Adult Content and Sexually Explicit Content
Our content management guidelines are critical to ensuring a positive experience for our distribution partners, users and end readers.
By recognizing and filtering different content, they ensure that bookstores correctly apply their sales policy and that readers can make purchases with full awareness of the topics covered and the target audience.
PLEASE NOTE. Without prejudice to what is fixed and established by our distribution agreemen (paragraph 11) our adult or sexually explicit content management policy may change over time, aiming to optimize the above-mentioned experience, so we suggest that you periodically check for updates.
Last updated: Septermber 2023
Adult content
The user is required to specify the Audience (Age, Type and Adult ratings). It's crucial to specify the appropriate target audience, especially for works intended exclusively for adults or containing content unsuitable for minors; this ensures that potentially sensitive subject matter is not exposed to an audience not yet ready to understand such issues objectively.
The user is required to specify in the article card whether the published work is suitable for adult audiences only. The classification also includes works of fiction, as well as poetry, script, and comics.
Below are some notes regarding the use of this classification:
| Audience description | Application Notes |
| 01- Adult audience | Used for products suitable only for an adult audience and that lack specific information on the type of content they contain. |
| 02 - Content warning | Warning from the publisher that part of the adult audience may judge the content offensive (for any reason). |
| 03 - Content Warning (sexually explicit) | Publisher's warning that the product includes content that is explicitly sexual in nature. |
| 04 - Content warning (violence) | Publisher's warning that the product includes content of a violent nature. |
| 05 - Content warning (references to narcotic substances) | Publisher's warning that the product includes content related to drug abuse. |
| 06 - Content warning (language) | Publisher's warning that the product includes explicit/extreme/offensive language. |
| 07 - Content warning (intolerance) | Publisher's warning that the product includes content related to forms of intolerance of particular groups (based on religion, race, ethnicity, and social affiliation). |
| 08 - Content Warning (self-harm) | Publisher's warning that the product includes content related to severe self-harm (including serious eating disorders) |
| 09 - Content warning (animals) | Publisher's warning that the product includes content involving extreme cruelty to animals |
Sexually explicit content and pornography
The user is required to indicate whether the published book has sexually explicit (pornographic) content.
Sexually explicit content allowed
- Nude images with artistic, educational, historical or documentary value.
- Essays and manuals, scientific texts that deal with the theme of sexuality and its various aspects.
Sexually explicit content not allowed
A zero-tolerance policy is applied to child sexual abuse in the texts, images or audio content of books. It is therefore forbidden to upload and publish child pornography content which, if detected, will be reported to the competent authorities.
It is forbidden to publish sexually explicit text, images, or audio content depicting extreme sex acts, such as zoophilia, abuse and rape, non-consensual sexual acts described for recreational purposes (not scientific or documentary) or incest.
It is also forbidden to publish:
- Nude images without artistic, educational, historical or documentary value
- Pornographic content
- Sexually explicit texts in the book's metadata: title, subtitle, synopsis, keywords
Exceptions based on artistic, educational, historical, documentary or scientific considerations or where there are substantial benefits for the public are allowed.
All erotic literature is permitted, as long as there is no content of sexually-explicit nature in covers, synopses, titles, subtitles and keywords.