You know your child. Their feed should too.
SHOW for Platforms — a plain-language guide for parents
Right now the choice about your child's social media is being made for you. One rule, one age, every family the same.
SHOW for Platforms puts that choice back where it belongs: with you.
What SHOW is
Every post, video, comment and ad carries four small numbers. Together they tell you what's in it before your child sees it.
- 🌶 Spice — how physical or intimate it is
- 🔥 Heat — how romantic or emotionally intense it is
- 🌑 OMG — how dark it is: peril, violence, grief
- ⚡ WTF — how edgy or taboo it is
A cooking video might read S0 · H0 · O0 · W0. A clip of a real street fight might read O3. You don't have to watch it to know.
How you use it
You set a ceiling for your child — the highest number on each of the four you're comfortable with. Anything above it simply doesn't appear: not in the feed, not in search, not in comments, not in ads.
Here's where most families might start:
| Age | Starting ceiling |
|---|---|
| Under 10 | S0 · H1 · O1 · W2 |
| 10–12 | S0 · H2 · O1 · W2 |
| 13–15 | S1 · H3 · O2 · W4 |
| 16–17 | S1 · H4 · O2 · W4 |
These are only a starting point. You know whether your 14-year-old is ready for more, or needs a little less. Move any number up or down, any time, as your child grows.
What's handled for you
Some things are hidden from every child's account automatically, whatever the ceiling:
- Content promoting self-harm or disordered eating — support links are shown instead
- Dangerous challenges
- Bullying and pile-ons
- Scams
- Gambling, until the legal age where you live
And by default, adults your child isn't connected to can't message them, location sharing is off, and livestreaming is limited.
Who checks the platforms
You shouldn't have to take a platform's word for it. Platforms that want to say they're SHOW Certified™ are checked by independent certification bodies, who test whether the labels are honest and the gates actually hold. r8rly.org publishes the SHOW Standard and the audit criteria so every certifier tests the same way, and keeps a public register showing which platforms the certifiers have certified and since when, so you can check before your child signs up.
What SHOW doesn't do
It doesn't watch your child, track your child, or make decisions for you. It tells you what's in the content. The decision stays yours.
What you can do
Ask the platforms your child uses one simple question: "Do you support SHOW ratings and parent ceilings?"
Learn more at r8rly.org.
SHOW for Platforms · r8rly.org · The SHOW Standard is free and open under CC BY-SA 4.0