Social Media Moderation & Acceptable Use Policy

1. Purpose of Our Community Spaces

Smart Bear Health welcomes respectful discussion, questions, comments, shared experiences and constructive engagement (User Contributions) across Our social media channels, community groups, member spaces and other interactive platforms (Community Spaces).

This policy explains the standards expected of participants (You, User) and how Smart Bear Health (Smart Bear, We, Our, Us) may moderate content to protect the safety, integrity and compliance of Our Community Spaces.

2. Acceptable User Contributions

We encourage members and participants to:

  • ask questions;

  • share personal experiences;

  • discuss educational content;

  • provide respectful support and encouragement;

  • share constructive insights and perspectives; and

  • engage in thoughtful and evidence-informed discussion.

3. Unacceptable User Contributions

We are governed by various laws, regulations and codes of conduct, therefore We may remove, edit, hide, restrict or disable access to content that We reasonably believe:

  • is unlawful, misleading, deceptive or fraudulent;

  • contains abusive, threatening, intimidating, discriminatory or hateful language;

  • promotes violence, self-harm or illegal activities;

  • contains offensive, obscene or inappropriate material;

  • infringes the privacy, confidentiality or intellectual property rights of others;

  • contains spam, commercial promotions, affiliate links or unauthorised advertising;

  • impersonates another person or organisation;

  • is intentionally disruptive to the operation of the Community Space; or

  • breaches applicable laws, regulations, codes, platform rules or these policies.

4. Commercial & Affiliate Relationships

We have an obligation to make sure any advertisments We make, including endorsements and testimonials, are not misleading. Therefore, We promise to disclose if and where:

  • A person has been, or will be, compensated for endorsing a specific product;

  • We have actors sharing a testimonial, such as in cases where the original person who made the testimonial does not want to appear in advertisements; or

  • The person making the testimonial is an immediate family member of anyone employed by Our business.

5. Health, Therapeutic & Medical Claims

To assist with compliance with applicable health, advertising and consumer protection laws, content may be removed where We reasonably believe it:

  • promotes or encourages unsafe health practices;

  • discourages individuals from seeking appropriate medical care;

  • contains misleading, exaggerated or unsubstantiated health claims;

  • represents a product, service or intervention as a guaranteed cure, treatment or solution;

  • contains testimonials, endorsements or therapeutic claims that may be unlawful or inappropriate under applicable laws or regulations (see section 9); or

  • promotes prescription medicines, restricted therapeutic goods or other regulated products in a manner inconsistent with applicable laws.

Members may share personal experiences and opinions; however, personal experiences should not be presented as universal outcomes, medical advice or guaranteed results. For more information, review the examples in the following sections.

6. A Simple Overview for Users

Stick to sharing 'this is what helped me' rather than 'this is what will help you/everyone.'

Share experiences and options that can be explored with a healthcare provider. Do not tell someone what they should do – at Smart Bear Health We promote and support agency and shared decision-making between patients and their healthcare providers, by telling someone what they should do You are inadvertently undermining their autonomy and opportunity to build their own critical thinking and decision-making skills which is an important process that helps them to cultivate self-esteem and self-efficacy.

Generally Acceptable

  • This helped me

  • This was my experience

  • I found this useful

  • Here are some resources I found helpful with that

  • This might be worth discussing with your healthcare provider

  • #n=1 (In Reference to Section 8 The Rule of n=1)

Generally Non-Compliant

  • This will work for you / everyone

  • This definitely works

  • This is a cure

  • Everyone should do this

  • You don’t need medical advice / your doctor / healthcare provider

  • Guaranteed, 100% effective

7. Examples of Acceptable and Unacceptable User Contributions

The examples shown below are provided as guidance only, to help You understand what types of contributions may be non-compliant with applicable laws and regulations.

Generally Acceptable

Generally Non-Compliant

Personal Experiences

  • I found pacing helpful for managing my fatigue, but everyone's situation is different

  • Pacing cured my fatigue, so everyone should do it

Supplements

  • I personally noticed an improvement after taking magnesium after checking in with my doctor

  • These are some supplements I found useful that you could ask your healthcare team about for yourself

  • Everyone with fatigue should take magnesium – it fixes the problem

Medical Care

  • My doctor and I investigated iron deficiency and that turned out to be worthwhile in my case

  • This may be worth asking your doctor about or investigating with them

  • Doctors don’t understand fatigue – stop listening to them

Healthcare Decisions

  • These are some questions I found useful to ask my doctor

  • This option might be worth talking to your healthcare team about to see if it could be a good fit for you

  • Ignore your healthcare provider and do this instead

Treatment Outcomes

  • This approach was helpful for me, but it may not be suitable for everyone (n=1)

  • I had a great outcome with this treatment. You could discuss whether it could be an option for you with your healthcare provider.

