Why these exist

PairPal is a place to find someone to study with, keep each other going and have a little friendly competition. Many students on PairPal are teenagers, so these guidelines are strict on purpose. They apply to profiles, photos, messages, files, group names and anything else you share.

Be kind and keep it about studying

  • Treat people the way you would in a good study group: be patient, encouraging and respectful.
  • Friendly competition is welcome. Mocking someone’s scores, school or ability is not.
  • If someone isn’t interested, accept it and move on.

Be the real you

  • Use your real first name, your real date of birth and photos of yourself.
  • Don’t pretend to be someone else, a teacher, or a member of the PairPal team.
  • One account per person.

Never allowed

  • Bullying, harassment, threats or encouraging anyone to hurt themselves.
  • Hate speech or slurs about race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, disability, sex, gender identity or sexual orientation.
  • Sexual content, nudity, sexual comments or requests, and any sexual contact with someone under 18. These are removed and reported.
  • Violent or graphic content, or promoting weapons, drugs or alcohol.
  • Sharing someone’s private information, photos or messages without permission.
  • Spam, advertising, scams, or selling anything, including essays, coursework or exam answers.
  • Asking people to move to another app to get around a block or these rules.

Study honestly

Share notes, explain things to each other and compare past-paper results. Don’t share live exam papers, leaked questions or answers to work that will be graded, and don’t do someone else’s coursework for them.

Meeting up

If you decide to study together in person, meet in a public place like your school or a library, tell a parent, teacher or friend where you will be, and leave if you feel uncomfortable.

Reporting and blocking

Report anything that breaks these guidelines. On a profile or card, use the menu and choose Report. In a chat, open the menu at the top and choose Report, or press and hold a message and choose Report. You can block someone from the same menus; blocking hides you from each other everywhere and closes your chat. Reports are private: the person is not told who reported them.

The PairPal team reviews every report within 24 hours. We remove content that breaks these guidelines and can warn, suspend or permanently remove accounts. We report threats, sexual content involving minors and other serious cases to the authorities.

If you’re in danger

If you or someone else is in immediate danger, contact your local emergency number straight away and tell a parent, teacher or adult you trust. You can also email pairpal@gymshackles.com.