Terms of Use

Last updated: November 11, 2026

Welcome to FriendBurst! These Terms of Use are the agreement between you and FriendBurst (friendburst.com, "FriendBurst", "we", "us"). They explain who can join, what you may and may not post, how we look after the community, and what we can and cannot promise. We have tried to write them in plain English. Please read them together with our Privacy Policy, which explains what information we keep and who can see it.

By creating an account, reclaiming an old account, or otherwise using FriendBurst, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the site.

Contents

Who can join
Your account and keeping it safe
Returning members and old accounts
Community rules: what is not allowed
Adult content: FriendBurst is porn-free
Personal information and safety
Personal, non-commercial use
Bulletins, links and profiles
Your content and the licence you give us
FriendBurst's own material
Moderation, new-member review and enforcement
Reporting and blocking
Copyright complaints (DMCA)
Links, embedded videos and other sites
Disputes between members
The service is provided "as is"
Limits on our liability and your promise to us
Leaving FriendBurst, and when we close accounts
Marketplace and features that are coming back
Changes to these terms
Governing law
Contact us

1. Who can join

FriendBurst is for adults. You must be 18 or older to create an account or use the site.
When you sign up we ask for your date of birth and ask you to confirm that you are 18 or older. If the date of birth shows you are under 18, the account is not created and we do not keep the details you typed.
If we learn that someone under 18 is using FriendBurst, we will close or hold that account.
Membership is free. There is no membership fee and nothing to buy.
Businesses, organisations and other groups may not open member accounts unless we have agreed to it first (see section 7).

2. Your account and keeping it safe

One person, one account. Each account is for one real person. Please do not create extra accounts, share an account, or create an account for someone else.
Accurate details. Give your real date of birth and an email address that you own and can read. We use that address to confirm your account and to help you if you forget your password.
Your user name and display name must not pretend to be someone else, and must not use "FriendBurst", "Verified", "FriendBurst Verified" or anything similar without our permission.
Your password is yours alone. Choose a strong password you do not use anywhere else, and never share it. FriendBurst staff will never ask you for your password, by email or any other way.
You are responsible for what happens under your account. If you think someone else has got into it, change your password straight away through Account help and let us know.

3. Returning members and old accounts

FriendBurst was offline for several years and came back in 2026. Accounts and content from the old site were kept.

If you had an account before, you can get it back with Reclaim your old account. We send a link to the email address on that old account. If you cannot get into that email address any more, use Account help.
Until an old account is reclaimed, other signed-in members may see a limited preview of it: only the parts that its owner had made visible to everyone on the old site, and never adult-only material. Old accounts whose owners were under 18 when they joined stay hidden.
When you reclaim your account you agree to these terms for it from then on. Please check your old profile, photos and posts and remove anything you no longer want to share.
Some old content, especially pictures that were stored on other websites, could not be recovered. We cannot promise that every old item will come back.
We have not set a date after which old accounts that are never reclaimed are removed. If we decide to do that, we will announce it first in News & announcements.

4. Community rules: what is not allowed

FriendBurst is a friendly, member-driven community. You are responsible for everything you post, upload, send or link to, and you must follow the law wherever you are. You may not post, send or do anything that:

harasses, bullies, stalks, threatens or intimidates anyone, including members, staff and volunteers, or encourages others to do so;
promotes hatred, racism or bigotry, or violence or physical harm against any person or group;
involves anyone under 18 in sexual, violent or degrading content, or tries to get personal information from anyone under 18. Such material is removed and may be reported to the authorities;
shares intimate or sexual images of anyone without their consent, or threatens to;
is spam: junk mail, chain letters, repeated identical posts, or unwanted mass messages;
is a scam, a fraud, a pyramid scheme, phishing, or an attempt to get other people's passwords or personal details;
pretends to be another person, another member, or FriendBurst staff, or substantially copies another member's profile;
contains viruses, malware or harmful code, or tries to break, overload or get around the site's security;
collects member information by automated means (scraping, harvesting user names or email addresses) or uses bots without our permission;
adds trackers or any code that records visitors' IP addresses or locations to a profile, blog, group or page;
is illegal, or gives instructions for illegal activities, such as making or buying illegal weapons or breaking into computers;
you know is false and is meant to mislead, or is defamatory about a real person;
infringes someone else's copyright, trademark or other rights, including pirated music, films or software, or links to them;
shows animal cruelty, or offers live animals for sale;
attacks FriendBurst itself: trying to damage the site, spreading false or malicious claims about it, or recruiting members away to other sites.

