Breaking the rules Facebook sets for Dating, or failing its basic account checks. Facebook says you must follow its Community Standards while you use Dating, and you must not lie about who you are, including your name, your age or where you live. You must not sell or advertise anything, and you must not post photos of a child who is on their own or unclothed. You can also lose access if you are under 18, if your Facebook account is new or inactive, or if you broke Facebook's Terms of Service or its other policies.

The short list Facebook gives

Facebook's help pages for Dating are brief on this. They do not publish a long catalog of offenses. They point you to the Community Standards that already govern the rest of Facebook, then add a few rules that matter more once romance is involved.

Those extra rules come down to three things. Be the person your account says you are. Do not use Dating as a shop window. Keep children out of anything that could be misread.

Then there is a quieter group of reasons you can lose Dating without doing anything on that list. Those catch men by surprise, so they get their own section below.

Lying about your name, age or where you live

This is the rule men are most likely to bend, and they usually bend it in small ways they think are harmless.

Taking three years off your age. Listing the nicer neighborhood across the river. Using a nickname that is not really your name. Facebook's rule covers all three, because it names your name, your age and your location specifically.

Leave the rule aside for a second, and the lie still does not pay. a dating coach describes the other side of this: showing up to meet a woman who does not look like her photos, and spending the date disappointed. It works the same way in reverse. A woman who finds out you are older than you said, or live further out than you claimed, does not think "close enough". She spends the evening wondering what else you edited.

If you are traveling, say so plainly in your messages. That is honest, and it saves both of you a wasted week.

Treating your matches as customers

Facebook bans selling or advertising goods or services on Dating, and that reaches further than it sounds.

Most men are not opening a store. But a man who runs a gym, sells cars, promotes a club night or has a side business he is excited about will be tempted to mention it. Talking about your work is normal conversation. Pitching it is not. The line is whether you are asking her to buy, book, sign up or send anything.

There is a second reason to stay well away from it. Facebook's own safety page treats any online love interest who asks for money as a likely scammer. So a pitch in your messages does not just break a rule. It makes you sound exactly like the accounts women have been warned about.

Photos with children in them

Facebook says you must not post photos of an unaccompanied or unclothed minor on Dating.

The simplest way to stay inside that rule is to leave children out of your Dating photos altogether. A nephew on your shoulders at the beach is a lovely picture. It is also a child, often in swimwear, on a dating account, which is exactly the situation the rule was written for.

There is a plain dating reason as well. A photo with a small child makes her wonder whose child it is. You do not want your first few messages spent explaining your sister's kids.

Losing access without breaking a rule

Some men lose Dating without doing anything on the list, and it confuses them.

Facebook says access also depends on the account itself. You have to be 18 or older. And an account that is new, or one that has been inactive, can lose access too. Facebook does not say how new counts as too new, or how long counts as inactive, so do not assume a number.

The practical answer is to use the Facebook account you actually live on. A fresh account made just for dating is the kind that runs into this rule. And if you ever do lose access, do not open another account to get back in. That turns a problem you might have sorted out into a much bigger one.

Staying clear of all of it

None of this is hard to avoid, and the habits that keep your access safe are the same ones that get you dates on any of the dating apps.

Use your real name, your real age and the place you actually live. Keep your photos recent and honest, with no children in them. Keep your job as something you mention, never something you sell. Write your messages about her and about a plan to see her, and treat the women on Dating the way you would treat them across a table.

A man who does that never has to read the Community Standards twice. He is too busy setting up the date.