Student safety
Boundaries that help keep research, community participation, and peer review safe.
You must be at least 13. Students should involve a parent, guardian, teacher, adult sponsor, or fair coordinator whenever their school, fair, or local rules require it. ResearchForge does not replace adult supervision or committee approval.
- Use a display name that does not reveal more than you want strangers to know.
- Do not post your home address, phone number, daily schedule, or precise location.
- Keep conversations on-platform; never feel pressured to move to private messaging.
- Never upload identifiable participant data, passwords, or API keys.
Stop and speak with your adult sponsor before beginning work involving people, vertebrate animals, microorganisms, tissue, hazardous chemicals, controlled substances, high voltage, radiation, lasers, or other meaningful risk. An in-app checklist is informational and is never approval to begin experimentation.
Do not engage with harassment, requests for personal information, unsafe instructions, or pressure to conceal activity from an adult. Save evidence, use the report control on public content, block further contact where available, and tell a trusted adult. If anyone is in immediate danger, contact local emergency services.
See also the community guidelines and data-handling notice.