Convention Harassment Policies

Conventions listed here are rated on various criteria that we look for in a quality harassment policy. If you're thinking of attending a convention, you can check out its "report card" to see how they stack up. Disappointed in their score? You can contact them—or ask us to—and request they add to their policy. If you run a convention and you've changed your policy to make it better, let us know and we'll update accordingly!

If you run a convention and you're looking to see a sample harassment policy, we've put one together here. We also have a pamphlet on what constitutes a good policy and how to contact conventions to ask them to improve it that can be downloaded here.

Criteria:

For starters, do they even have a policy? You would assume all conventions do at this point, but there are still some that do not have a policy posted on their website. Every convention should have this on their webpage—no exceptions. Such a policy needs to explicitly mention harassment; it's not enough to just say "if it's illegal, don't do it." Some conventions will have paragraph after paragraph about prop and weapon guidelines, but a code of conduct that consists of little more than "be nice and don't ruin other people's experience." A policy that specifically shows the word "harassment" but is limited to "no harassment," "harassment will not be tolerated," or "we have a zero-tolerance policy for harassment" with no further explanation, resources, or consequences can only receive an asterisk. Discord servers do not count as a website and any information about a harassment policy located solely on a Discord server cannot be counted as "publicly available" information. Lastly, conventions need to have their policies up on their website year-round, not just before the event or intermittently throughout the year, because our ratings come from publicly available information. We can't rate a policy that does not exist at the time of review.

If they do have a policy listed on their site, is it easy to find? The policy should be either directly linked on the home page or found in a place that intuitively makes sense, such as under general policies, event information, or FAQs. It should not be only in an "attendees" section, or labeled as "attendee rules." This implies that staff, vendors, and volunteers don't have to comply with it. It shouldn't take more than three (3) mouse clicks to get there. If someone is being harassed, they don't have time to waste clicking all over a page trying to locate information they need.

Does the policy actually define harassment? Does it list examples of behaviors that are unacceptable, while specifying that such a list is not all-inclusive? Simply saying, "Cosplay is NOT Consent" is not enough; the term is too vague and fails to cover attendees who may not be in cosplay.

Does the policy explain what the consequences of harassment will be? Often policies just assure you that staff will "deal with" a situation. Good policies should clearly list possible consequences, such as confiscation of a badge, removal from the event, and/or being banned from any future events.

Does the policy explain what to do if con staff are the ones engaging in harassment? Nobody wants to believe someone in their organization could do such a thing, but just pretending like it won't happen isn't a solution. The policy needs to indicate to attendees who they can contact if they have a conflict with staff—hotel staff, outside security, etc. A policy that just says "call the police" isn't acceptable. Not every case of harassment needs police intervention, and people may be too frightened to call law enforcement.

Is there a contact listed so people know who to reach out to if they are harassed? A policy that says "find staff" is not acceptable. What do attendees do if a staff member isn't close by? What about people with mobility issues who may not be able to easily reach ConOps? There should be a phone number or email listed in the policy—and preferably on every badge and posted throughout the venue—so attendees can use their phone to reach someone for help.

If you know of a convention that needs to be added to the list or have updated your own convention's policy, you can fill out the form here. If you find any broken links or have any questions about this page, please contact Fractali at admin@cosplayer-ssn.org. This is a perpetual work in progress!

A means they meet the criterion.
A means they have partially met the criterion.
A means they fail the criterion.

Even if a convention has a , there may still be room for improvement. For example, a convention may get a for having a policy, but if they have a for the rest of the categories, that indicates their policy is not sufficient.

An evaluation of 6/6 is NOT an endorsement for the convention. We are not affiliated with any convention and do not provide endorsements. We can never fully audit any policy without falsifying a report of harassment, which is unhelpful and morally wrong, or without experiencing harassment ourselves, which we would hope you do not expect, and your mileage may vary from the evaluations below. If you have an issue with an incident at a particular convention, we encourage you to contact that specific convention. We do not get involved in issues where a report was not handled to the satisfaction of the reporter by any convention. If you harass members of CSSN based on your belief that our evaluations are endorsements or because your experiences reflect something other than the evaluation score listed, we reserve the right to block you from interacting with us.

Last updated: 11.18 - December anime cons evaluated and 10 added that were previously not listed. Some additional notes made to several New Mexico cons. Florida and Utah have warnings added to the top of the page regarding their bathroom/facility laws that restrict transgender people from utilizing what best fits their gender/gender identity. In the next round of updates, we anticipate adding more warnings to applicable states. In the meantime, please be sure to check state laws in advance for each convention you attend. We also plan to fix or remove broken links in the coming updates. Thanks to all newcomers checking out our website for the first time!
10.15 - Thanks to first-time evaluated cons Daku Con and Miryokucon for your 6/6 policies! November anime cons evaluated and 16 added that were previously not listed.

Of 954 conventions reviewed as of 10.15.2024, only 53 meet or have met all the criteria, with 7 of those being confirmed (^**) or suspected (^*) to be inactive:

Anime Boston	Anime Crossroads	Anime CTX^*	Animé Los Angeles	Anime North Texas^*
Anime Weekend Atlanta	Arizona Game Fair^**	Aselia Con^**	Chicago TARDIS	Colorado Anime Fest
Comicpalooza	Con Nichiwa	ConFusion	Connecticon	CONvergence
Daku Con	EvilleCon	Fan X Salt Lake Comic Con,	Fan Expo Boston	Fan Expo Canada (CAN)
Fan Expo Dallas	FanimeCon	Flower City Comic Con	Gen Con	Hazardcon
Historicon	Kentokyocon	Kikori Con	KuroNekoCon	Long Island Doctor Who
Louisiana Comic Con	LumiCon^*	Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo (MICE)	Miryokucon^*	Mobile Bay Anime Festival
Multiverse	Nan Desu Kan	Nomikai Dallas^**	Ohayocon	Pittsburgh Gaming Expo
Pretty Heroes (CAN)	RamenCon	River City Steampunk Expo	Sabakucon	Sangawa Project
Shikkaricon	Tekko	TokenCon	Whinny City Pony Con	Windycon
WisCon	YumeConUSA		Zenkaikon

District of Columbia (3) | Puerto Rico (1)

If you cannot see the map, prefer a list, or need to check non-US conventions, see below: