Terms of Service

1. Who we are and what you're agreeing to

Shared Area ("we") is a registered charity in England and Wales, charity number , providing free, human-verified educational videos for learners of all ages. By using the platform you agree to these terms. Contact: hello@sharedarea.org.

2. Your account

• Join with a username (3–20 characters; letters, numbers, underscores, hyphens — not your real name or anyone else's) and a password, or with LinkedIn or Google.
• Username accounts have no email attached, so a forgotten password cannot be reset. Keep it safe; a lost password means a fresh account.
• Social sign-in is intended for adults and professionals. If you are under 18, please use a username. If you are under 13, we encourage a parent, guardian or teacher to help you register.
• One person per account; do not share accounts or impersonate anyone.
• You can delete your account at any time from your dashboard (see section 8 of the Privacy Policy for what happens to your contributions).

3. Content you contribute

• You keep ownership of everything you upload, record or write.
• You grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to host, store, review, adapt for delivery (for example transcoding, thumbnails and captions), and display your contributions on the platform, so we can run a lasting free educational resource. "Irrevocable" applies to the copyright licence: it means you cannot later charge us or claim infringement for the period your content was used. It does not override your data-protection rights — where content shows or records an identifiable person, that person (or their parent or guardian) can always require its removal, and account deletion offers full erasure as the default.
• You promise that: you created the content or have the right to share it; it does not infringe anyone's rights; every person who appears or speaks in it has agreed to that (for children, their parent or guardian); it contains no one's private information; and it is appropriate for viewers of all ages.

4. Imported videos (YouTube, Vimeo and links)

When you submit a link, we store our own copy of the video and its preview image so it can be verified and streamed safely. You must only import content you have the right to share — your own work, or work under a licence that permits it (for example Creative Commons) — and you must identify the licence and original creator accurately. We display that attribution with the video. Rights holders can require removal at any time via our Copyright page.

5. Verification and moderation

• Videos, narrations, captions and presenter/sign-language recordings are reviewed by a trained human verifier before publication. Nothing in these categories goes public unreviewed.
• Practice questions inside learning events are checked through the event's structured peer-review system before they reach other members.
• We may reject or remove any content, with a reason given, and adjust visibility to keep the platform safe and age-appropriate.

6. Acceptable use

You must not upload, post or attempt to share content that is illegal or harmful, including (without limitation): content sexualising or harming children; terrorism-related material; content encouraging suicide, self-harm or eating disorders; pornography or sexual material; hate, harassment or threats; violent or dangerous-acts content; fraud or scams; sale of weapons or drugs; or anyone's private information. You must not attempt to bypass security, verification, rate limits or moderation; scrape the platform; misuse the XP, rating, share or event systems; or use any feature to demean others. Ratings are positive-only by design.

7. Safety, reporting, complaints and appeals

• Prevention: human review before publication (section 5) is our primary protection.
• Reporting: every video has a "Report a Problem" button, and you can also email safeguarding@sharedarea.org. You do not need an account to report, and parents and teachers are welcome to.
• What happens: reports go straight to our team, who review the content, remove it if it breaks these terms or the law, and record the outcome. Suspected illegal content involving children is reported to the authorities.
• Appeals: if your content was rejected or removed, or you believe a report was handled wrongly, email hello@sharedarea.org with the video's serial number. If you are unhappy with the answer, you may ask for a second review by a different member of the team.
• These measures reflect our duties under the Online Safety Act 2023.

8. XP, achievements and the store

XP, achievements, avatar items and store items are platform features with no monetary value. They cannot be sold, transferred or exchanged for money, and may be adjusted to correct errors or abuse.

9. Employers and organisations

Organisation pages must be created by someone entitled to represent the organisation, with accurate details. Business contact information is processed to run the careers features and is subject to review before publication.

10. Our content and brand

The Shared Area name, crest and site design belong to the charity. Contributions belong to their creators. Copyright concerns: see our Copyright page.

11. Suspending or closing accounts

We may suspend or close accounts that break these terms, upload illegal content, or put others at risk — where reasonable we will say why, and you may appeal via hello@sharedarea.org. Section 3's licence and our safety records survive account closure.

12. The service and liability

The platform and its content are provided free and "as is" for general educational purposes. Content is verified for safety and all-ages suitability, but we cannot guarantee it is complete, error-free or fit for any specific purpose. Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded under the law of England and Wales, including for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or fraud. Otherwise, to the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect losses arising from use of a free service.

13. Changes and law

We may update these terms; significant changes will be flagged on the site with a new "last updated" date. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction.