Terms of Service

These terms are an agreement between you and the operator of HALLPASS: Ozan Kaygusuz, [POSTAL ADDRESS], contact smartlizardpy@duck.com ("we"). By using the site you agree to them. If you do not agree, please do not use it. Our Privacy Policy explains how we use your data and is part of the picture too.

• Accounts are for people aged 13 or over. You sign in with a Google account, which has its own rules.
• If you are under 13, please get a parent or carer's permission before using the site, and do not create an account.
• If you are under 18, please make sure a parent or carer knows you use HALLPASS and is happy for you to agree to these terms. A parent or carer who lets a child use HALLPASS is responsible for that child's use, and can contact us about it at any time.
• We do not ask your age and we do not check it. We rely on you telling the truth. If we learn that someone is under 13, or a parent or carer tells us, we delete their account.

[SOLICITOR (IMPORTANT): (a) capacity of minors to contract, including whether the wording should be a licence rather than a contract for under-18s; and (b) the operator, Ozan Kaygusuz, is himself under 18, so take advice on whether he can be the party to this agreement and the data controller. Suggestion: a parent or guardian (or a company) is named as the legal operator in section 1.]

• You do not need an account to play most games.
• An account lets you put scores under your name, keep streaks, make friends, write reviews and get notifications.
• Keep your Google account secure. What happens under it is your responsibility.
• Pick a display name and username that are fine for a school playground. We may change or remove names that are rude, that pretend to be someone else, or that include personal details.
• Your real Google profile picture is hidden by default. Everyone has a default cartoon avatar. You can choose in settings to show your Google picture to your friends. Do not use a picture of anyone else.
• You can delete your account any time in your settings. Your scores stay on leaderboards, but without your name. See the Privacy Policy.

This applies to everything: scores, names, reviews, friend requests, challenge links, invites and online co-op. Do not:

• bully, threaten, harass or pressure anyone, or be hateful about who they are;
• share your own or other people's private details, such as full names, addresses, phone numbers, school names or social accounts, or ask other players for theirs;
• send sexual or violent content, or anything illegal;
• pretend to be someone else, including staff;
• cheat, fake scores, use bots, or try to exploit bugs for unfair advantage;
• spam, advertise, or send people to other sites in reviews, names or invites;
• try to hack, overload, scrape, reverse-engineer or break the site, its security or its limits, or get into someone else's account;
• use the site to do anything that breaks the law or your school's rules about devices.

Online co-op:other players in your room can see your IP address (see the Privacy Policy). There are no public rooms: you need a room code or an invite link. Only share them with people you know and are comfortable with, and only join rooms you were invited to. Do not share a room code or invite link on public places such as social media or streams, do not use another player's IP address for anything, and never ask anyone for their IP address or personal details. Co-op may not work on some school networks that block direct connections.

If something is wrong: you can block another player. If you are signed in you can use the Reportbutton on a review, or on another player's profile (reasons: bullying, inappropriate name, inappropriate content, impersonation, or other). Reports go to a moderation queue that the operator reads, and the operator is notified when a profile is reported. Moderators are not shown who made a report, and the person reported is never told. Reviews that several people report are also hidden automatically. For anything else, or anything that worries you, email smartlizardpy@duck.com. If you are in danger or someone else is, tell a trusted adult or the police first.

What we may do.If someone breaks these rules we may remove content, change or remove a name or avatar, hide scores, warn the player, limit features, or suspend or end the account. For a profile this can mean a reset: we clear the player's chosen display name and username (they show under a generated name and their public profile page goes away) and stop showing their Google photo. They can pick a new name, but not the same username again for 90 days. We will try to explain, but may act quickly where safety is at risk.

Complaints and appeals. If you think we got it wrong (we removed your content or suspended your account), or you are unhappy about how we handled a report, email smartlizardpy@duck.com with what happened and why you disagree. A person (not an automatic system) will look at it again and reply. [SOLICITOR: Online Safety Act duties (illegal content, children's risk assessment, reporting and complaints routes) for the friends, invites, reviews and co-op features]

You keep ownership of what you create, such as reviews, display names, survey answers, bug reports and screenshots. By posting it on HALLPASS you give us a free, worldwide permission to store, show, translate on request, and copy it as needed to run the site, show it to the people it is meant for, and (for a well-made bug-report screenshot you choose to send to the gallery) show it on the game's page. We do not claim anything beyond that. This permission ends when you delete the content or your account, except for copies we are required to keep or that are already in backups for a short time.

