How it works, explained
4 min read · Checked September 17, 2026
What happens on a detection
Explicit content gets a gate on your screen and a way to move on. A known adult site also sends one check-in text to your ally. Suggestive content gets a nudge and nothing more. Clean content gets nothing. Here is each, in order, using the real screens.
On this page
At a glance
What each verdict does
Clean
On your screen: Nothing. You keep scrolling.
To your ally: Nothing.
Suggestive
On your screen: A short nudge on your screen, with a way to move on.
To your ally: Nothing. Suggestive content never reaches your ally.
Explicit
On your screen: A gate goes up: “Explicit content detected.” You can proceed, or move on.
To your ally: On a known adult site, one check-in text: the app, the device and the time.
The gate reads “Explicit content detected.” and, for a known site, “This is an explicit domain.” It renders on your screen before any text goes out.
Explicit: gate, Move on, check-in
The gate goes up on your screen.
It reads "What are we doing here?" and, for a known explicit site, "This is a known explicit website." It is a gate, not a wall: you can proceed, or take the way out.
You can move on.
"Move on" closes the gate. On a supported feed (X, Reddit, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube or TikTok, in your browser on Mac or Windows), it first offers that platform's own block or "not interested", one tap. Nothing happens on the platform unless you tap it.
If explicit content is detected, a check-in text goes to your allies.
The gate always renders on your screen first, so you know before anyone else does. The text names the app, the device and the time, and says it is a good time to check in with you. Nothing else. Other explicit content gets the gate and no text.
The event is recorded on your device as a detection, without content.
You can see your own detection history in the app. Your ally cannot.
The honest line
The text fires on the gate itself, not on whether you proceed, and only when the gate was a known adult site. There is a ceiling: at most three check-in texts a day, one per half-hour burst, and up to 8 messages a day in total with the other notices. Over that, the gate still shows and the event is still recorded.
Suggestive: a nudge, and nothing else
The suggestive tier is for content that is sexualized but not explicit. It is deliberately soft. When that kind of content stays on your screen for a moment, a short nudge appears with a "Move on" action that takes you off the page. If you ignore it, it retires on its own after a few seconds. On Android, closing the tab dismisses it.
The promise
A suggestive detection never texts your ally and never leaves the device. It is a signal to you, from you.
Clean: nothing at all
Almost everything you look at is clean. The frame is classified, discarded, and forgotten. No event, no record, no text. On Guard is quiet by default because a guard that talks all day gets ignored.
What you see, later
- A detection history in the app: that a gate or a nudge fired, when, and on which device. It holds no screenshots.
- The dashboard status: "On guard" while real-time defense is running, and the Permissions card if something needs attention.
- On builds that include it, Settings → Test your guard: a Block test that fires the real chain on a decoy page and sends the TEST text to your own phone, and a Feed test that fires the real nudge on a demo feed. Test runs never count toward your history and never text an ally.
Watch it work The walkthrough of the gate, Move on, and the text.
Questions
Does On Guard block the page?
It gates it. The gate is a real interruption with a real way out, but you can proceed. On a known adult site the deterrent is that your ally hears about it, not that the page is unreachable.
Does my ally get told when I proceed past the gate?
No. The text fires when the gate goes up. What you do next stays on your device.
What does "Move on" do?
It closes the gate. On a supported feed it first offers that platform's own block or "not interested", one tap, and nothing happens on the platform unless you tap it.
Why did I get a nudge but my ally got nothing?
Because it was the suggestive tier. Suggestive detections are on-device nudges only. Only a gate on a known adult site sends a check-in.
Checked September 17, 2026 against the shipping app. If something here no longer matches what you see, email team@stayonguard.app.
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