Community Guidelines
What's expected of everyone who writes on Seabottles, and what the sea won't let through.
What is not allowed
Seabottles is a place to write what you feel, anonymously, for someone you don't know. These rules exist to keep it that way: anonymous, intimate, and calm. • Anything illegal. • Any sexual content involving minors, and any attempt to contact, groom, or entice a minor. This is never tolerated. • Sexually explicit content. • Intimate images or descriptions of a real person shared without their consent. • Harassment, threats, hate speech, or discrimination. • Graphic violence. • Personal information about anyone else. • Scams, spam, or impersonation. • Using Seabottles as a dating app. • Passing off someone else's writing as your own — song lyrics, a poem, a passage from a book. Seabottles is a place to write in your own words.
How we moderate today
We'd rather tell you exactly how it works than promise more than we do. • Automatically, before anything is sent: links, email addresses, phone numbers, and usernames on other apps are blocked in bottles, replies, chat messages, and reviews. You can't cast the same bottle twice within 30 days — we compare texts while ignoring capitalization, accents, and punctuation, so small disguises don't work. And there is a daily limit on bottles, enforced by our server. • Chats, without stopping anything: replies and chat messages also go through our moderation word lists, in both of the app's languages. No message is blocked or delayed, but if something serious shows up — signs that someone wants to hurt themselves, or that someone is trying to approach a minor — it is noted so the person who looks after the sea can see that message and its chat. No AI reads chats. • Bottles, without stopping anything: bottles also go through our word lists and, in unclear cases, an AI system classifies the text. Today this doesn't return or delay any bottle: what matches is noted so the person who looks after the sea can review it. • By people, afterward: we review reports and remove what breaks these rules. • Right away: when someone with an account flags that an account may belong to someone under 18, the account is limited until a person reviews it. And reporting a chat closes it for both people. Child sexual abuse material. We always remove it, preserve the evidence without sharing it, and report it to the competent authorities.
Reporting
Anyone with an account can report a bottle, a chat message, or anything else shown in the app, with one tap. Bottles can also be reported without an account, from their public page, and anyone can write to hola@seabottles.org. We alert the authorities when a crime threatens someone's safety. Right now, we don't confirm that we've received a report: we don't ask for any contact information, so we have no way to write back. Intimate content. Seabottles has no images, but if a bottle or message describes or shares intimate content about a real person without their consent, report it or write to hola@seabottles.org, and we will remove it. Copyright. If you own the rights to a text and find it in a bottle, write to hola@seabottles.org saying which work it is and where you saw it. We remove it and tell the person who sent it why; they can appeal like any other removal. We close the account of anyone who keeps sending other people's work after a removal.
No bots
Every bottle is written by a person, and we work to keep it that way. An invisible check stops automated programs when someone reaches the entry screen; there is a daily limit on bottles; contact details are blocked; and the same bottle can't be cast twice from the same account within 30 days. When we detect mass posting, we remove the content and suspend the account.
Consequences
We may remove content or limit how far it travels, and we may warn, suspend, or close accounts. For example, several valid reports in a short time can lead to an account being suspended.
We explain, and you can appeal
If we act on something of yours, we tell you why on the bottle itself or in My Sea, with an "Appeal — free" button. A person reviews your appeal and we let you know the result.
If you need help
If you're going through a hard time, "Need to talk?" in the app links to free, confidential helplines. In the United States and Canada, you can call or text 988 to reach a suicide and crisis line. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans answer for free at 116 123. If you're in immediate danger, call 911 in the US and Canada, 999 in the UK, 112 in Ireland, or your local emergency number. Last updated: October 11, 2026.