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Reporting content & safety

If something you see in Townwell worries you — a post, an image, an event, a document, or a direct message — you can report it. There is one report action; the reason you choose decides where the report goes:

• most reasons send the item to your community's admins — use these for content that breaks your community's rules or makes the shared space unpleasant;
• a few reasons (Illegal media, Malware, Threat of imminent harm) send the item straight to the Townwell safety team, not to your community's admins — use these for illegal material, malware, credible threats of harm, or when you believe a community admin may be involved.

The person you report is never told who reported them.

Every report points at a specific item — a post, image, event, document, or message. The item itself is the evidence the safety team reviews, so a report always names one; there's no way to report a community "in general" (see A concern about a whole community).

Reporting a post or an image

In a community feed, every post has a ⋮ menu in its top-right corner. Choose Report, pick a reason, add anything that helps explain the problem, and submit. You'll see a confirmation when the report is sent. If you pick one of the safety reasons, a note appears explaining that the report goes to the Townwell safety team; otherwise it goes to your community's admins.

Reporting an event or a document

Events and documents have the same Report affordance: open an event or a document and use the Report button. Pick a reason and submit — the same routing applies, so a safety reason sends the event or document to the Townwell safety team (useful when a community admin may be involved, since only admins upload documents).

Community reasons

The Report form offers these reasons (they go to your community's admins):

• Breaks community rules
• Harassment or bullying
• Impersonation
• Spam
• Suspected illegal activity
• Abuse in a direct message

Safety reasons

These reasons go directly to the Townwell safety team:

• Illegal media
• Malware
• Threat of imminent harm

Illegal media covers any image or file that the law prohibits — including child sexual abuse material. You don't need to know exactly what something is, or to identify anyone. If it looks like illegal material, report it and let the safety team review it.

These are the reasons where your community's admins might be part of the problem, so the safety team handles them instead of the admins. If you pick one of them and you believe the admins are involved — they took part, or they've ignored it — tick The community's admins are complicit in this on the report form. That tells the safety team to deal with the report without contacting your community's admins. It isn't a separate reason: it's extra context on a safety report, and it's only offered on the safety reasons.

Reporting a direct message

Direct messages are end-to-end encrypted, so reporting one works a little differently. Open the conversation, use the ⋮ menu at the top, and choose Report. You pick the message you're concerned about and a reason, then confirm that you consent to sharing the entire conversation with your community's admins (not the Townwell safety team). Messages sent after that stay private.

Direct-message reports go to your community's admins only. The safety reasons (Illegal media, Malware, Threat of imminent harm) aren't offered for direct messages in the app, because sharing a direct message directly with the Townwell safety team isn't available yet.

See the Direct messages guide for the full details.

If a direct message contains illegal material or another safety concern and you don't want it handled by your community's admins, report the message to your admins and contact the Townwell team through the contact form so the safety team can take it up.

A concern about a whole community

Reports always point at a specific item, because the item is the evidence the safety team reviews — and without an item there's nothing to verify. So there's no report reason for "this community is bad" on its own.

If your concern isn't about one particular item — for example, you think a community is being run badly, or that its admins are acting in bad faith — use the contact form to reach the Townwell team. If there is a specific item involved, report that item and mark the admins as complicit on the safety report if they're involved.

Child safety

If you find content that sexualises or endangers a child:

1. Report it and choose Illegal media, which sends it to the Townwell safety team.
2. If it's in a direct message (where the safety reasons aren't available), report the message and also contact the Townwell team through the contact form.
3. Don't share the material with anyone else, and don't investigate it yourself.

You don't need to identify the material or the person who posted it. The Townwell safety team reviews the report and, where the law requires, passes it on to the appropriate authorities (such as the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the United States).

What happens after you report

• Community reports go to your community's admins. They review the report and may hide or remove the content, act on the account, or dismiss it.
• Safety reports go to the Townwell safety team only — your community's admins cannot see them. The safety team may remove the content and, where the law requires, report it to the authorities. If you marked the admins as complicit, they aren't contacted about the report.

You can follow your own reports in the community's Reports area. Community reports show their current status:

• Submitted — waiting to be reviewed;
• Actioned — the moderators acted on it;
• Dismissed — the moderators closed it without acting.

When a report's status changes you get a notification with a link to your reports. If a moderator resolved your report, the reason they chose — and any note they left for you — appears on the report.

Safety reports appear in a separate Reports to the Townwell safety team section of that same area. Those reports are handled outside your community, so your community's admins can't see them; you'll see a receipt that moves from Received to Under review and then to Actioned, Dismissed, or Closed — could not be verified if the safety team couldn't confirm the material.

Content that has been reported is preserved as evidence from the moment you report it — the whole reported item is captured before it can be edited or deleted, so a report isn't erased by a later change.

If your report isn't acted on

A community report that the moderators dismiss, or that stays Submitted longer than the expected review window, can be escalated to the Townwell safety team yourself. Open the report in your Reports area and choose Escalate; it then leaves your community's queue, appears in the Reports to the Townwell safety team section, and only the safety team sees it. A report the moderators have already Actioned can't be escalated.

Emergencies

If someone is in immediate danger, contact your local emergency services first. Townwell's review is not an emergency response.