If your content was rejected with "Potentially inappropriate depiction or description of a person’s race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion, or age," it is most likely because of one of the following issues:
The content’s subject matter, title, and/or keywords depict/describe a person’s race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion, or age in an inaccurate way or in a way that can be interpreted as being offensive, derogatory, or promoting a harmful stereotype.
The content, title, and/or keywords contain outdated terminology that has become offensive over time or is no longer considered appropriate.
People-first language was not used to describe a person with a disability (e.g., terms such as “a diabetic” or “an epileptic” were used).
People-first language is Shutterstock’s preferred language style of choice. When this language style is not used, submissions will run the risk of being rejected for either Objectionable Metadata or Inappropriate Representation. Identity-first language is reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
Examples of Acceptable Concepts and Metadata
Image by Michelle D. Milliman
Title: Biracial family walking along a wooden bridge.
Keywords: african american, baby, bare, barefoot, biracial, blue, bridge, caucasian, dad, daughter, diverse, family, father, foot, fun, girl, hands, happy, hiking, holding, jeans, mom, mother, nature, outdoors, park, path, racial, smiling, spring, summer, togetherness, walking, wooden
Image by Odua Images
Title: Portrait of happy Muslim family with children reading the Quran and praying together at home.
Keywords: allah, asian, culture, daughter, faith, family, father, god, happy, hijab, holy, home, indonesian, islam, islamic, koran, livingroom, man, mother, muslim, parent, practice, prayer, quran, read, religion, religious, spiritual, together, worship
Image by Goncharov_Artem
Title: Portrait of a young woman athlete with an amputated arm and burns on her body. She holds a basketball after training outdoors at sunset.
Keywords: achievement, activity, adult, amputation, amputee, burn, dedication, determination, disability, exercising, female, fit, fitness, girl, happy, health, lifestyle, motivation, outdoors, practicing, preparation, sport, strength, strong, workout
Image by Mix Tape
Title: Portrait of lovely lesbian couple having fun and taking a selfie against a light blue background. LGBT concept.
Keywords: beauty, couple, embracing, female, fun, girlfriend, happy, joy, laughing, leisure, lesbian, lgbt, lgbtq+, looking, love, photographing, picture, portrait, pretty, pride, relationship, romantic, same-sex, selfie, smile, together, woman, young
We Recommend
Do your research to ensure you are using up-to-date and inclusive language. Online resources and style guides, like the ones listed in the “We Recommend” section of the Guidelines for Submitting Diverse & Inclusive Content article, can help with crafting appropriate titles and are useful for finding relevant terms for keywords.
When referring to a person’s race or ethnicity, use adjectives and not nouns, as in “a Hispanic person” (adj.) rather than “a Hispanic” (n.).
Avoid guessing a model’s race, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation, or gender. Ideally, the model will provide you with this information when shooting so you can create titles and keywords that are accurate and reflect how the model self-identifies. If they don’t provide this information, you may want to respectfully ask them for it. Make sure you have the model's informed consent before submitting this information along with their image/clip. Refrain from making assumptions about an individual’s identity so you do not misidentify them.
Use good judgment when creating concepts that explain or shed light on sensitive topics such as discrimination, racism, etc. Be careful not to depict or describe individuals in ways that can be interpreted as being hateful or offensive.
When describing people with disabilities, use people-first language. For example, rather than saying “a cripple,” “a mute,” “an epileptic,” say “a person who lives with a disability,” “a person who has a communication disorder,” “a person with epilepsy” respectively. Additional examples can be found in the table below:
Avoid terms such as: | Instead, use language such as: |
afflicted by/with [name of disability], stricken with [name of disability], suffers from [name of disability], victim of [name of disability] | person/people living with [name of disability], person/people with [name of disability], man/boy/woman/girl with [name of disability] |
aspy, aspie | person/people with aspergers, autistic person, person with autism, person on the autism spectrum, neuroatypical, neurodivergent |
birth defect | congenital disability, birth anomaly |
brain-damaged, brain-impaired | person with a brain injury |
cripple/crippled/crip/crippled by | people with disability (women with disability, child with a disability, etc), has disability, lives with disability, has a chronic health condition, lives with a chronic health condition |
deformed | person with a physical disability |
the disabled | person with a disability, people with disability (e.g., women with disability, child with a disability, etc.), has disability, lives with disability, has a chronic health condition, lives with a chronic health condition |
dumb, mute | person who has a communication disorder, is unable to speak, or uses a device to speak |
epileptic | person with epilepsy or seizure disorder |
epileptic attack/fit//spell | seizures, epileptic episode or event |
handicap/handicapped/handicapable | person with a disability, people with disability (e.g., women with disability, children with disability, etc), has disability, lives with disability, has a chronic health condition, lives with a chronic health condition |
handicapped parking/bathroom | accessible parking or bathrooms, parking or bathrooms for people with disabilities |
hunchback/humpback | person with spinal curvature |
intellectually challenged, mentally disabled, mentally handicapped | person with an intellectual disability, person with a cognitive disability, person with a developmental disability, person with a learning disability. |
invalid, lame | person with a physical disability, disabled person |
mentally unstable | person with [name of disorder] (e.g. person with depression, person with bipolar disorder, etc), person with an emotional or behavioral disability, person with a mental health disability/condition, person with a mental health or a psychiatric disability, person with psychosocial disability, person with a mental health condition, |
mixed/mixed-race | multiracial/biracial/multiethnic/polyethnic |
mongoloid | person with down syndrome |
paraplegic, quadriplegic | person with spinal cord injury, man/woman with paraplegia/quadriplegia, man/woman who is paralyzed |
senile | person with alzheimer’s disease, person who has dementia |
special/special person/specially abled/special needs | person with an intellectual disability, person with a cognitive disability, person with a developmental disability, person with a learning disability. |
stutterer | person with a speech impairment, who has a speech disability, speech disorder, or communication disability |
vegetable/veg | person in a vegetative state |
wheelchair bound, confined/restricted to a wheelchair | person who uses a wheelchair, wheelchair user |
Helpful Resources
If you don’t understand the reason for the rejection of your images or if you need additional clarification, you can always contact contributor support.