Content Standards

Last updated: May 2026 · Author: Giovanni Picaro, Publisher

This page sets out the content standards every game in the ASK.ME catalog is expected to meet. The standards are written down so they can be checked, criticized, and applied consistently. The Site’s audience includes minors, so the default posture is family-friendly; categories that would not fit a general audience are excluded, even where some content within those categories might be acceptable in adult-only contexts.

1. Required for inclusion in the catalog

Every game on ASK.ME meets each of the following:

Verified license. The game is sourced from a licensed distribution partner or directly from the developer with explicit licensing for embedding on commercial sites. License details on Sources & Attribution.
Age-appropriateness for general audience. Suitable for players of all ages, with the recognition that “general audience” includes minors as young as elementary-school-age.
Functional gameplay. The game loads, runs, is playable on at least one major device class (desktop or mobile), and does not have show-stopping bugs.
No mandatory account / personal-data collection. Casual play does not require account creation or personal-information submission.
Reasonable in-game advertising behavior. Where the game contains in-game ads (some licensed games do), the placements are not abusive: no forced full-screen interstitials between every level, no fake “play” buttons that lead to ads, no rewarded-video-required-for-basic-gameplay.
Developer attribution where the license requires it. Credits appear on the catalog page.

2. Absolutely excluded from the catalog

The following game categories or content elements are excluded, regardless of how popular or how well-licensed they might be:

Sexual or sexualized content. Including sexualized character framing in dress-up, simulator, or character-customization games.
Real-money gambling. Slot machines that take real currency, real-money poker, real-money sports betting, real-money lottery games.
Simulated gambling games designed to mimic regulated casino formats and targeted at children. “Cute” slot-machine games for kids, casino-themed children’s games, virtual-currency gambling that explicitly mirrors real-money mechanics. The line: a game with random-reward elements is fine; a game that explicitly presents itself as gambling is excluded.
Realistic graphic violence. Cartoon-style action-game violence is generally fine. Games with realistic gore, torture themes, war-crime imagery, or similar are excluded.
Drug-promotion themes. Games that glamorize or incentivize drug use.
Hate-speech themes. Games with discriminatory or hate-promoting framing.
Self-harm themes. Games that frame self-harm as a goal or reward.
Direct trademark infringement. Mario clones, Pokémon clones, Sonic clones, Disney character games where the developer has not licensed the IP.
“Crypto / play-to-earn” games requiring wallet connection or token purchases. The crypto-game space has unresolved regulatory and consumer-protection issues that make it unsuitable for our family-audience positioning.
Games requiring personal-data collection beyond what is technically necessary. Email-required-to-start games, social-media-login-required games.
Games with malicious or invasive code. Cryptocurrency miners, browser-fingerprinting frameworks, persistent-tracking scripts.

3. Specific framing rules

Card games and chance-based mechanics

Standard card games (solitaire, hearts, spades, gin rummy, FreeCell) without wagering elements are fine. Random-reward mechanics within games (loot boxes for cosmetic items, daily-spin bonuses) are generally acceptable for general-audience games where the rewards are virtual and the framing is not gambling-style. Games that explicitly present themselves as casino content are excluded.

Action and shooter games

Cartoon-style action and shooter games are generally acceptable. Games where the mechanic is clearly gameplay-driven rather than violence-themed are fine. Games that center on graphic violence, realistic gore, or war-crime themes are excluded.

Dress-up and character-customization games

Dress-up games for general audiences are acceptable. Sexualized framing of characters — the way characters are presented, the costume options provided, the marketing of the game — is grounds for exclusion regardless of the formal genre.

Sports games

Sports games are generally fine. Where a sports game mimics real teams or leagues, the trademark question depends on whether the developer has appropriate licensing — we trust the distributor’s certification on this.

Educational games

Educational games are welcomed and feature prominently in our category structure (math games, word games, memory games, geography games). The standards above still apply.

Idle / clicker games

Idle and clicker games are acceptable when they don’t tip into gambling-mechanic territory. Games with paid premium currency or microtransactions for “speed up” mechanics are evaluated on whether the monetization framing is age-appropriate.

Multiplayer games

Games with built-in multiplayer infrastructure are acceptable when:

The multiplayer infrastructure is operated by the developer/publisher with their own privacy framework.
It does not require ASK.ME to handle player-identity data.
It does not include open chat features that could expose minors to harassment.

Games with open chat features that present meaningful child-safety risk are excluded.

4. The conservative-doubt rule

Where a game’s fit with our standards is borderline — thematic content that could go either way, ambiguous attribution, marginal in-game ad behavior — the resolution is conservative. The game is not added, or it is removed pending clarification. The cost of an excluded game is small (the catalog has thousands of games); the cost of an inappropriate game on a family-audience site is meaningful.

5. Standards review

These Content Standards are reviewed at least annually and updated when:

Industry norms shift (new categories, new mechanics, new monetization patterns).
Regulatory frameworks change (new child-protection rules, new data-protection requirements affecting games, new gambling-content rules).
Operational experience surfaces ambiguity that should be resolved generally.
Reader / parental-control-organization feedback identifies a gap in the standards.

Updates are recorded; previously-published games are audited against the new standard and revised, removed, or re-categorized as appropriate.

6. Standards are not commercially negotiable

The standards on this page are not commercially negotiable. We do not enter distribution arrangements that would require us to host content these standards refuse, regardless of the size of the offer or the volume of additional content the partner might provide. Editorial integrity is more valuable than any single distribution relationship.

7. How readers can flag content concerns

If you encounter a game on the Site that you believe does not meet these standards — thematic concerns, IP concerns, monetization-framing concerns, in-game advertising concerns — email abuse [at] askme [punto] rest with the game URL and a brief description. Credible reports trigger investigation; flagged games are typically taken offline pending review.