Safeguarding Children
Parents & Players Should Know:
Know who the club Child Protection Officer is and how to contact them if you have any concerns about the content of club web pages or in relation to the welfare of your child - Anthony Morton, 01302 249054
- Ensure you are aware of how coaches, managers and other members of the club should communicate with your child
- Show an interest in the communications between the club, you and your child. Open communication about club activities/issues often means that concerns are picked up early and issues can be resolved more easily
- Familiarise yourself with The Football League’s guidance for clubs in relation to websites, text messaging and social networking sites
Understand the club’s communication practices. If the club uses text messages or emails as a source of communication you may request to be copied into anything sent to your child
- Ensure your child understands that they should tell someone that they trust about communications that make them feel uncomfortable or when they’ve been asked not to tell their parent/carer or coach about the communication
- Remember as a parent/carer of a child at the club you and your child are responsible for and need to abide by the club policy, The Football League Policy Guidance and The FA Rules and Regulations regarding comments that you place online about the club or club officials, The Football League, players, managers, match officials, opposing teams players or family members of any of those groups
- Inform the club Child Protection Officer as soon as possible if you or your child receives any inappropriate communication from any member of staff/volunteer or other person associated with the club and save the communication
- Consider the Codes of Conducts of the club, The Football League and The FA as a guide to acceptable behaviour including behaviour online. The FA’s Codes of Conduct give guidance on appropriate behaviour www.thefa.com/Leagues/Respect/CodesofConduct
Look at the guidance offered by the Child Exploitation Online Protection (CEOP) centre; they provide guidance for parents/carers, children and young people.
Social Media Policy
Step 1 Focus and Vision
Doncaster Rovers recognise that many children and young people today are fully engaged in a fast moving and ever-changing world of technological advances, Most children have access to computers and smartphones either in school and/or at home. In addition the increasing use of smartphone technology with access to the mobile internet means that there are few restrictions on when and where children have access to social media sites.
Doncaster Rovers aims to provide a service to our existing and future fans and as a result chooses to use a range of social media sites to engage with young fans. Doncaster Rovers is committed to safeguarding the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults who engage with the club on any social media sites used by the club and as a result has developed a policy to support the club’s work on any such sites. The club recognises that any initial policy could very quickly develop into a more interactive involvement with young fans and therefore this policy will be reviewed on an annual basis or after the outcome of any serious issue or incident as a result of the use of social media sites by the club, by staff/volunteers or fans.
Aims
- To engage young fans of the future.
- To ensure the club site has direct links to e-safety safeguarding information incorporated including access to Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) link ‘click to report button’.
- Provide links to www.TheFA.com ‘Staying Safe Online’ pages.
- To provide access to the club social network site(s) directly through the company main website (to reduce the risk of people finding fake profiles).
- To regularly review the processes involved in the use of club social media sites by children under 18 years.
- To ensure that appropriate reporting procedures are followed if any abusive or illegal content or activity is identified.
Delivery
- Doncaster Rovers will be active on third party social networking sites which are known to engage with children, such as Twitter (clubs must provide information on all sites used by the club.
- Doncaster Rovers may launch their own custom built and legally owned social media / networking / children’s site(s) and, if appropriate, will develop guidelines on how they operate manage and monitor interaction with children and young people. Note: For those club’s who have appointed FL Interactive to operate their official club websites, the opportunity to develop additional electronic services is limited and before undertaking any work in this area, prior clearance from FLi should be obtained.
Management
Steve Uttley, Head of Media will be responsible for: -
- The internal management of any club social media systems commissioned or operated by the club. Where appropriate as in 2 above negotiate the establishment of any custom built or legally owned club social media sites which may be commissioned by the club.
- Establishing with any commissioning (FL Group) or commissioned service provider, acceptable standards for the privacy and moderation of the service and establish any other safeguards required.
- Ensuring that any partner agency abide by the rules and regulations of The Football League Guidance and The FA in that any comments posted are or may not be conceived as: offensive, insulting, abusive, threatening, racist, discriminatory or may cause offence or harm to others, including match or club officials, members of the club workforce, opposition teams or any person(s) associated with the activities of the club.
- Deciding which links will appear on any club site and the acceptability of access to other sites.
- Establishing acceptable use policy and sanctions for misuse. In addition clubs must cooperate with law enforcement agencies or The FL Group if required.
- Manage any other key staff or volunteers who may be involved in the monitoring of any internal or third party sites used by the club.
- Acting as the designated person who has contact with the Football League Group including FLi in addition being the point of telephone contact.
- Ensuring that the safeguarding expectations of the club are included in any third party contracts.
- Agreeing, in advance with contractor(s), privacy and safety tools including acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.
Monitoring:
Steve Uttley, Head of Media will be responsible for: -
- Monitoring legally approved use of club content of any third party websites used by the club, including Twitter, YouTube and similar sites.
- Monitoring the acceptable use policy and clarify unacceptable behaviour including harassment, defamation, obscene or abusive language, the uploading of libellous material, defamatory, obscene, illegal or violent, or depicting nudity. This list is not exhaustive and club may wish to add additional issues.
- Administering any sanctions for misuse which may include deletion of an account and / or cooperation with law enforcement or the FL Group including FLi.
- If appropriate, will be the Webmaster or key monitoring staff who has contact with children and young people who interact with the clubs webpage or profile.
Training and development:
Doncaster Rovers will support the Lead Designated Person (Webmaster) and other key monitoring staff or volunteers in understanding the responsibilities of the role by ensuring those staff have:
- Been cleared for work in football through the FA CRB process.
- Completed the FA Safeguarding Children Workshop and have the opportunity to attend annual Football League safeguarding workshops.
- The opportunity to access recognised safeguarding training which addresses online safety issues, available at http://www.ceop.police.uk/Training/
- The Football League Child Protection Advisor will assist in facilitating the training and development opportunities for this aspect of the club policy.