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Community Guidelines

Welcome to the TED-Ed Community!

  • TED-Ed exists to magnify the best lessons from excellent educators from around the world. We welcome anyone willing to join us in this pursuit.
  • You are encouraged to view as many TED-Ed Lessons as you wish for free, and to share what you learn with others both online and offline.
  • We are happy to invite you to participate in the TED-Ed community. We are building a mature online community centered around lessons and ideas that matter. Please be aware, when participating, that we will remove:
    • content that does not directly relate to larger discussion in a meaningful way
    • racist, sexist, homophobic, religiously intolerant content
    • disrespectful, distasteful, unconstructive, or illegal content
    • content promoting pseudo-science, conspiracy theories, zealotry, proselytizing, self-promotion, product-hawking, and new-age fluff
    • content written in txtspeak, all-caps, or otherwise lazy grammar
    • content posted by members using joke names or non-names
  • In order to join the TED-Ed community, you will need to create a TED.com profile, which will link you to TED-Ed. Anyone 13 and over can join TED.com by providing basic contact information (first and last name, email address, country of residence). Once registered, please feel free to set up a profile and join the community by posting compelling ideas, asking challenging questions, and engaging other community members by commenting on existing posts.
  • If you are under the age of 13, you may not create a TED.com account, and therefore you cannot actively participate in the TED-Ed community. You're welcome to watch TED-Ed lessons and enjoy the site, but you need to be at least 13 to create an account on TED.com.
  • If you act disrespectfully, disruptively or illegally in the TED-Ed community (or anywhere on TED.com), we reserve the right to terminate your membership, at any time, and without prior warning.
  • We are serious about reading and considering all feedback we receive. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments regarding these Terms of Use, please let us know at education@ted.com.

Using the Flag Button

Have you come across a topic you find inappropriate? TED-Ed is keeping an eye out for inappropriate topics, but we can use your help to flag troublesome content. If you see a topic that concerns you:

  • Please click the Flag button on the comment to send us an alert. No comments will be removed or hidden automatically, but TED-Ed staff will be alerted to review it as soon as possible. Other members will not be able to see that you’ve Flagged a comment.
  • Please don’t over-use the Flag button, or Flag a comment simply because you disagree with the author.

How to Avoid Topic Removal

No one likes having their contributions removed from the site. TED-Ed staff don’t like removing content either, but occasionally find it necessary for the overall health of the community. Here are some reasons your topic may be removed

  • Abuse - TED-Ed is not the place for bullying, name-calling, hateful feedback, threats, harassment, intolerance, or virtual violence.
  • Crass commercialism - TED-Ed is not the right place for selling or promoting your product or service. It’s also not the right place for soliciting traffic to your website.
  • Spam - Any spam messages will be deleted.
  • Inappropriate - Whether it’s unrelated content or it’s derailing a conversation, topics posted that are not appropriate will be removed.
  • Inappropriate language - TED-Ed is not the right place for chat-room banter, text-speak, or combative posturing.
  • Privacy concern - If your comment divulges private information (including telephone numbers, mailing addresses, or ways to physically contact you) about you or another person, it will be deleted.
  • Response to an inappropriate comment - Please use the Flag button instead.
  • Terms of Use violation - We will remove any topic that violates the TED.com Terms of Use.
  • Other - TED-Ed is not the right platform for pseudo-science, zealotry, personal requests, proselytizing, or self-promotion.

If your topic is removed by TED-Ed staff, please consider working with us to revise your content until it is appropriate for the community. Please don't harass or threaten the staff; doing so will risk removal of your account.

Again, welcome to the TED-Ed Community! Thank you for taking the time to read through this guide; we look forward to seeing your contributions to the TED-Ed community!