  • This treatment will cure chronic fatigue

Educational Discussions

  • Has anyone come across useful research on this topic?

  • This definitely works. No evidence needed.

Product Recommendations

  • I used this product and had a good experience with it

  • This product has been good for me

  • This product is guaranteed to work for fatigue

Commercial Promotion

  • Sharing personal experiences and insights relevant to the discussion

  • Advertising products, services, businesses, affiliate links or recruitment opportunities without prior approval

Respectful Disagreement

  • I had a different experience and interpreted that research differently

  • That is a different perspective to mine

  • That is not what my experience was

  • Personal attacks, insults, ridicule, hostility, harassment or bullying

Privacy & Confidentiality

  • Sharing your own experiences and personal information voluntarily knowing it is viewable by others

  • Sharing another person’s personal, medical or other identifiable information without their explicit consent.

Smart Bear Health recognises that personal experiences can provide valuable support, insight, validation and learning opportunities. However, personal experiences should not be represented as medical advice, guaranteed outcomes or universally applicable recommendations. Remember The Rule of n=1.

8. The Rule of n=1

One of the core philosophies of Smart Bear Health is The Rule of n=1 and it is a particularly important rule here. Every individual has unique physiology, genetics, medical history, circumstances, preferences, goals and available resources. As a result, what works well for one person may not work for another.

When sharing experiences, members are encouraged to speak from their own experience rather than presenting their experience as a universal recommendation, guaranteed outcome or medical advice.

Where appropriate, members may choose to include the hashtag #n=1 as a reminder that:

  • individual experiences vary;

  • outcomes are not guaranteed; and

  • healthcare decisions must be personalised and discussed with a licensed healthcare provider before implementation.

The #n=1 hashtag does not replace professional advice or personal responsibility, but serves as a useful reminder that what works well for one person may not work well for another and so personal experiences should not be interpreted as universally applicable recommendations.

9. User Testimonials about Therapeutic Goods, Services or Outcomes

We love when You like, comment or tag Your family and friends on Our posts but ask that You do not:

  • Endorse specific products (including by providing a testimonial or review about how the product worked for You) IF YOU ARE;

    • An employee or contractor of a government, government authority, hospital or healthcare facility;

    • A current or former health practitioner, health professional or medical researcher;

    • A person who represents themselves as being qualified or trained to diagnose, treat or prevent disease, ailment, defect or injury;

    • Not using Your own name; or

    • A person (or family member of a person) who is engaged in the production, marketing or supply of that product.

  • Imply that a government, government authority, hospital or healthcare facility endorse specific products;

  • Make comments about how a specific product works for You outside of its intended purpose, as these comments can be dangerous or misleading – any product should only be used for the specific purposes stated on the label and following the directions for use;

  • Make comments about Your own personal experience using a specific product if you have received payment of any kind (including free products) to provide that testimonial; or

  • Make comments about serious conditions, diseases, ailments or defects, such as comments about how a specific product helped with the treatment of a serious disease or how it will relieve a person’s serious condition.

If You are unsure of how You can leave compliant comments or other contributions, please refer to the example tables provided in sections 6 & 7 or contact Us for more information.

10. Moderation Rights

The use of absolute, universal or guaranteed language may result in moderation where it creates a misleading impression regarding outcomes, efficacy, safety or suitability. Smart Bear Health reserves the right, at Our reasonable discretion, to:

  • moderate Community Spaces;

  • remove, edit, hide or restrict content;

  • disable comments on specific posts or platforms;

  • suspend or remove members;

  • restrict access to Community Spaces; and

  • take any other action reasonably necessary to protect participants, Smart Bear Health, or the integrity of the Community Space.

Moderation decisions may be made without prior notice and are based upon the overall context, wording and potential impact of the content, not solely on individual words or phrases.

11. No Practitioner-Patient Relationships

Healthcare providers, researchers and other professionals may participate in Community Spaces from time to time. Unless expressly stated otherwise and governed by separate agreements, comments made within Community Spaces are provided for general educational discussion only and do not establish a practitioner-patient relationship or constitute personalised professional advice.

12. Privacy & Confidentiality

Participants should avoid sharing sensitive, confidential or personally identifiable information.

Members must not copy, reproduce, distribute, screenshot, record or otherwise share Community Space content or member information outside the Community Space without explicit written permission.

13. Reporting Concerns

If You believe content breaches this policy or creates a safety, privacy or compliance concern, please either ‘Report’ the content through the platform it appears on or contact Us directly via: [email protected]

If You have experienced an adverse event (negative impact or side effects) for a medicine, vaccine, medical device or other therapeutic good, please report it to the Therapeutic Goods Administration here.

14. Related Policies

This policy should be read alongside the Smart Bear Health Community Standards (via pinned post published on the relevant platforms) and the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Last Updated: 29/06/2026

© Smart Bear Consulting Pty Ltd T/As Smart Bear Health 2026