Terms of Use

What Bentwall is

Bentwall (bentwall.com) is a public wall of single photographs, operated by Haas & Reed B.V., registered in the Netherlands under number 68817940, at Mantelmeeuwhof 15, 3582 DN Utrecht, the Netherlands (“we”, “us”).

• Shown, not sold. Nothing on Bentwall is for sale. There are no prices, no purchases and no payments.
• Newest first, nothing promoted. Works appear in the order they were hung. There is no recommendation algorithm and no paid or promoted placement, for anyone, including us.
• Reviewed by a person. Every work is looked at by a person before it goes up. We apply the editorial standard in Sections 4 and 6.
• Run on BentBox. Bentwall uses the account, verification and storage systems of BentBox (bentbox.co), which we also operate. A Bentwall account is a BentBox account (Section 2). Works hung on Bentwall also appear on the Art Wall at bentbox.co. You never need to use bentbox.co; if you do, BentBox’s own terms govern it.

We host works that photographers choose to show; we don’t commission, produce or direct them. Photographers keep every right in their work (Section 7).

These Terms, with our Privacy Policy and the standard described on About Bentwall, are the whole agreement between you and us about Bentwall. If you don’t agree, please don’t use it.

1. Definitions

Bentwall

The website at https://bentwall.com and everything available through it.

Work

A single photograph shown, or sent to be shown, on Bentwall, with its title, caption and other details.

Photographer

An adult with an Account who sends Works to Bentwall.

Visitor

Anyone who uses Bentwall, with or without an account.

Account

The BentBox account you use to sign in to Bentwall.

Certification

The statement a Photographer accepts for each Work: that it is their own work, that everyone pictured is 18 or over, and that they agreed to it being shown.

ProntoID

The identity and age verification service operated by Brooks & Keitt Sàrl, a company separate from and independent of us, or another provider we appoint.

2. Your account

2.1 One account, two sites

Creating an account on Bentwall creates a free BentBox account. The same username and password sign you in on Bentwall and on bentbox.co. If you already have a BentBox account, use it here; there’s nothing new to create.

2.2 What you agree to

• You are 18 or over, and give accurate information.
• You keep your password to yourself and tell us straight away if someone else uses your account.
• You are responsible for what happens under your account.
• Your username is how your work is credited. It must not impersonate someone else or mislead.

2.3 Signing in

If two-step sign-in is on, we email you a code each time you sign in from a new connection. Codes work for an hour, once, on the connection they were sent to.

3. Showing your work

3.1 Verification

Before you show a Work that contains nudity, you verify your identity and age once, through ProntoID. Work without nudity can be sent without it. Your documents are held by ProntoID, not by us, and are never shown to anyone (see the Privacy Policy). Whether a Work contains nudity is confirmed at review; a Work with nudity is not shown unless its Photographer is verified. We may ask any Photographer to verify at any time.

3.2 Certification

Each time you send a Work you confirm, and you warrant to us, that:

• it is your own photograph, and you have every right needed to show it;
• everyone pictured was 18 or over when it was taken, whether or not the Work contains nudity;
• everyone pictured freely agreed to the photograph, and agreed to it being shown publicly on Bentwall;
• it is a photograph: no part of what is pictured was generated or invented by AI (Section 4);
• what you say about it, including whether it contains nudity and who is in it, is true.

We keep a record of each Certification: the statement, its version, when you accepted it, and from where.

3.3 People other than you

If anyone other than you is pictured, you are responsible for their consent, and for any record of it that the law where you or they live requires. We may ask you, at any time, to verify through ProntoID the identity and age of anyone pictured, or to show their consent to being shown. If you can’t, or what you provide doesn’t match the Work, we take the Work down. We may take a Work down at once, without asking first, where we have reason to believe anyone in it was under 18 or did not consent.

3.4 Limits

You may send up to 10 Works every 24 hours, each at least 1200 pixels on its long edge.

4. What hangs here

Bentwall is for artistic photography: work that would be recognised as such from a photographer’s point of view, made with intent in its light, composition and subject.

Art nude, not glamour. Nudity is welcome where it is the subject of the photograph as art: a figure study, a body in a landscape, the play of light on skin. It is not accepted where the photograph’s purpose is erotic or to show a body for its sexual appeal. Whether a Work is art nude is decided at review, as a matter of editorial judgement (Section 6).

No AI. Every Work must be a photograph of something that was in front of the camera. Images generated by AI, and photographs in which AI has added, removed or changed people, bodies or faces, are not accepted. Ordinary corrections to exposure, colour, contrast, cropping and retouching of blemishes are fine.

Works with nudity must be marked as such when sent; they are covered for Visitors until they confirm they are 18 or over (Section 12).

5. Never allowed

Separately from the standard in Section 4, the following are prohibited on Bentwall. Sending them can lead to immediate closure of your account and, where the law requires or we consider it right, a report to the authorities:

• anyone under 18, or anyone made to appear under 18;
• any image published without the consent of a person in it, or taken without their knowledge;
• synthetic or AI-generated imagery of a real, identifiable person;
• anything involving trafficking, coercion, or a person unable to consent;
• stolen, hacked or leaked images, and anything that infringes someone’s copyright or other rights;
• hate speech, harassment, or dehumanisation of a person or group on the basis of a protected characteristic;
• terrorist or violent extremist content, or the glorification of genocide or mass atrocities;
• content promoting self-harm, suicide or disordered eating;
• another person’s private information;
• using Bentwall to advertise, solicit or arrange anything, including in-person meetings or services, or to direct people elsewhere to buy content.

