Welcome to Teen Ink!

You may use the Web sites, services, content and applications of TeenInk.com ("Teen Ink") provided that you abide by the following terms.

BY USING OR SIGNING UP FOR TEEN INK, YOU SIGNIFY THAT YOU AGREE TO ABIDE BY THESE TERMS OF SERVICE (the "TOS"). You agree this TOS has the same effect as an agreement in writing.

It's your choice: If you do not agree to this TOS – or if you fail to abide by its terms – you may not use Teen Ink.

1. ABOUT THESE TERMS OF SERVICE

1.1 About these Terms: This TOS, along with any supplemental terms and our Privacy Policy, governs Your use of Teen Ink, which is provided by its owners and affiliates (collectively, "we" or "us"). By agreeing to this TOS, you authorize us and our owner to collection, use, and disclosure of personal information by us in accordance with our Privacy Policy. In this TOS, we use the term "You" or "Your" to describe you or any user of Teen Ink.

1.2 Modifications of the TOS: We may modify this TOS at any time. Any changes to the TOS will take effect after we post or otherwise provide notice of the changes. You agree to review these terms periodically for changes. Your continued use of Teen Ink after the effective date of the changes signifies your agreement to the changes. If you do not agree to the new terms, stop using Teen Ink.

2. QUALIFICATION TO USE AND LOCATION OF OUR SERVICES

2.1 You: You must be at least 13 years of age and no more than 19 years of age to use or register for Teen Ink. You agree that this TOS sets forth the terms in which You can use TeenInk and we may enforce this TOS against you if you accept the benefits of Teen Ink.

2.2 Changes: We may change or discontinue any aspect of Teen Ink in our discretion at any time. We have no duty to notify you when we make such changes.

2.3 Location of Teen Ink: We control and operate Teen Ink within the United States. We have not designed or customized Teen Ink for distribution for any specific country or jurisdiction outside the United States ("Territory"). We have no obligation to assure that Teen Ink complies with the applicable laws and regulations within the Territories in which you elect to use Teen Ink. You are solely responsible to comply with any local laws when you use Teen Ink.

3. REGISTRATION, USER NAME AND ACCOUNTS

3.1 Registration: Although registration is not mandatory, You will need to register with us if you desire to use certain features of TeenInk.com, such as, submitting work, using the forums, using live chat, creating a profile, saving favorites, and obtaining online accomplishments. If you elect to register with us, You must register in your own name, provide true and correct information, and keep this information up to date. By registering, you set up a user account with us. You may not share, loan, provide, transfer or sublicense Your account to any other person or party. You may not obtain an account under false pretenses, including without limitation, "spoofing" an IP address or misrepresenting any URLs. We may determine the number of accounts that you may have. We have the right at all times to block attempts to access our networks with an invalid or revoked account.

3.2 Inappropriate Screen Name: After registering, you may choose a Screen Name. A Screen Name may not be vulgar, used by someone else, impersonate someone else, or violate the rights of others, such as someone's trademark. You may not create Accounts for "name squatting" and we may take such actions as we deem necessary if your Screen Name violates the rights of others. Your Screen Name also may not include personally identifiable information (such as your last name or address).

4. YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES WHEN USING OUR SERVICES

4.1 Responsibility for Activity on Your Account: You are responsible for all activity under Your account. You must:

a. Follow all applicable laws and regulations;

b. Follow this TOS, including any other guidelines on Teen Ink;

c. Keep your password confidential;

d. Not let anyone else use Your Account for any purpose; and

e. Immediately notify us if You learn of a security breach on Teen Ink.

4.2 Prohibited Activities: When you use Teen Ink, you will not:

a. Participate in, facilitate or further illegal activities;

b. Use Teen Ink in a way that harms us or our customers, advertisers, affiliates, vendors, or anyone else;

c. Use any electronic communications such as e-mail to send any unsolicited bulk communication;

d. Use any automated process to access or use Teen Ink, including but not limited to scripts, spiders, or BOTs;

e. Use any process, whether automated or manual, to capture data or content from Teen Ink or its users, including but not limited to screen-scraping;

f. Use Teen Ink or any process to damage, disable, impair, or otherwise attack our Services or the networks connected to Teen Ink;

g. Interfere with anyone's use and enjoyment of Teen Ink;

h. Solicit login information or access an account belonging to someone else; or

i. Resell or redistribute any part of Teen Ink.

4.3 Termination of Your Account: We have the right to enforce this TOS and take whatever action against You and Your User Name account as we determine in our sole discretion. We are not required to provide You with any notice prior to terminating or taking any other action against You and Your account.