Only post things you have the right to share. Do not post other people's photos or work.

• HALLPASS is mostly games made by the team and contributors, and some games from other people which we host or embed from their own sites. Each game belongs to its author or rights holder. We credit the author on the game's page where we know who they are.
• Games you play from another website are run by that website. Their own terms and privacy practices apply to them, and we do not control what they do.
• We give you a personal, non-commercial permission to play the games on HALLPASS. You may not copy, sell, re-upload or take apart the games, or the site's design, name and logo, except as the law allows.
• The HALLPASS name, logo and the site's own code, art and text belong to us or our contributors. [OWNER: licence/ownership wording for contributed games]

If you own something on HALLPASS (a game, art, music or text) and you did not agree to it being here, or you think a game is credited wrongly, or you think a game, review, name or picture on HALLPASS breaks your rights or is harmful, email smartlizardpy@duck.com with:

• your name and how to reach you;
• what the work is, and where you made or published it;
• the page address on HALLPASS where it appears;
• a sentence saying you believe in good faith that it is here without permission, and that what you say is accurate and you are the owner or authorised to act for them.

We aim to respond promptly. We may remove or disable the content while we look into it, and we will tell the person who posted or uploaded it so they can reply. If something of yours was taken down and you think that was a mistake, tell us and we will review it. [SOLICITOR: the right UK process for relying on the hosting defence (notice and takedown, timing, counter-notices), and whether a US DMCA designated agent should be registered. No legal deadlines are promised here on purpose.]

• It is invite-only and can end at any time. We pick testers by hand.
• Testers get early access to unreleased games, which they should not share, record to post publicly, or describe outside HALLPASS.
• Reports must be honest and your own. XP and ranks are for fun, have no cash value, can be adjusted if we spot abuse, and are not a promise of any reward.
• Screenshots and short clips are only taken when you press the button, and are used to fix bugs, as the Privacy Policy explains. They are deleted automatically 30 days after you send them if the bug is not resolved, and straight away when it is fixed or closed. Do not capture or send anything private.
• Under-18 testers need a parent or carer's permission. [OWNER: how permission is obtained; the code has no such step today]

HALLPASS is free. We may add, change, pause or remove games and features (including leaderboards, notifications and co-op), and we may remove old scores. Games that run on your device may work offline once you have visited. The site may show links to adverts or partners; we are not responsible for other sites you visit from them. We do not promise the site will always be available or error-free.

We take reasonable care in running HALLPASS, but it is provided free, "as is", and we cannot promise that every game is bug-free, that scores or streaks will never be lost, or that other websites we link to are safe.

Nothing in these terms limits anything the law does not allow us to limit. That includes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, and any rights you have as a consumer (including that digital content should be as described and of satisfactory quality, and that unfair terms do not bind you).

Subject to that, we are only responsible to you as far as the law allows, and we are not responsible for what other users or other websites do, or for losses to a business, because HALLPASS is meant for personal use. [SOLICITOR: review this whole clause. The audience is children and the operator is a minor, so check it is fair and enforceable, and whether any cap or wider exclusion is appropriate. No cap figure is stated on purpose.]

You can stop using HALLPASS or delete your account at any time. We may suspend or end your access if you break these terms, put others at risk, or if the law requires. Sections that by their nature should continue (like ownership and takedowns) do.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales can hear disputes, but if you live elsewhere in the UK you may also use your local courts, and nothing removes any protection that the law where you live gives you as a consumer.

If something is wrong, please talk to us first at smartlizardpy@duck.com.

We may update these terms, for example when we add features or the law changes. We will change the date at the top and try to tell players on the site when the change matters. If you carry on using HALLPASS after a change you accept it; if you do not, you can delete your account.