6. Review

Every Work is reviewed by a person before it appears, usually within a day. Automated checks (counting faces, estimating age, detecting explicit content and duplicates) only flag Works for closer human review; they never make the decision.

Beyond Sections 4 and 5, we may decline a Work, or later take it off the wall, where in our judgement it is of poor technical quality, doesn’t fit the look and spirit of the wall, or shows no evident artistic intent. Such a decision is about the Work, never about you or anyone in it, and is not a finding that you broke these Terms. We tell you the reason, and you can send a different Work, or ask for a review (Section 9).

7. Your rights in your work

You keep every right in your Works. Nothing is assigned or transferred to us.

By sending a Work you give us a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to store it, make web-sized copies, and display it on Bentwall and on the Art Wall at bentbox.co, credited to you, for as long as it is on the wall. The licence ends when the Work comes down, except for what the law requires us to keep. We don’t sublicense your Works to anyone else.

Connections

A Photographer can connect one of their Works to another Work on the wall, and say how they relate, in one of two ways:

• Noted. That Photographer’s view that the Works belong together. Nothing appears on either Work’s page, but the other Work’s Photographer is told who made the connection and between which Works. Only the Photographer who made it can remove it, at any time.
• Shown. The other Work’s Photographer is asked, and the connection appears only if they accept. Either of them can take it down at any time. A shown connection displays a link and a thumbnail of each Work on the other’s page, under the same licence as above.

Bentwall may use connections, noted and shown, to help people find related work, without ever showing publicly who noted what. Connections are never used to rank or order the wall.

We may occasionally show a Work that is already public on Bentwall in Bentwall’s own promotion, for example on social media, always credited to you and linking to your page. You can opt out at any time by writing to info@bentbox.co, and we will remove what we have posted. Opting out has no other effect.

If you believe a Work infringes your copyright, write to info@bentbox.co with a link to it and details of your rights.

8. Taking work down

• Your own work: take it down whenever you like from your page. It leaves the wall at once.
• If you are pictured in a Work: write to info@bentbox.co with a link. You don’t need an account or a reason, whatever you signed. If you didn’t agree to it being shown, it comes off the wall while we look into it.

Taking a Work down removes it from public view. We keep the record that it met our age and consent requirements for the period described in the Privacy Policy.

9. Reports and appeals

To report a Work, write to info@bentbox.co with a link to it and what is wrong. Reports of child sexual abuse material, trafficking or a threat to life are acted on immediately. Reports of images shown without consent are prioritised, and the Work is covered or removed while we investigate; you don’t need to show you own it.

When we decline or remove a Work, or restrict or close an account, we give the Photographer a statement of reasons: the standard we applied, why, whether automated means were involved, and how to challenge it, unless the law or an investigation prevents us.

You can appeal within six months by writing to info@bentbox.co with “Appeal” in the subject. A person who was not involved in the original decision looks at it, and we aim to answer within fourteen days. If the appeal succeeds, the Work goes back up. A review of an editorial decision under Section 6 considers whether the standard was applied fairly and consistently; the judgement of quality and fit remains ours. There is no appeal against a decision taken because a Work showed, or appeared to show, someone under 18.

You can also take a dispute to an out-of-court dispute settlement body certified under Article 21 of the Digital Services Act, or to court.

10. Child protection

Any image of a person under 18 in a state of undress, or in any sexual or suggestive context, and anything that simulates it, including adults made to look like minors, is absolutely prohibited, as is any discussion of such material. We remove it, close the account, and report it to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and to law enforcement. We cooperate fully with any law-enforcement investigation.

If you see anything on Bentwall that may involve a minor, report it to info@bentbox.co immediately.

11. Exploitation and trafficking

We have zero tolerance for human trafficking, coercion and exploitation of any kind. Every person in every Work must have taken part freely, and every Photographer must act on their own behalf, in control of their own account. We report suspected trafficking to law enforcement. To report it, write to info@bentbox.co with “URGENT: Trafficking Report” in the subject; in the US you can also call the National Human Trafficking Hotline on 1-888-373-7888. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.

12. Covered works

Bentwall is open to look at without an account, and is curated for a general audience: every Work is reviewed before it appears, and most contain no nudity. Works with nudity, which must be art nudes (Section 4), are covered until a Visitor confirms they are 18 or over; the answer is remembered on that device. That confirmation is the Visitor’s own statement, and we don’t verify it.

If minors in your care use your devices, you are responsible for what they see. Parental control tools can help.

13. Closing an account

You can close your account at any time by writing to info@bentbox.co. Because your account is also your BentBox account, closing it closes both. Your Works leave the wall.

We may suspend or close an account that breaks these Terms, puts other people at risk, or that we are required to close by law. Except where the law or an investigation prevents it, we tell you why and how to appeal (Section 9).

14. Liability

Bentwall is provided “as is”. We don’t promise it will always be available or free of errors. To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect, incidental or consequential loss arising from your use of Bentwall. You agree to compensate us for claims and losses that arise from Works you sent or from your breach of these Terms. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, or your rights as a consumer.

15. General

• Law and courts. These Terms are governed by Dutch law. Disputes go to the competent court in Utrecht, the Netherlands, without affecting the mandatory protections of the law where you live.
• Changes. We may update these Terms. We change the date at the top, and tell account holders of material changes by email or on the site before they take effect. Continuing to use Bentwall after that means you accept the new Terms.
• Severability. If any part of these Terms can’t be enforced, the rest still applies.
• Contact. Haas & Reed B.V., Mantelmeeuwhof 15, 3582 DN Utrecht, the Netherlands. Email info@bentbox.co.