4.4 Posting Contact and Other Personal Information: Teen Ink provides its users the opportunity to post comments and observations on designated topics, create profiles, share information by allowing users to post updates. You are solely responsible for the content You post or otherwise provide on Teen Ink, such as, when you create a profile, post comments, or submit work. You understand and agree that when you share or post content on public areas of Teen Ink, it means that you are allowing others to access, view and use (except in ways that violate our copyright) such information. You are not permitted to disclose any personally identifiable information, and doing so may result in the termination of Your account. However, You take full responsibility if you disclose any personal or confidential information You choose to submit or share using any public area of Teen Ink, such as disclosing Your location or residence and the consequences of sharing or publishing such content with others or the general public. Any information that You post on public areas of Teen Ink will be searchable by Internet search services. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY CONTACT, INTERACTION, LOSS OF PRIVACY, AND ANY OTHER CONSEQUENCES THAT OCCUR BETWEEN YOU AND ANY OTHER USER OF TEENINK OR THE PUBLIC AND THAT THE ENTIRE RISK FALLS ON YOU.

5. CONTENT YOU POST ON TEEN INK

5.1 Posting Content: You may only post content on Teen Ink, such as comments, photos, videos, etc., that is Your original work (in other words, works that you own).

5.2 Appropriate Content: You may not post or distribute content on TeenInk that is illegal, that violates this TOS and our posted policies, or that violates the rights of others, including their copyrights, trademarks and privacy rights. We forbid the posting of content and materials that are (a) unlawful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, deceptive, fraudulent, invasive of another's privacy, tortious, or contains explicit or graphic descriptions, or accounts of, sexual acts, (b) victimizes, harasses, degrades, or intimidates an individual or group of individuals on the basis of religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, or disability, or (c) impersonates any person, business or entity, including our agents or employees.

We reserve the right to remove content for any reason in our sole judgment and discretion, including without limitation, that such content violates the TOS or our policies. We are not responsible for any failure or delay in removing such material.

5.3 Rights to Posted Content: You represent and warrant to us that when you post or submit content on Teen Ink (i) You own the content or have the express, written authorization to post such content; (ii) the content that you post does not infringe any the rights of any third party; and (iii) the content will not violate applicable laws.

5.4 License to Use Posted Content: You will retain ownership in such content. We do not claim ownership in Your specific work. However, by posting content on Teen Ink, You grant us and any of our owners, affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, agents and licensees the irrevocable, royalty free, perpetual, worldwide right and license to store, use, reproduce, modify, display, perform, distribute, adapt, promote, create derivative works, complicate, make collective works and syndicate this content in any medium and through any form or technology of distribution. In addition, if you participate in any feature on Teen Ink that allows users to share, modify, or combine user content with other content, you grant us and our users an irrevocable, royalty free, perpetual, worldwide right and license to use, share, reproduce, modify, create derivative works, display, distribute and perform your content on Teen Ink. You acknowledge that any content you post on publicly available areas on Teen Ink may be searchable online.

5.5 Ownership In Compilations and Other Works. We own all right, title, and interest in any compilation, collective work or other derivative work created by us using or incorporating this content. This means that if Your content appears in combination with other works, e.g., your posted content is part of a thread on a message board, we shall have ownership rights in the entire thread and the authority to protect our ownership rights in such work. We do not grant you rights to any compilation or collective work on Teen Ink.

5.6 No Professional Advice. You may post content for discussion and general informational purposes only. You may not post content on TeenInk intended to provide professional advice directed to any users that are regulated by law or require a license, including without limitation, providing medical treatment, legal advice or investment advice. You may not post content to solicit, recommend, endorse, or offer to buy or sell any securities or other financial instruments or recommend that any particular security, portfolio of securities, transaction or investment strategy.

6. OWNERSHIP; LICENSES.

6.1 Ownership of Content: We and our vendors, artists, licensors and users who provide content on Teen Ink, including without limitation, musical and/or video compositions own the property rights to such materials. The ownership rights are protected by copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, international treaties, laws, and other proprietary rights, and also may have security components that protect digital information. You agree that You will not take any action to interfere with the owner's right in content and You will not attempt to circumvent any mechanisms for preventing the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of any materials from Teen Ink.

6.2 Reporting Claims of Copyright Infringement: Copyright owners can report alleged violations by following the instructions at http://legal.aol.com/copyright-reporting/.

7. THIRD PARTY CONTENT

7.1 No Duty to Screen Content: We have no obligation to prescreen content although we may do so in our sole discretion. The inclusion of directories, search results, links, and other content on Teen Ink does not mean that we endorse any content, individual, company, product, or other thing or entity in those services.

7.2 Liability for Content of Others: We are not liable for content provided by others. We make no representations or guarantees that all content on Teen Ink is suitable for all users of all ages.

