Oh, no! We’re sorry to hear that your photo was rejected. We completely understand how frustrating it is to have a photo taken down like this and we apologize for any inconvenience.
Hornet, just like any other app, has to follow guidelines laid down by Apple and Google about what’s appropriate. That’s why we came up with our Photo Guidelines: so we can ensure that we’re building a safe space for everyone.
If your photo has been rejected, you may find the reason within our guidelines.
Unfortunately, we’re not able to give you a specific answer to it since we moderate over 100,000 photos every day and all rejected photos are deleted from our database once the moderation process comes to its end.
Here are the reasons why your photo can be rejected by us:
- Nudity. Genitals or full ass is visible.
- Feces, urine, semen, blood, or, anything made to look like this.
- Sexually explicit or graphic photos, including drawings or cartoons depicting sex. An example of this is a photo showing oral sex being performed. No nudity or genitals are visible, but, it’s clearly a sexually explicit photo.
- Violence.
- Bloodsports or animal cruelty.
- Bestiality or necrophilia.
- Firearms or weapons.
- Children (Anyone under the age of 18). If the photo is only of a child or children, it is deemed to be a serious photo violation. If the child is in the photo with you (you are holding your son/daughter etc) it is deemed to be a mild violation.
- Photos with you and a child (a child is a person under the age of 18).
- A partial nude ass shot (a full nude ass shot is a serious violation).
- Photos that aren’t you (celebs, your ex, that guy you hate, your mother-in-law, etc).
- Genitals covered up by a towel, hat, teacup, thimble, bed sheet, emoji, your hand, etc.
- Grabbing/holding or touching genitals or genital area. That includes over your shorts.
- Erection or outline of genitals through clothing. This is a subjective one. We allow a ‘genital bulge’. But, if the outline shows the shape of the penis and testicles, then it will be rejected. This can be affected by how tight the clothing is and/or how big a boy you are.
- Sex toys or props.
- Pubic hair or the area of the groin where pubic hair normally grows.
- Photos with underpants visible.
- Photos of any obscene gestures and/or lewd behavior. (Flippin’ the bird, the finger, etc)
- Illegal drug use or drug paraphernalia (if it looks dodgy, it’s a no-no, such as a ‘roll-up’ cigarette). It also includes drug use in a State or Country where it may be legal.
- Depictions of underage drinking (as we aren’t Interpol and don’t know the legal age for drinking in each country, anyone who looks young will have the photo rejected).
- Image used to advertise services, goods, events, websites, or apps (your profile may be suspended for being commercial).
- Copyrighted or photographer-marked images or illustrations
- No profanity or curse words on a photo. Includes holding up a paper with curse words written on it.
- Photo of just the crotch: front, side, back, pixelated, clothed, whatever. This would include a photo taken from the waist down. Just because your legs are in it does not mean it isn’t a crotch shot. If the main focus is on the crotch, it’s not allowed. As a general guide, if your head is not in the photo, then it is more likely to be considered a crotch shot.
- Extreme close-up photos, photos where it is unclear what the photo is of.
- Photos with only, or mainly, text. As a general rule, one word or one line of text superimposed on a photo is acceptable (unless the font is large and dominates the photo). 2 or 3 lines of text will likely result in a photo being rejected.
- Photos that are gross, disgusting, nasty, yucky, terrible, abhorrent, and repugnant. For example, a person vomiting, or a photo of vomit.
- We do allow a photo with a person wearing swimwear, on the condition that the photo is taken in the appropriate location. The appropriate location is a pool, beach, seaside, lake, river, sunbathing (either outdoors or under a tanning bed), spa, sauna, or steam room. If the photo is taken indoors (in a bathroom for example) it will be classed the same as underpants and rejected.
- A swimwear photo will be rejected if the outline of the genitals is obvious; pubic hair is visible, ass crack is visible or the photo would be classed as a crotch shot.
On the other hand, we’ll always tell you if the violation was considered a serious violation or a minor one. That information is really important because photo rejections can lead your account to get suspended.
We allow an accumulation of 5 serious photo rejections, or 10 minor rejections, with the next one – 6th hard or 11th minor – resulting in suspension.
You’ll be sent warning messages leading up to this from our Hornet Moderation profile.
If, after reviewing our guidelines, you feel that your photo was rejected by mistake, please get in touch with us by writing to feedback@hornet.com. Don’t forget to include your Account ID (@…) and attach the rejected photo so we can review it.
