Content Guidelines

Version — September 27, 2026. Superseded by any version bearing a later date.

Page Turn is a home for storytellers. Your stories can be sweet, funny, scary, romantic, tragic, or dark — we want the full range of what fiction can do. There are just a few limits, and we'd rather tell you all of them plainly than surprise you later. We have attempted to outline as clearly as possible what content is NOT allowed, in order to comply with laws and payment processor restrictions.

The list is a little disturbing (as we walk through various extremes), so read at your own discretion. If your story is not controversial, it's unlikely any of this will apply to you. Here's the entire, bizarre list.

What's allowed

1. Violence (non-sexual) is allowed.

The restrictions

2. Sexually explicit content is not allowed on Page Turn at present.
3. Sexual violence, non-consent, and situations where a character is not able to freely consent are not allowed if they cross any of the following boundaries:
   • The scene may not be stylized to arouse the reader.
   • The act may not exist without a genuine plot purpose beyond the scene itself.
   • It may not be used in marketing or as a selling point.
4. It is not allowed to sexualize minors in a story, both in illustrated format and in audio/text description. This includes characters who are adults in the story, but resemble a minor (for example, an elf who is 800 years old but has a child-like appearance.)
5. You may not sexualize real-world people (such as celebrities, politicians, or people you know) without their written permission. You must keep that permission on file in case you ever need it! People who give you permission are allowed to revoke that permission, and your story will be taken down.
6. Close blood relatives may not be depicted sexually interacting with each other — parents and children, siblings, grandparents and grandchildren, and aunts or uncles with nieces or nephews. Family members of any kind may be shown romantically interacting short of sexual activity — a kiss is fine. Incest may not appear in marketing or as a selling point.
7. Urine, excrement, and vomit may not be stylized to arouse the reader.
8. Death and mutilation (severing, destroying, or disfiguring the body) may not be stylized to arouse the reader.
9. A human cannot be depicted having sex with an animal (including fantasy-animals), whether visually, in text, or in audio. Humanoid animals in fantasy and humanoid aliens in sci-fi fall under the category of humans. Two animals may not be depicted having sex in a way that is stylized to arouse the reader. (Animals mating as a fact of nature, farm life, or science is fine.) Cruelty to animals may not be stylized to arouse the reader.
10. Characters are allowed to be as unsavory as the author desires, but the story (taken as a whole) may not attempt to persuade the reader:
    • to hate or harm a real-world group (race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, gender, or disability);
    • to commit or celebrate real-world violence;
    • to admire or emulate a real-world terrorist organization or attack;
    • that the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, or Srebrenica did not happen or were justified.
11. Your story may not contain instructions on how to create explosives, drugs, or working guns. Characters may do these things as long as the story is not instructive to the reader.
12. Suicide and self-harm may not be presented as desirable or as a solution, and may not be shown in method-level detail. This includes content promoting eating disorders. (Suicide and self-harm as story events — grief, crisis, recovery — are allowed.)
13. Real-life people — celebrities, politicians, or people you know, and drawn just as readily as photographed — may not be shown committing unproven crimes or other invented acts that would damage their reputation, unless you have their written permission. You must keep that permission on file in case you ever need it! People who give you permission are allowed to revoke that permission, and your story will be taken down. Stories may not share a real person's private information (home address, phone number, or anything not already public), and may not contain threats aimed at real people or groups.
14. Depictions of the Prophet Mohammad are not allowed.

That's everything. If you're writing something heartfelt, weird, or dark and it doesn't breach any of the limits in the list above — go for it. We DO reserve the right to take down any story, but your artistic freedom is something we hold sacred.

If we take something down. We can remove content that breaks these rules, and reposting your story with edits is encouraged — our goal is never to punish authors for pushing boundaries. You are responsible for the legality of everything you create. We may revoke publishing privileges for serious or repeated violations of this policy.

How we read these rules

The rules above are short on purpose. This section is how we actually apply them, so you can predict our answer instead of guessing.

• A story is judged as a whole, not scene by scene. Rule 10 asks what the finished work argues, read the way an ordinary reader would read it — not what you privately intended. A villain who says monstrous things is a villain; a story that sets out to recruit the reader is the problem.
• A banned act can exist as a story fact — it just can't be shown. If something on this list happened in your story's past or offscreen, that's a fact about your world and it's fine. What's prohibited is rendering it — in an image, in prose, in audio — making it the erotic payload of a scene, or selling the story on it.
• Appearance governs over lore. If a character looks like a child, they are a child for the purposes of rule 4, whatever the story says their age is. If a character has an animal's body, they are an animal for rule 9, however intelligent they're written — real species are always animals, "humanoid" is the carve-out, and a four-legged dragon doesn't qualify.
• The genocide list in rule 10 is closed, and it is about facts, not labels. What the rule prohibits is a story arguing that those events did not happen, or that they were justified. It is not about which word you use. Arguing whether some other event meets the definition of genocide — a live political argument, in any direction — is not what this rule is for, and you will never be judged here on being on the popular side of a definition. The three named cases were each adjudicated by an international tribunal, which is why they and not others are named.
• Rule 13 uses a public-record standard. Documented, publicly reported acts by real people are fair material. Inventing crimes or acts that would damage a real person's reputation is not, and written permission cures it.
• Some things aren't content rules at all. Copyright and fan-fiction questions are a separate policy.

Where to ask

If you're not sure whether something is allowed, ask before you build it. We would much rather answer a question early than take a finished story down.

Contact: support@pageturn.game.