How to Write an Acceptable Use Policy for an NSFW AI Platform

Your NSFW AI platform prohibits nonconsensual content. 

But can someone upload another person’s photo? Can they generate an intimate image?

Can they share any of those through your public gallery? 

If the answer is yes, you’ve got problems. 

Today, we’re going to help you solve these problems.

A good NSFW AI acceptable use policy explains what users can do, what the boundaries are, and what happens when someone doesn’t abide by them. It gives your team a clear guide for blocking requests, investigating complaints, and removing content.

The examples below are drafting starting points, not a complete legal policy.

Define Who and What the Policy Covers

List every feature where a user can create, supply, or distribute content: prompts, conversations, reference uploads, custom models, generated images, video, voice, galleries, and paid downloads. Include API access if customers can build on your service.

Make clear that restrictions apply to private activity as well as public posts. Otherwise, users may assume prohibited generation is acceptable as long as they keep the output to themselves. Again, being clear is essential here.

Here’s an idea for some sample language: “This policy applies to your prompts, uploads, generated content, and use of our sharing and distribution features, including private sessions and API access.” We’re not your legal counsel, so of course, check with them before deploying any copy.

Link the policy from your terms of service and make it available at relevant points in the product. Keep billing terms, cancellation rules, and privacy disclosures in their appropriate documents, with clear cross-references where needed.

Set Clear Rules for Age Consent and Identity

State that the platform is for adults aged 18 or older, subject to any higher local minimum age. Define the access checks users must complete, and have counsel confirm which age assurance requirements apply in each market. A statement in the policy does not perform the verification.

Separately address the people depicted or simulated. Prohibit sexual content involving anyone under 18, including fictional, synthetic, or altered depictions of minors. Establish a conservative moderation rule for uncertain ages instead of treating a user’s “this character is 18” label as conclusive.

For real people, make the consent boundary explicit. A photo being public does not establish permission to turn it into sexual content. A practical approach is to prohibit sexual impersonation of real people unless the platform operates an approved, documented consent process.

Here’s some sample language: “You may not create or share sexual content depicting a real person without their explicit permission for that use. Uploading a photograph does not establish consent.” Again, we aren’t your legal counsel.

If your business supports authorized likenesses, specify how permissions are verified and what uses they cover. Permission to upload source material, generate a depiction, and distribute it should be addressed separately.

Describe Prohibited Uses in Plain Language

Avoid relying on phrases such as “inappropriate material” or “use responsibly.” Write restrictions that a user can understand and a moderator can apply.

Cover child sexual exploitation, nonconsensual intimate content, trafficking, coercion, sexual blackmail, and threats. Address harassment and misuse of another person’s identity or voice. Also define the platform’s boundaries for fictional adult content, including any restrictions on sexual violence. Present those as platform rules rather than implying that every prohibited category has the same legal status everywhere.

Include attempts to defeat your controls. 

Use short examples to clarify difficult boundaries. Explain that the rules cover altered or AI-generated material as well as uploaded material. Calling an output synthetic should never function as an automatic exception.

Explain How You Enforce the Rules

Describe the actions you may take: blocking a request, removing content, restricting a feature, suspending an account, or terminating access. Reserve immediate action for serious violations so the policy does not promise a warning before every suspension.

Connect each restriction to an internal procedure. Who reviews a flagged upload? What happens when a generated output violates the rules? Who can disable sharing while a complaint is investigated? Your public policy can explain the process without exposing detection thresholds or bypass opportunities.

Be accurate about moderation. Do not claim every output receives human review if your service relies on automated screening and escalations. Keep privacy disclosures consistent with how your team accesses prompts, uploads, and conversations.

Record decisions with enough context to support review, while limiting access to sensitive information and following a defined retention policy. The goal is a process your team can demonstrate and repeat.

Give People a Way to Report Abuse and Appeal Decisions

Make the reporting route easy to find, including for people without an account. 

Request a content link or identifier, the reason for the report, and the information needed to evaluate it. Avoid requiring people to redistribute intimate material just to complain.

In the United States, the TAKE IT DOWN Act’s platform requirements took effect on May 19, 2026. Covered platforms must provide a notice and removal process for nonconsensual intimate imagery, including qualifying AI-generated depictions. After a valid request, they must remove the reported content within 48 hours and make reasonable efforts to identify and remove known identical copies within that period. Have counsel determine whether your service is covered and implement the full requirements. See the FTC’s compliance guidance.

Assign urgent reports to a monitored queue with clear ownership. State how users can appeal moderation decisions, but keep appeals from delaying required removals. Explain how complainants can receive an update without revealing another person’s private information.

Check the Policy Against Your Payment Setup

Before applying for adult AI payment processing, give the prospective payment partner a precise description of your business. Explain whether customers buy subscriptions, generation credits, downloads, or access to creators. Disclose uploads, public sharing, and real-person likeness features.

Mastercard’s rules for applicable adult content merchants address documented consent, age and identity verification, content review, and complaint handling. These are operational requirements, not wording to paste into a policy. See Mastercard Security Rules and Procedures, section 9.4.1.

Ask the acquiring bank or processor how its requirements apply to your specific AI features, particularly synthetic depictions and uploaded reference material. Do not assume rules written around human content providers establish automatic eligibility for an AI service.

Prepare to show how your restrictions work, who handles complaints, and what records support enforcement. A well-written policy supports review for a high-risk merchant account, but approval also depends on the business model, controls, and payment partner’s acceptance criteria.

Assign Ownership and Keep the Policy Current

Give one person responsibility for keeping the policy and operating procedures aligned. Publish an effective date, retain previous versions, and establish how users will learn about material changes.

Review the policy whenever you add features such as voice cloning, reference uploads, public galleries, or creator payouts. A text-only policy can become incomplete the day you launch image generation.

Before publishing, confirm that every major restriction has a corresponding control, every reporting route works, and your team knows who acts on a complaint. Complete legal and payment partner review before relying on the policy for launch.

Talk to MobiusPay Before You Launch or Expand

You have put real work into building your platform. Give the payment setup the same attention. Share your content model, safeguards, and transaction flow with MobiusPay to explore processing options suited to your business.

With over a century of combined experience in banking, payment processing, and customer service, the MobiusPay team understands the persistence it takes to move a complex business forward. Contact MobiusPay before launch or your next major expansion to discuss your payment needs.