Terms and conditions of use

To ensure the best possible experience for registered users and visitors, the European School Education Platform applies:

specific terms and conditions of use for all users, including an acceptable use policy
an eTwinning code of conduct, applicable to validated eTwinning users.

By registering on the European School Education Platform, you agree to the terms and conditions of use. If you also register and are validated in eTwinning, you also agree to comply with the eTwinning code of conduct.

The European Commission’s legal notice and our data protection notice also apply to the use of the European School Education Platform.

The European Commission reserves the right to modify the terms and conditions at any time. For significant changes, registered users will be notified at least 14 days in advance by posting the updated terms on the platform or by email. Minor changes can be made without notice.

General conditions applicable to the European School Education Platform

The European School Education Platform is free of charge for both users who publish posts and those who browse posts.

‘Posts’ refers to posts published in the partner search area by registered users.

Posts are created by independent individuals and organisations. They are not pre-approved by the European Commission, National Support Organisations (NSOs), Erasmus+ National Agencies (NAs) or platform administrators.
The European Commission does not endorse any views, opinions or advice expressed by registered users through posts. A post does not have to be included in the European School Education Platform to be an eligible Erasmus+ activity. The eligibility of Erasmus+ activities is defined solely by the Erasmus+ programme guide.
The European School Education Platform reserves the right to edit, move or delete any content that violates these terms and conditions, without prior notice.

Acceptable use policy

If you publish a post, you should adhere to the following rules:

Accuracy: You are responsible for providing accurate and relevant information, including updating it when necessary.
Intellectual property rights: You may not post or send any material (images, videos or text) that you do not have permission to use. By uploading or sharing any content, you warrant that you have secured all necessary licences and consents from third parties. You must provide proper attribution where required.
Authenticity: You may not impersonate any person or entity, nor misrepresent yourself.
Transparency: You may not manipulate content in any way that may mislead readers or conceal relevant information from them, including by providing any false or distorted information to improve visibility in platform search results.
Non-commercial use: You may not publish advertisements that give the impression that the advertisement itself or its advertiser is endorsed by or affiliated with the European School Education Platform. This applies even if such advertising occurs outside the platform, for example on search engines. Content posted for commercial purposes is prohibited.

Breach of terms and enforcement

Failure to comply with these terms may result in the following actions, taken at the discretion of the platform’s administrators:

Editing: modification of the post to ensure compliance.
Removal: immediate, temporary or permanent removal of posts that are abusive, false, duplicate, commercial or infringe on intellectual property rights.
Suspension: immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of your right to use the platform.

If your post is edited or removed, or if your access is denied, you may request the reasons for this decision through the helpdesk contact form. Repetitive or abusive requests will not be answered.

You may also request a review of the decision by contacting EAC-ESEP@ec.europa.eu within two weeks of the decision being made.

Indemnification

Users of the European School Education Platform agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless the European Commission, its officials, agents, contractors and administrators from and against any and all claims, liabilities, damages, losses and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in any way connected with their access to or use of the platform, their breach of these terms or their user-generated content.

eTwinning code of conduct

This code applies to eTwinners, users registered in eTwinning and validated by National Support Organisations (NSOs).

User-generated content in the restricted areas of the European School Education Platform (including posts, internal messages exchanged with other users, posts in ‘My eTwinning’ and materials within TwinSpaces and eTwinning groups) must comply with the following principles.

Core principles

Be inclusive and respectful: eTwinning is a safe, harassment-free space. Content must be respectful and inclusive. We do not allow insults, discrimination or incitement to violence based on race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender, age, disability or political opinion. Content promoting illegal acts, terrorism or hate crimes is strictly prohibited.
No hostile behaviour: Direct threats, bullying and harassment are not tolerated. Anyone caught bullying or harassing other eTwinners will be permanently banned. If you are threatened or bullied, please report the content via the ‘reporting’ mechanism or contact your NSO.
Do not use eTwinning for commercial purposes: Using eTwinning for commercial purposes is forbidden. Content relating to companies, initiatives or software with commercial intent will be removed.
Respect intellectual property rights: Before sharing pictures, videos, documents or any other resources on the platform, please make sure you have the right to do so.You must secure the necessary licences and provide proper attribution to the original authors.
Do not impersonate others: eTwinners cannot impersonate other individuals or groups/organisations they do not represent in a manner that is intended to mislead, confuse or deceive others.
Do not share pupils’ private data (minors): Do not publish any pupil personal data (including pictures, full names and dates of birth) on your public eTwinning profile, public TwinSpace pages or public eTwinning group pages. Where content portraying pupils is published as part of an eTwinning project, you must ensure that the necessary consent, or other appropriate legal basis for processing the pupils’ personal data, has been obtained. Where processing is based on consent, the applicable rules on children’s consent and parental responsibility under Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 must be observed. You must also share the data protection notice with your pupils and their parents/legal guardians. Read more about protecting pupil data in eTwinning.
Do not share private information or sensitive data, such as phone numbers or addresses.
Do not post or promote content that constitutes misinformation, disinformation or content that seeks to undermine the platform or the EU’s values.

Guidelines for online interaction

eTwinners should conduct their online interactions professionally, politely and respectfully. Please observe the following guidelines:

Use the internal message system carefully and responsibly. Check a user’s profile and availability for projects before contacting them.
Avoid spamming in forums. The Connect area of the European School Education Platform includes many different project ideas and partner-search messages. Before publishing a new post, check if there are other relevant messages on the subject and reply to them.
Only post relevant and appropriate comments on people’s posts. When posting a comment on someone’s profile in the eTwinning restricted area of the platform, make sure it is relevant to the user.
Avoid sending project invitations without any previous communication.
Targeted group invitations. Avoid inviting all your contacts to the eTwinning groups you manage, unless you are certain that these colleagues can participate. Random invitations to groups will be considered spam.

Violation of the code of conduct

What can you do if you feel that an eTwinner is not respecting the code of conduct?

If you find any content in the eTwinning restricted area of the platform that you think is offensive, infringes intellectual property rights or violates this code, use the ‘report’ button available below the post, message or page. Otherwise, contact your NSO with your reasons for reporting.

What happens if somebody is not respecting the code of conduct?

Failure to comply with this code may result in:

temporary or permanent removal of any user-generated content at any time, without prior notice
temporary or permanent banning from eTwinning
liability for damages incurred by the European Commission or administrators due to the violation.

In such cases, the eTwinner and their NSO will be informed of the reasons for the removal.

Users who are banned, temporarily or permanently, or whose material is removed, may request a review of the decision by contacting EAC-ESEP@ec.europa.eu within two weeks of the decision.