Acceptable Use Policy

Spirit of the Rules

These rules exist to keep students safe, to make sure tutors are treated with respect, and to keep Forum Tutoring free of abuse and manipulation. We try to write them plainly and enforce them consistently. If you can read a rule below and honestly say you would not want it broken if you were on the other side of the session, you already understand the spirit of this policy.

Tutor Code of Conduct

Tutors agree to:

• Be punctual — log in at least a few minutes before each session, and notify the student through the Platform if you will be late.
• Be prepared — review the booking notes and any uploaded materials before the session.
• Treat students with respect at all times. No harassment, insults, discrimination, or sexual content of any kind.
• Do not exchange personal contact details — email, phone, social handles, or messaging-app usernames — with a student or family member, and do not attempt to move the tutoring relationship off-platform. See “Anti-Circumvention” below.
• Do not record a session with third-party software or share classroom recordings outside the Platform without the consent of every participant (and, for minors, the parent).
• Comply with all applicable mandatory-reporting laws. If during a session you become aware of suspected child abuse, neglect, or an imminent safety risk, follow your jurisdiction’s mandatory-reporting requirements and notify us at support@forumtutoring.com so we can support the student.

Student Code of Conduct

Students agree to:

• Show up on time and ready to engage. Repeated no-shows are a policy violation in addition to a refund issue.
• Treat the tutor with respect — no harassment, insults, or inappropriate comments.
• Do not record a tutor without their explicit consent, and do not share classroom recordings outside the Platform.
• Do not use the Platform for academic dishonesty. Paying a tutor to complete homework, take an exam, write a paper, or otherwise submit work as your own is prohibited and is grounds for an immediate ban — for both the student and the tutor who agreed to participate. Legitimate tutoring is teaching the student how to do the work; it is not doing the work for the student.
• Do not attempt to circumvent the Platform by asking a tutor for off-platform contact. See “Anti-Circumvention” below.

Prohibited Content

You may not upload, share through chat or whiteboard, or otherwise transmit through the Platform any of the following:

• Illegal content of any kind, including content that promotes illegal activity.
• Hate speech, slurs, or content that incites violence or harm against any individual or protected class.
• Sexually explicit content, sexual solicitation, or nudity.
• Content that depicts or targets minors in any sexual, exploitative, or otherwise inappropriate manner. Such content will be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and law enforcement as required by U.S. law.
• Copyrighted material — paid textbooks, exam keys, licensed software, copyrighted answer banks — that you do not have permission to share.

Anti-Circumvention

Once a student finds a tutor through Forum Tutoring, all tutoring activity between that student and that tutor must take place on the Platform. You may not exchange personal email addresses, phone numbers, social-media handles, or messaging-app usernames with the intent of continuing or expanding the tutoring relationship outside the Platform; you may not arrange direct payments for tutoring outside the Platform; and you may not attempt to recruit, or be recruited by, the other party to do so.

This rule exists for three reasons. First, safety: keeping communication on the Platform means we can supervise messaging between adults and minors, preserve recordings for review, and act quickly if something goes wrong. Second, payment protection: in-app payments come with our refund guarantees and our dispute-resolution process; off-platform arrangements do not. Third, commission integrity: the platform fee is what funds the safety tooling, customer support, and engineering that everyone benefits from, and circumvention undermines that for the whole community.

Substantiated circumvention will result in immediate suspension of both accounts, clawback of any session credits granted on the related bookings, and — at our discretion — referral to relevant authorities where the behavior also constitutes fraud or child-safety risk.

Reporting Violations

If you see something that violates this policy, please report it. You can use the “Report” button available inside the classroom UI, on any tutor or student profile, and inside any message thread. In an emergency — for example, a credible safety threat — contact local emergency services first, then email support@forumtutoring.com so we can act on our side.

Enforcement

We apply a graduated enforcement ladder for most violations: warning for first or minor offenses; temporary suspension (typically 7–30 days) for repeated or more serious offenses; and permanent ban for severe violations or repeated suspensions. Certain categories — child-safety violations, fraud, hate speech, and substantiated harassment — skip directly to permanent ban.

Every enforcement decision is logged internally with the underlying evidence so we can audit our own consistency, respond to due-process appeals, and demonstrate that we apply the rules fairly. You can appeal an enforcement action by emailing support@forumtutoring.com within 14 days of the decision; a reviewer who did not make the original decision will respond within 7 business days.