Community Guidelines

We want to make your search for a partner on Parship as pleasant and safe as possible. These Community Guidelines describe what content you are not allowed to share or distribute in your online presence at Parship and how we ensure compliance with these rules. Please also see our safety tips for interesting facts about the topic of safe online dating.

Each individual is free to present themselves in a way that showcases their own personality. This is part of a general freedom of opinion/ expression and enjoys high priority at Parship. However, even this freedom has its limits, namely, in the protection and rights of other members. Content that diminishes the dating experience for other users, encroaches on their rights, and/or is otherwise inappropriate thus cannot be tolerated. Together, we should strive to act in the spirit of our commitment to Healthy Dating.

Our Community Guidelines provide orientation for your conduct on Parship towards other members. They apply equally to everyone, regardless of the topic, political views, affiliation or position of a user.

These Community Guidelines are also an important part of our Terms and Conditions.

1. Inappropriate content and behaviour when searching for a partner online

1.1 Minors

It goes without saying: you may only use the Parship service if you are over the age of 18.

1.2 Appropriate profile photos

Profile photos may not contain any content that is inappropriate in the sense of these Community Guidelines. Additionally, your photos should give your potential matches a realistic impression of you. This includes:

Not using filters (e.g., mosaic or blur filters) that alienate your natural look
Ensuring that your face is recognizable in the photos on your profile (no obscuring of large areas with hair, sunglasses, caps, cell phone, collages etc.)
Not showing faces other than your own or persons other than yourself (including celebrities and children)

1.3 Appropriate chat and video behaviour, harassment

Behaviour during chats must also comply with these Community Guidelines. This includes:

Not sending emails/ messages (including video chat messages) to other users at an inappropriately high or harassing frequency
Not sending first messages to an unreasonably high number of customers at short intervals. We reserve the right to set certain limits in this regard where necessary to ensure the security and integrity of the platform.
Not copying/pasting your first message texts or sending chain letters
Ensuring that your initial messages or contact requests are not unreasonably short or long. We reserve the right to technically determine certain minimum and maximum lengths of messages via technical settings.

1.4 Bullying, harassment, belittlement, insults

We do not tolerate content that contains or encourages threats, harassment or bullying. This includes:

Bullying of victims of international or religious conflicts

Exploitative content of any kind, e.g., extortion, blackmail, marriage fraud, etc.
Disseminating content with the aim of humiliating others
Harassment of victims of tragedies or their friends or relatives
Denial of a significant tragic event
Lack of sensitivity regarding a person’s or a group’s death by suicide, overdose, natural cause of death, etc.
Gender-hostile behavior
Targeted insults to individuals regarding their appearance, lifestyle, or status

1.5 Fraudulent behaviour/ Abusive use

Faking untrue facts in order to gain an advantage is not permitted on Parship. This includes:

Assuming another identity (including, but not limited to, creating multiple profiles)
Feigning financial need or for the purpose of earning money or other benefits (so-called romance scamming).
Concluding multiple contracts, using multiple accounts, and subsequently revoking such contracts (so-called “multiple revocations”). We consider it inappropriate if the contract is revoked more than twice within three months after the corresponding use of our paid services.
Creating free memberships fraudulently, e.g., by constantly creating new profiles.
Offensively searching for sexual adventures, affairs, polyamory or even surrogate mothers or sperm donors

1.6 Pornographic content and vulgar language

Pornographic content or vulgar language will also not be tolerated. In addition, we do not allow content that simulates sexual acts or offers same in exchange for payment. Such prohibited content includes:

Depictions of nudity of a sexual nature or sexually suggestive poses in which a person is completely unclothed, blurred, or minimally clothed and/or the type of clothing would be inappropriate in a public setting
Depictions, descriptions or illustrations of sexual acts or sexually suggestive poses, or the sexual depiction of body parts
Content depicting sex toys or what are functionally sexual devices, sex instructions, illicit sexual themes, and offensive fetishes
Offensive or vulgar content, including but not limited to obscenity, profanity, offensive text, or X-rated or sexual codes
Content that depicts, describes or incites bestiality or necrophilia
Content that provides sexual entertainment, escort services, or other services that may be considered sexual acts in exchange for payment, where one party is expected to provide money, gifts, or financial support to the other party (so-called “sugar dating”)

1.7 Hate speech/ incitement of hatred

Content that incites violence or hatred against individuals or groups on the basis of ethnicity, religion, disability, age, nationality, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, class, immigration status, or other characteristics associated with systematic discrimination or exclusion violates our Community Guidelines. This includes:

Content or statements that suggest a protected group is inhumane, inferior, or hateful
Content that contains hateful slurs, stereotypes, or theories that a protected group has negative characteristics (e.g., vile, corrupt, evil, etc.) or that directly or indirectly claims that the protected group is a threat
Content or statements intended to persuade others that certain people should be hated or discriminated against because they belong to a protected group
Content that promotes materials, conduct or symbols (e.g., flags and insignia) that are associated with hate groups

Right-wing or left-wing extremist content

1.8 Violence

Content that describes or incites random violence or other dangerous activities is not permitted. This includes:

Graphic depictions or descriptions of realistic violence or threats of violence against people or animals
Content that instructs self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, choking games, or other activities that may have health consequences, including death
Content related to terrorism. This includes content that calls for acts of terrorism or violence or glorifies terrorist attacks.

1.9 Hidden information, advertising, spam

Content and behaviour that serve a purpose other than communication in the search for a partner on Parship or are inconsistent with a serious partner search violate these Community Guidelines. This includes:

Advertising or offering goods or services to other members
Profile entries, initial messages and contact requests that include contact information such as full name details, addresses, phone numbers or social media data, email addresses, membership status, etc.
Uploading data that contains viruses (infected software)
Uploading data that contains software or other material that is copyrighted (unless the customer has the rights to it or the required consents)
Adversely affecting the availability of the offers for other customers
Soliciting to other platforms
Sending messages, pictures or profile entries that serve a commercial purpose

1.10 Dangerous products

Parship does not tolerate content that glorifies, recommends or trivializes dangerous products. Dangerous products include, but are not limited to:

Explosives, firearms, ammunition or certain weapons accessories (including knives)
Marijuana, alcohol misuse, other mind-altering substances, drug abuse

2. Enforcing and monitoring compliance with these guidelines

In enforcing these Community Guidelines, we rely on a combination of manual and automated review.

We also rely on the help of customers. Content or users flagged via the reporting feature are reviewed with high priority.

In the event of a violation of these Community Guidelines, depending on the severity, we will either issue warnings, suspend violators (short-term and/or permanently), or delete the corresponding profile.

The examination of such a violation is always guided by the principle of proportionality and, in ambiguous cases, the four-eyes principle. The number of violations is also relevant to how severely violations are classified/ considered.

The benchmark for our interpretation and enforcement of these Community Guidelines is our members’ freedom of expression and personal rights. Our goal is always to make sure that finding a partner on Parship is as pleasant and safe as possible for each of our members, without anyone having to restrict themselves too much.