7.3 Content on the Internet: You acknowledge that we have no control or responsibility for content available on the Internet, although we reserve the right to block access to any Internet area containing illegal or other harmful content that we believe are unlawful or injurious to our users or us. You acknowledge that third-party sites on the Internet may have their own terms and conditions that govern Your use of those sites.

7.4 Advertising. In consideration of us giving you the opportunity to use TeenInk, You agree that we may offer advertising on Teen Ink, including any services we offer through mobile or wireless devices.

8. MOBILE SERVICES

8.1 About Mobile Services: Some features of Teen Ink may be available on mobile or wireless devices ("Mobile Services"). You will need to register for any text messaging features we offer for Teen Ink. You can discontinue such text messaging services at any time. In the event You subscribe to any text messaging services from us, we will provide You with instructions on how You can opt out of receiving such text messages from us.

8.2 Access: You must provide at Your own expense the equipment and wireless connections that You will need to use any Mobile Services. We do not guarantee that You can access our Mobile Services through all wireless devices or wireless service plans. We do not guarantee that our Mobile Services are available in all geographic locations.

8.3 Costs of Mobile Access: Your wireless carrier may charge You standard fees for data, messaging and other wireless access. Check with Your carrier to verify whether there are any such fees that may apply to You. YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY COSTS YOU INCUR TO ACCESS OUR MOBILE SERVICES THROUGH YOUR MOBILE DEVICE.

8.4 Location Based Services: If you use any Teen Ink mobile applications that provide messaging communications and location features with your mobile device, You acknowledge and agree that information about your usage of Teen Ink may be communicated to us by third parties, such as your wireless carrier. We may obtain information from your wireless carrier about the type of device you are using. Certain features of our Mobile Services may collect the phone number of your device. We may associate that phone number to the mobile device identification information; however, we will not use that number for telemarketing. Some wireless carriers in the USA and other jurisdictions may be required to operate a system that will pinpoint the physical location of devices that use their services. Depending on the provider, we may automatically receive this information and you consent to any such disclosure.

If you elect to use certain location or pinpoint based services (such as, GPS assisted navigation instruction, wireless tower location, triangulation or other available location technologies) with a Mobile Service, we must periodically receive your location in order to provide such location-based services to you. By using Teen Ink's location based services, you authorize us to: (a) locate your hardware; (b) record, compile and display your location; and (c) publish your location to third parties designated by you by means of location publication controls available within the Mobile Services (e.g., settings, user preferences). As part of the Mobile Services, we may also collect and store certain information about its users, such as, users' wireless mobile subscriber ISDN and/or IMEI numbers (as applicable) and users' network access identifier information. We will use this information to provide you the services accessed through the Mobile Services. We may use third party providers to help provide services through mobile systems and such providers may use the information in accordance with its Privacy Policy. Certain services offered through the Mobile Services may allow you to adjust your privacy settings; please review any information or FAQ area that accompanies such application for more details and instructions.

You also understand and agree that manufacturers and distributors of certain mobile devices may obtain information about your use of our Mobile Services on their devices.

9. TERMINATION AND CANCELLATION

9.1 Cancelling a Subscription: We or You may cancel your access and use of Teen Ink at any time for any reason.

9.2 Disputes: You agree that discontinuing Your use of Teen Ink is Your sole right and remedy with respect to any dispute you may have with us or Teen Ink.

9.3 No Access After Cancellation or Termination: You understand and agree that You no longer will have access to any of Teen Ink, or access to any content you may have stored on Teen Ink, after Your account is terminated or canceled. After your account is deactivated or terminated, we have no obligation to retain, store, or provide you with any data, information, e-mail, or other content that you uploaded, stored, transferred, sent, mailed, received, forwarded, posted or otherwise uploaded or transmitted through Teen Ink, and we may allow a subsequent user to register and use a similar Screen Name. We also have no obligation to remove any public data, content, or other information that you posted on a Service or reactivate your account.

10. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES:

YOUR USE OF TEEN INK IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. TEEN INK IS PROVIDED "AS IS," "WITH ALL FAULTS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, UNLESS SUCH WARRANTIES ARE LEGALLY INCAPABLE OF EXCLUSION. SPECIFICALLY, WE, OR VENDORS, ARTISTS AND DISTRIBUTORS DISCLAIM IMPLIED WARRANTIES THAT TEEN INK IS MERCHANTABLE, OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, ACCURATE, FIT FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NEED, OR NON-INFRINGING.

11. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY:

WE, OUR VENDORS, ARTISTS AND DISTRIBUTORS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGE ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF TEENINK OR FOR ANY OTHER CLAIM RELATED IN ANY WAY TO YOUR USE OF TEENINK. THESE EXCLUSIONS FOR INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES INCLUDE, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA, LOSS OF GOODWILL, WORK STOPPAGE, COMPUTER FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION, OR ANY OTHER COMMERCIAL DAMAGES OR LOSSES, EVEN IF WE HAD BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY THEREOF AND REGARDLESS OF THE LEGAL OR EQUITABLE THEORY UPON WHICH THE CLAIM IS BASED. BECAUSE SOME STATES OR JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR THE LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, IN SUCH STATES OR JURISDICTIONS, OUR LIABILITY IN SUCH STATE OR JURISDICTION SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. EXCEPT FOR OFFERS EXPRESSLY MADE OR GUARANTEED BY US, WE AND OUR SUPPLIERS DO NOT ENDORSE, WARRANT OR GUARANTEE ANY PRODUCT OR SERVICE OFFERED THROUGH US AND WILL NOT BE A PARTY TO OR IN ANY WAY BE RESPONSIBLE FOR MONITORING ANY TRANSACTION BETWEEN YOU AND THIRD-PARTY PROVIDERS OF PRODUCTS OR SERVICES.

12. INDEMNIFICATION

12.1 Indemnification: Upon a request by us, You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless us and our suppliers from all liabilities, claims and expenses, including attorneys' fees, that arise from a breach of this TOS for which You are responsible or from the use of Teen Ink or Internet, or in connection with Your transmission of any content on Teen Ink.

12.2 Defense and Control of Claims: We reserve the right, at our own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by You. In that event, You shall have no further obligation to provide indemnification for us in that matter.

13. GENERAL LEGAL TERMS

13.1 Terms: This TOS, as published on Teen Ink, any supplemental terms and our policies constitute the entire and only agreement regarding Your use of Teen Ink. This TOS supersedes all representations, agreements and other communications regarding Your use of Teen Ink. Only we can amend this TOS by posting the changes on Teen Ink.

13.2 Severability: If a court of law finds that any term of this TOS is unenforceable, the term shall be deemed stricken from this TOS as if it had not been included from the beginning and the remainder of this TOS enforced according to its terms.

13.3 No Rights Conferred on Third-Parties: This TOS does not confer any rights or remedies from us upon any third party, that is, any person or entity other than You.

13.4 Assignment: We may assign this contract at any time without notice to You. You may not assign this contract to anyone else.

13.5 Choice of Law and Location for Resolving Disputes: You agree that the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts govern this contract and any claim or dispute that you may have against us, without regard to Massachusetts’ conflict of laws rules. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods shall have no applicability. You further agree that any disputes or claims that you may have against us resides in and will be resolved by a state or Federal court located in Loudoun County, Virginia, and you agree and submit to the exercise of personal jurisdiction of such courts for the purpose of litigating any such claim or action.

PLEASE NOTE THAT BY AGREEING TO THESE TERMS OF USE, YOU ARE: (1) WAIVING CLAIMS THAT YOU MIGHT OTHERWISE HAVE AGAINST US BASED ON THE LAWS OF OTHER JURISDICTIONS, INCLUDING YOUR OWN; (2) IRREVOCABLY CONSENTING TO THE EXCLUSIVE JURISDICTION OF, AND VENUE IN, STATE OR FEDERAL COURTS IN THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA OVER ANY DISPUTES OR CLAIMS YOU HAVE WITH US; AND (3) SUBMITTING YOURSELF TO THE PERSONAL JURISDICTION OF COURTS LOCATED IN THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS FOR THE PURPOSE OF RESOLVING ANY SUCH DISPUTES OR CLAIMS.

13.6 Electronic Delivery Policy and Your Consent: You consent to receive all communications, including notices, agreements, legally required disclosures or other information in connection with Teen Ink electronically from us (collectively, "Notices"). You agree that we may send You Notices by (i) e-mail to Your e-mail address provided by You at registration, and/or (ii) by "pop up notice" on Teen Ink and/or by (iii) posting the Notices on a main page or channel page of the relevant service on Teen Ink. You must check Your e-mail and our web sites regularly for Notices from us.

You will need a printer attached to Your personal computer to print any Notices. Our TOS is available for printing.

The delivery of any Notice from us is effective when sent by us, regardless of whether You read the communication or when You receive it.

If you want to withdraw Your consent to receive notices, You may not use Teen Ink and you must discontinue Your use of Teen Ink. If You choose to withdraw consent, we may terminate Your access to Teen Ink.

13.7 Effect of Electronic Registration: All registrations, agreements, and terms will be completed electronically and will be deemed for all legal purposes to be in writing and legally enforceable as a signed writing.

Last Updated: July 19, 2012