Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre

http://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/

CEOP have created a series of suggestions for organisations creating new websites or platforms:

CEOP would advise organisations to create a clear set of guidelines and policies for their website that is tailored to their individual requirements. Whilst we cannot provide this service to organisations on anindividual basis we would recommend some resources and websites that should help you create these policies, and we can advise on some of the key issues.

Initially, it is important to highlight that no website can be judged to be absolutely safe. The speed and reach of information and the ease of communication through the internet can lead to risks for young people- through their own conduct (e.g. bullying), inappropriate or offensive content or through the risks associated with adults contacting young people. However, there are certain areas you can focus on that can encourage good online behaviour on your website or service.

Terms and Conditions

If your organisation does not already have Terms and Conditions of service (for young people and staff) to sign up to it is important these are created. These are helpful as they provide a clear agreement aboutbehaviour for both groups when using the service as well as providing protection for both staff and young people.

The Terms and Conditions can include information on Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs) for those inside the organisation. You may wish to use existing AUPs as the basis for your Terms and Conditions.

Some good practice examples of AUPs are available here:- http://www.swgfl.org.uk/Staying-Safe/Content/News-Articles/Creating-an-e-safety-policy--Where-do-you-start-

We have also attached an older Becta document on AUPs.

Staff should have guidelines about how they can contact pupils or young people via the website or any social networking sites they may use. AUPs may also cover managing profiles and personal information for staffon social networks.

Child Protection Policy

Your organisation should have a child protection policy in place. These policies should also cover online behaviours. The NSPCC has information for organisations on creating child protection policies – for moreinformation on child protection please visit the NSPCC Inform pages on their website.

It is important to ensure that the same child protection principles that apply offline apply in your online contract with children and young people. For advice and information on policy, procedures and codes ofbehaviour please visit the Safe Network.

If you plan on having a website that will collect personal information of users, the Information Commissioner’s Office has useful informationon handling personal data and on broad data protection issues.

Issues to Consider

Monitor

When establishing your website or platform it is important to be clear what the site is for. You should consider how you can monitor content, comments and behaviour on the website or platform to ensure it fitswith your intentions for the site.

If you are using or creating a website where users can interact with each other e.g. a public chat room or forum, then having moderators that are active and visible on the site can act as a deterrent from inappropriatebehaviour. You should consider how you can safeguard your organisation’s responsibilities for the website by making it clear to users the times that the site will be monitored and where they can report outside of these times.

Moderators should be able to give general advice or guidance to users. They should also be aware of your child protection policies, and how to report or refer any issues internally to your organisation or to therelevant authorities. You should conduct appropriate background checks on your moderators through the Criminal Records Bureau or local equivalents.

Where content can be posted in a public space another thing to consider is if this content is pre or post moderated. There may be additional moderating or filtering software your organisation can use that willhelp you moderate and restrict inappropriate language and content.

The UK Council for Child Internet Safety released a guidance document on moderation in 2010 which I have attached for you here.

Verification

It is important to consider who your target audience is and how you intend your website or service to be used. You may wish to consider how you can ensure that the website is being used for its intended purposeand put procedures in place to prevent access to the site from those outside of your target group.

If the service is private or intended to be used by specific groups of young people you may wish to restrict access to the website by including a registration and verification process.

Culture of challenge

We feel that it is important that websites create an environment where young people can report content or inappropriate behaviour and are even encouraged to do so. Your website or service can reduce the risk ofpeople using the site to make inappropriate contact by having clear reporting functions for users.

As a part of the AUP or any Terms of Service on your website it should be made clear to users that inappropriate behaviour will not be tolerated. Your organisation should have a process for removing or banningthose that break these conditions, preferably with the ability to prevent them from trying to re-access the service.

Reporting

In the layout for your website or service you should consider how easy it is for young people or users to report to the site or moderators.

We recommend that you add the ClickCEOP reporting button to your site. This will enable users to report any concerns about inappropriate contact directly to us at CEOP. To add the ClickCEOP report button to yourwebsite or service register your details at www.thinkuknow.co.uk/assetslibrary.

The Click CEOP button provides a platform for reporting inappropriate sexual contact, however the Click CEOP pages also have information for young people, parents and carers and cover a range of topics.

Chat

CEOP would not recommend that young people use websites with a video chat feature, particularly where the site is open to public access.

One to one video chat is increasingly becoming a key element of social networking, as seen in the use of services such as Skype. These services are notably difficult to police and it is often not possible to moderatecontent.

CEOP is also aware of how randomised video chat websites can be extremely problematic and of major concern to parents, schools and educators. These are sites where users are connected at random to chat with anyoneelse who is on the service at the time.

As a result of randomised interactions with little or no social guidelines or supervision, the behaviour of users on these sites can become uninhibited or offensive as their online actions appear to be untraceableand without consequence.

People (young and old) that use these websites are susceptible to inappropriate chat and offensive behaviour which could lead to bullying or grooming behaviour. For example, CEOP are aware that offenders are ableto record the video of others using video chat websites, and by streaming these recorded videos they imitate others and mislead the person they are in a conversation with.

Visible advice and guidance

You should include space on your website or service dedicated to giving information and advice on online safety. You would be welcome to provide links to the Thinkuknowor CEOP websites. Other helpful websites to consider linking to would be the NSPCC’s Childlineservice or the Cybermentors websites.

We hope this information is helpful. If you have any queries please contact us.

Children & Young People’s Team

Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre

The CEOP Centre offers ...

Advice for parents and young people ...

Services for child protection professionals ...

A chance to get involved and protect children ...

For further information about CEOP's Education programme please visit:

www.thinkuknow.co.uk/teachers

For further information on the work of the CEOP Centre ...

www.ceop.police.uk

For specific advice to stay safe online ...

www.thinkuknow.co.uk

For details on the international work of the CEOP Centre ...

www.virtualglobaltaskforce.com