This list gives examples; it is not complete. We may act on other behaviour that harms members or the community.

5. Adult content: FriendBurst is porn-free

Even though every member is an adult, FriendBurst has always been a porn-free site. Pornography, nudity and sexually explicit material are not allowed anywhere on FriendBurst: not in profiles, photos, profile designs, blogs, bulletins, comments, links or private messages. If you see any, please report it.

6. Personal information and safety

For your own safety, please do not put your telephone number, street address or email address on your profile or in public posts.
Never post another person's personal details: their phone number, street address, email address, IP address, or other information that identifies them, and never re-post someone else's private messages, mail or chats without their permission.
Do not use anything you learn on FriendBurst to harass, harm, or sell to another member, on or off the site.
Please be careful about meeting people from the internet in person. See Online Safety for tips.

7. Personal, non-commercial use

FriendBurst is for personal use. You may not advertise to other members, ask them to buy or sell products or services, or run contests, sweepstakes or other commercial activities on the site without our written permission.
You may mention other sites you belong to on your profile, but you may not advertise other sites or recruit members to them.
Fan sites are welcome. If the real celebrity, musician or artist asks, we may require the fan site to make clear that it is a fan site (for example by adding "Fan Site" to its name), or remove it.
If an account uses the name of a celebrity or well-known person, we may ask the owner to prove who they are, and remove the account if they cannot and it is not clearly a fan site.

8. Bulletins, links and profiles

Global bulletins (seen by everyone) are not for religious or political commentary; that is what blogs are for, and you may link to your blog from a bulletin. Please keep global bulletins to 4 or 5 a day, and do not post the same bulletin more than once a day. Extra or repeated bulletins count as spam and may be removed. Friends-only bulletins do not have these limits.
Links to your own site are fine if the site is not commercial: one or two links in a blog post is reasonable. Links whose main purpose is selling something may be removed. We decide what is reasonable.
Profile customising. You can change your profile's design, colours, backgrounds and layout. Anything you add is passed through a safety filter: scripts, trackers and unsafe HTML or CSS are removed automatically, and some designs may not look exactly as you wrote them. You may not hide or cover the parts of a profile that keep members safe, such as the controls to add a friend, send a message, block or report, or the site's own navigation and footer.

9. Your content and the licence you give us

You own what you post. Your words, photos, videos and designs stay yours.
So that we can run the site, you give FriendBurst a free, non-exclusive permission (a "licence") to store, copy, back up, format and display your content on FriendBurst, to the people your privacy settings allow, for as long as it is on the site and for as long as it remains in our backups. We do not sell your content and we do not use it for advertising.
You promise that you have the right to post what you post, and that it does not break these terms or anyone else's rights.
When you delete something, it is removed from the site, but copies can remain for a time in our backups (see the Privacy Policy). Things you shared with others, such as messages you sent, may stay in their copy.

10. FriendBurst's own material

The FriendBurst name, logo, site design, software and the content we create ourselves belong to FriendBurst. You may not copy, sell or republish them without our written permission, apart from ordinary sharing of links and the uses the law allows. You may not frame the site inside another site.

11. Moderation, new-member review and enforcement

New-member review. New accounts start with a short review period. During it, your comments are held until our team approves them, and some actions (such as sending friend requests and posting bulletins and status updates) wait until the review period ends. It ends automatically after your first 3 comments are approved.
Administrators. FriendBurst's administrators can see and moderate everything on the site, including content you have marked private and private messages, so that they can keep the community safe, answer reports and fix problems. See the Privacy Policy for details.
Astra, our AI assistant. An account called "Astra - AI assistant" helps the team with support and moderation. Astra is an AI, not a person, and is always labelled that way. Its actions are taken on behalf of the FriendBurst team.
What we may do. If content or behaviour breaks these terms, or we believe it puts members or the site at risk, we may remove the content, hold it for review, give a warning, limit what an account can do, suspend it, or ban it, and we may block access from particular networks. Serious cases may be removed without warning. Where the law requires it, or to protect someone from harm, we may report matters to the police or other authorities.
We are not able to check everything. We do not review every post before it appears (except during the new-member review), and we are not responsible for content posted by members.
Appeals. If you think we have made a mistake, tell us through the Contact page, or through Account help if you cannot sign in. The site owner reviews appeals personally.

12. Reporting and blocking

Use Report on a profile, photo or comment to tell our team about something that breaks these terms. Reports go only to the team; the member is not told who reported them.
Use Block this User on a member's profile to stop them contacting you. You can unblock them later from My Friends.
Please do not misuse reports to harass other members.

