
- threats, stalking or harassment;
- stirring up hatred against people because of who they are;
- scams and fraud;
- selling drugs, weapons or anything else that's illegal to sell.
Also not allowed on John:
- abuse or bullying, even if it isn't illegal;
- sharing other people's private information or images without their agreement;
- spam, fake accounts, or swapping likes and follows to boost points;
- pretending to be someone else.
Talking about your own struggles is allowed, including dark thoughts. You won't be punished for it. John will show you where to get help.
4. How we keep John safe
Some of this is done by computer and some by people. The law asks us to tell you how both work.
Done by computer:
- AI safety check. Every post, story and comment shared with Everyone, every profile photo and every group picture is checked before anyone else sees it. Every private message is checked just after it's sent, including photos. The check is done by Claude, an AI made by Anthropic. It reads the words, looks at any photos, and looks at up to four still pictures from a video (it doesn't hear the sound). Voice notes in messages aren't checked automatically, because the AI can't listen to them. A moderator hears one only if it's reported, so please report anything that breaks these rules. It can let something through, let it through and show the writer where to get help, or hold it for a moderator. A held message is hidden from the other person until a moderator decides.
- Crisis words. Certain words in what you type bring up support straight away. Nothing is blocked.
- Speed limits. If you post, comment, follow, report or message much faster than a person normally does, the extra item isn't saved. The first time this happens in any hour, 50 points come off your points. Nothing else happens to your account.
- Phone bans. If an account is banned, the phone it was used on can't be used to make a new account.
- Posts kept to Only me aren't checked while they're private. If you share one later, it's checked first.
Done by people. Only a moderator can:
- remove a post, comment or message;
- give a warning;
- suspend an account for between 1 day and 1 year;
- ban an account;
- take points off, or reset them, for breaking these rules.
A third warning is a ban. Posting something illegal can mean a ban straight away.
5. Private messages
- Messages are not end-to-end encrypted. That means John's systems can read them, including the safety check in section 4. Moderators see a chat only if someone reports it or the safety check holds one of its messages.
- The John team can always send you a message about your safety or your account, whatever your message setting. It arrives as a request, words only.
- Talk to a stranger: pick a topic and be paired with someone else who wants to talk about it. You can join anonymously: the other person then sees a made-up name and drawn face that John keeps for you, never your own profile. It's linked to your account inside John's systems, so blocks, reports and moderation still apply.
- You choose who can message you in Settings: people you follow (the starting setting), everyone, or nobody. If you choose everyone, someone you don't follow sends a request first: one message, words only, no links. You can reply (which accepts it), delete it or block them.
- You can start a chat from your first day. You can't start new chats while a moderator's action against you is in place, and there's a limit on how many new chats you can start each hour and each day.
- Once a chat has started you can send photos and voice notes (up to a minute).
- Group chats hold up to 25 people. Anyone in a group can add people, rename it and change its picture. Only the group's admin can remove people, and anyone can leave at any time. People who follow you are added straight in; anyone else gets an invite to accept or decline. In a group, you report a single message rather than the whole chat.
- If either person in a one-to-one chat deletes their account, the whole chat is deleted for both. If you delete your account, your messages in groups are deleted and the group carries on.
6. Your posts
- You keep ownership of what you post. You give us permission to show it on John to the people allowed to see it, for as long as it's on John.
- Posts shared with Everyone can be seen by other members, unless you've blocked each other.
- Private profile: you can make your profile private in Settings. Your name, picture and bio still show, but only your followers see your posts, stories and journey. People ask to follow you, and you accept or decline. Posts kept to Only me are seen only by you. You can share a private post later.
- Stories can be seen by other members for 24 hours, then only by you until you delete them. Stories can't be commented on. Whoever posts a story can see who viewed it.
- Don't post anything you don't have the right to share.
7. Reporting
- You can report any post, comment, chat or member. Choose a reason and add anything we should know. Reports go to John's moderators.
- Private sexual photos or videos shared without someone's agreement: report them and we'll take them down as quickly as we can, and within 48 hours of the report. If you've made a report like this, you can use our faster complaints route (section 8).
- If someone may be about to hurt themselves, report it. Then, if you can, call 999.
8. Complaints and appeals
You can complain to us if:
- something on John is illegal;
- you think we aren't doing what the law asks of us to keep John safe;
- we removed something you posted, or held it, and you think we got it wrong;
- you were warned, suspended or banned, and you think we got it wrong;
- the AI safety check held something of yours and you think it shouldn't have.
How to complain: email hello@wearejohn.com and say what happened. If it's about a private sexual photo or video you reported, put "Urgent" at the start of the subject and we'll deal with it first.
What happens next: we'll confirm we've got your complaint within 2 working days, a person will look at it (where we can, a different person from whoever made the first decision), and we'll tell you what we decided and why within 14 days. If we got it wrong, we'll put things right: for example, putting back your post or lifting a warning.
Complaints about your personal information work the same way. The privacy policy explains them and how to go to the Information Commissioner's Office.
9. Ending things
- You can leave whenever you like by deleting your account.
- We can suspend or close accounts that break these terms (section 4).
- If we ever close John, we'll tell you in the app at least 30 days before, so you have time to download your data.
10. Our responsibility to you
- John is free. We work hard to keep it running and safe, but we can't promise it will always be available or free of mistakes.
- We aren't responsible for what other members post or send. We do act on reports, as these terms explain.
- Nothing in these terms limits our responsibility where the law doesn't allow it to be limited. That includes death or personal injury caused by our negligence (Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 65), and fraud.
- These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland, you can bring a claim in the Scottish or English courts. If you live in Northern Ireland, you can bring a claim in the Northern Irish or English courts.
11. Changes
We'll tell you in the app if these terms change. If you don't agree with the new terms, you can delete your account.