Content and Community Guidelines

The short version

Our stories are fiction for teens and adults: thrillers, romance, horror, fantasy, mystery and drama. They can be dark, but they never include sexual content involving minors, real people, hate, or content that glorifies harm.

Every series has a rating (13+, 16+ or 18+). Teens only see 13+ stories. 18+ stories appear only if an adult turns on Mature stories.

Stories inspired by mythology or religion get an extra sensitivity review before publication.

In character chat, keep it to the story: no sexual content, no hate, no real people, no attempts to break the character’s safety rules.

See something wrong? Report it in the app. Urgent reports are handled within 3 hours.

1. What these guidelines cover

These guidelines apply to everything in Turtle FM: the stories we publish, the artwork, the AI characters, and how you use character chat and our reporting tools. They form part of our Terms of Use.

2. Our stories

2.1 What you can expect

Turtle FM publishes original, serialised audio fiction. Stories can explore difficult themes because good drama often does — betrayal, revenge, crime, family conflict, grief, fear, the supernatural, and violence that serves the story. We depict these things; we do not promote or glorify them.

2.2 What our stories will never contain

any sexual or sexualised content involving anyone under 18, or characters presented as under 18;
explicit sexual content;
real, identifiable people — living or dead — portrayed as characters, or imitations of real people’s voices;
content that promotes or glorifies terrorism, mass violence, self-harm, suicide or eating disorders, or gives instructions for causing harm;
hate speech, or content that demeans people for their religion, caste, ethnicity, race, nationality, gender, sexuality, disability or other protected characteristic;
content that ridicules or insults religious beliefs, deities, scriptures or places of worship;
content presented as true news, history or scripture when it is fiction;
anything else that is unlawful in the markets where the story is published.

2.3 Content we are required to keep off the Service

Under India’s IT Rules, the following must not be hosted, displayed or shared on the Service. This applies to our own content and to anything you send in chat or in reports. Information that:

belongs to someone else and you have no right to;
is obscene, pornographic, paedophilic, invasive of another person’s privacy (including bodily privacy), insulting or harassing on the basis of gender, racially or ethnically objectionable, relating to or encouraging money laundering or gambling, or that promotes enmity between groups on grounds of religion or caste with intent to incite violence;
is harmful to children;
infringes a patent, trademark, copyright or other proprietary right;
deceives or misleads about where a message came from, or knowingly and intentionally communicates misinformation or information that is patently false or untrue;
impersonates another person;
threatens the unity, integrity, defence, security or sovereignty of India, friendly relations with foreign states or public order, incites an offence, prevents the investigation of an offence, or insults another nation;
contains software viruses or code designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer resource;
violates any law in force.

3. Ratings

Every series has an age rating shown on its cover and series page.

Rating	Meaning	Who can see it
13+	Suitable for teenagers. May include mild peril, mild violence, romance limited to affection, and mild language.	Everyone (13–17 and 18+)
16+	Stronger themes: more intense violence or horror, crime, emotional abuse, stronger language, romantic tension.	Adults only (18+ accounts)
18+	Mature themes for adults: intense violence or horror, disturbing themes, strong language, adult relationships (non-explicit).	Adults who have turned on Profile → Mature stories (18+) and confirmed they are 18 or over

Ratings are set by our editors when a series is created and checked at review. If you think a rating is wrong, report the series.

4. Content notes

Where a series deals with themes some listeners may find distressing — for example domestic abuse, death of a child, suicide, sexual violence (never depicted explicitly) or graphic horror — we show a short content note on the series page before you start.

If a story touches on suicide or self-harm, we include help information in the series description.

5. Mythology, religion and culture

Some of our stories are inspired by mythology, folklore and religious traditions, especially from India. We treat these with care.

Extra review. Every series marked as mythology-inspired must pass a sensitivity review by a dedicated reviewer before any episode can be published. Our system blocks publication until that sign-off is recorded.
What the reviewer checks: that deities, sacred figures, scriptures and places of worship are not mocked, sexualised or shown in a demeaning way; that the story does not present invented events as scripture or doctrine; that no religion, caste or community is stereotyped or presented as inferior; that regional and community traditions are represented respectfully; and that nothing is likely to promote enmity between groups.
Clear framing. Mythology-inspired series are presented as original fiction “inspired by” traditions, not as retellings of sacred texts.
Listening to feedback. Reports under Hate or religious offence are handled as urgent (target: 3 hours). Where we agree a story crosses the line, we edit or remove it.

6. Character chat rules

Character chat is for adults (18+) and is about the story. Please:

talk with characters about the story so far, their world and their choices;
remember that characters are AI and can be wrong;
report replies that seem inappropriate (long-press the message).

Don’t

ask for or send sexual content of any kind; anything sexual involving minors is absolutely prohibited and will be reported to authorities where the law requires;
send hate speech, harassment, threats or slurs;
ask for instructions or encouragement for violence, self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, weapons, drugs or crime;
ask characters to talk about or imitate real people, or to produce content you could pass off as a real person’s words;
try to “jailbreak” a character, extract its hidden instructions, or get around the safety checks;
share other people’s personal information, or your own sensitive details;
use chat to create material for publication, sale or AI training outside the app;
use automated tools to send messages.

Messages that break these rules are blocked automatically and you are not charged for them. If you are going through something hard, the app shows real helplines instead of a character reply — see AI Transparency.

7. Other things not allowed on Turtle FM

Getting around age limits, regional restrictions, timers, daily limits or payment.
Fraud, including refund abuse and chargebacks for coins already used.
Copying, recording or redistributing our stories.
Submitting false or abusive reports.
Attacking, overloading or probing the Service.

8. How reports are handled

You report a series, episode, character or chat message in the app (no account needed), on the web or by email to contact@turtletechsai.com.
You get a reference number and the time by which we aim to respond.
Our team reviews the report against the law and these guidelines. Our targets: 3 hours for unlawful content, impersonation, sexual content, hate or religious offence, harm to minors and AI-label problems; 36 hours for copyright; 72 hours for everything else.
If content breaks the rules, we edit it or take it down everywhere at once. Downloads are removed from devices when they next connect.
If you left an email address, we tell you what we did and why.
You can appeal — see Grievance Redressal.

What we do about accounts. If you break these guidelines we may: block the message (automatic); warn you; switch off character chat for your account; suspend or close your account; or report illegal activity to the authorities. We act in proportion to what happened.

9. Changes

We update these guidelines as the Service and the law change. Material changes are announced in the app.