Controlling Access to Ideograms

Particular embodiments of a method comprise providing one or more ideograms (e.g., written characters, symbols or images that represent an idea or thing) for insertion into a message. A request may be received from a user for a restricted one of the ideograms. A determination may be made as to whether the user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram. This determination may be based on whether the user is a member of a group of authorized users, whether an attribute of the user meets a restriction requirement, or whether the request comprises an authorization code or token. If the user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram, then the restricted ideogram may be displayed to the user in association with the message. Otherwise, a restricted-content response may be generated.