13. Copyright complaints (DMCA)

FriendBurst respects the rights of creators. If you believe something on FriendBurst infringes your copyright, please send a notice to our Designated Agent as described on our DMCA Notice page:

Service Provider: friendburst.com
Email Address to Which Notification Should Be Sent: dmca-notification@friendburst.com
[OWNER TO FILL: Designated Agent name and postal address, as registered with the U.S. Copyright Office, if any; and confirm that the address above receives mail]

Your notice should include: your signature (an electronic one is fine); identification of the work you say is infringed; identification of the material on FriendBurst and enough information for us to find it; your contact details; a statement that you believe in good faith that the use is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent or the law; and a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the owner or authorised to act for the owner. We will respond in a timely manner and remove infringing material once we are notified. We may close the accounts of members who repeatedly infringe.

14. Links, embedded videos and other sites

Members' posts and our pages may link to other websites. We do not control those sites and are not responsible for them, their content, or what happens if you use them. Please read their own terms and privacy policies.
Some posts include YouTube videos. These are shown with YouTube's privacy-enhanced player, and on profile pages nothing is loaded from YouTube until you press play. When a video plays, YouTube's own terms and privacy policy apply.
Some older posts show pictures that are stored on other websites; those sites can see that your browser loaded the picture.

15. Disputes between members

You are responsible for your dealings with other members, online and offline. We may, but do not have to, step in when members disagree. If something makes you feel unsafe, use Block and Report, and contact the police if you are in danger.

16. The service is provided "as is"

FriendBurst is a small, free community site run with care, but we provide it "as is" and "as available". We do not promise that it will always be available, fast, error-free or secure, or that any feature will keep working the same way.
We may add, change, pause or remove features at any time. Some features from the old site are still being rebuilt and may come back in a different form, or not at all.
We keep backups, but content can be lost and may not be recoverable. Please keep your own copy of anything important to you; do not use FriendBurst as the only place you store it.
We are not responsible for what members post, for incorrect information on the site, or for problems caused by your device, your internet connection, email delivery, or other websites.
We work to protect the site, but we cannot promise that it is free from viruses or other harmful material, or that it can never be accessed without permission.

17. Limits on our liability and your promise to us

To the fullest extent the law allows, FriendBurst and the people who run it are not liable for any indirect or consequential loss, lost data or content, or any loss or damage arising from your use of the site, from other members' conduct online or offline, or from the site being unavailable. Because the service is free, our total liability to you for anything else is limited to the amount you have paid us, which is nothing. Some places do not allow some of these limits; where that is so, they apply only as far as the law allows.
Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law.
Your promise to us (indemnity). If someone brings a claim against FriendBurst because of something you posted or did on the site in breach of these terms or the law, you agree to cover the reasonable losses and costs that result.

18. Leaving FriendBurst, and when we close accounts

You can leave at any time. To close your account and have it deleted, send us a request through the Contact page (or Account help if you cannot sign in). There is no self-service delete button at the moment; the team handles each request by hand. See the Privacy Policy for what is deleted and what may remain for a time.
We may close accounts. We may suspend or close an account, remove its profile and content, or block access, if it breaks these terms, puts members or the site at risk, or as required by law. Where it is safe and lawful, we may tell you why.
Long absences. FriendBurst is for active members. If you plan a long break, you are welcome to let us know. We do not remove inactive accounts automatically today; if we ever start, we will announce it first in News & announcements.
Sections of these terms that by their nature should continue (such as the licence for backups, the limits on liability and the indemnity) still apply after an account is closed.

19. Marketplace and features that are coming back

Some parts of the old site, such as the Marketplace, Groups, Forums and the Store, are being rebuilt. When the Marketplace returns: each listing is for one item or one set of items; no live animals, nothing illegal to own or sell, and no adult material; and FriendBurst is not part of any sale and is not responsible for disputes, loss or damage between buyers and sellers. Any extra rules for a returning feature will be shown with that feature.

20. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as the site changes. We will change the "Last updated" date at the top and announce important changes in News & announcements on the site before or when they take effect. If you keep using FriendBurst after a change takes effect, you accept the updated terms. If you do not agree, you can close your account.

21. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of [OWNER TO FILL: state/country]. If any part of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the rest still applies. If we do not enforce a part straight away, we can still enforce it later.

22. Contact us

Questions about these terms? Signed-in members can use the Contact page; your message goes to the FriendBurst team and the answer comes to your Mail. If you cannot sign in, see Account help. You can also ask for a copy of these terms the same way.

The previous version of these Terms of Use (last updated May 1, 2015) is available on request.