Digital Safeguarding Policy

Should you wish to report a safeguarding concern please contact us directly here.

LAST UPDATED: May 2021.

FLN works in the digital space and captures and communicates content online about young people and their projects. FLN uses digital technologies to champion young people all over the world and connect them with the information, people and resources they need to succeed.

We recognise however, that there are as many Safeguarding risks associated with digital engagement as with physical engagement.

This Digital Safeguarding Policy (‘Digital Safeguarding Policy’ or ‘Digital Policy’) has been developed in order to address these risks and this ensure that we are keeping the people we work with safe from harm.

This Digital Policy should be read in conjunction with the Safeguarding Policy.

Our commitment to Digital Safeguarding

FLN considers that, without exception, it is unacceptable for any person, of any age, to experience any kind of abuse or exploitation and that safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults and protecting them from harm is everyone’s responsibility.

At FLN, we are committed to:

  • Providing our Representatives, Visitors and young people with information, advice and procedures on using digital platforms and social media and staying safe online;

  • Taking appropriate steps to safeguard young people online, including children and those adults deemed at risk;

  • Developing and reviewing our policy and protocols regularly.

This principle and these commitments should be upheld whatever the variation in cultural and legal frameworks of the jurisdictions in which we operate and we expect every person and organisation we engage with to commit to and adopt this principle and these commitments as their own.

Who does this policy protect?

While everyone, without exception, has the right to protection from abuse, regardless of factors such as age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief or sex or sexual orientation, the focus of this policy is to protect children, young people and vulnerable adults from harm. These categories are not mutually exclusive.

Children

FLN has adopted the definition provided by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child that a Child is anyone under 18 years of age, irrespective of the laws and customs in their country of residence.

FLN does not work directly with children. We do not allow children to attend events, training or apply for any of our opportunities, unless accompanied by a parent/guardian. We do occasionally provide funding and/or support to schools, but these resources are specifically for schools to use with their children. Therefore, if you are under 18 years old, you should not access our digital footprint. Most importantly, please do not provide us with your name, contact details or any other information about yourself.

Young People

FLN works with young people aged 18 - 35 years of age. Young people are considered by FLN to be any individuals who are within this age range.

Vulnerable Adult (or Adult at Risk)

An adult is vulnerable if they require protection and is, or may be, in need of protection by reason of age, illness, mental or other disability, and/or who lives with economic dependence, a conflict environment or cultural constraints.

We recognise that vulnerability can be a transient state, due to changes in environment, capacity or resources. Therefore we recognise that a person who was not before, may become vulnerable, that it is possible for vulnerability to be just temporary state, or be more pervasive.

FLN Representatives

Includes board members, staff members, volunteers, consultants, contractors and partners.

FLN Visitors

Those who visit FLN supported work with FLN’s knowledge and consent (including but not limited to journalists or supporters).

Digital Risk

Future Leaders Network aims, at all times, to minimise the risk of a Digital Safeguarding incident occurring as a result of its engagement with children, young people and vulnerable adults.

There are a number of key forms of Digital Risk:

Conduct

Conduct risks include the behaviour of the aggressor (i.e. bullying/harassment) and the behaviour of the victim (sharing personal information);

Content

Content risks include exposure to age or culturally inappropriate content and unreliable information.

Contact

Contact risk occur when the digital and physical worlds are drawn together, with bullying/trolling and online grooming the most obvious examples that could lead to physical contact.

Commercialism

Commercialism risks include hidden costs, for example in apps, ‘phishing’ or other methods of identity theft.

What might constitute a digital safeguarding incident?

Safeguarding incidents include concerns or allegations about an individual child, young person or vulnerable adult and can be against FLN Representatives or Visitors. They could, for example, include the following situations:

  • Bullying/trolling by peers and people they consider 'friends';

  • Threats of harm;

  • Posting personal information that can identify and locate a child, young person or vulnerable adult offline;

  • Sexual grooming, luring, exploitation and abuse contact with strangers;

  • Harassment or impersonation of any kind;

  • Exposure to inappropriate content, including indecent images / sexual content, profanity, spam, advertising, URLs that lead to material not authorised/endorsed by FLN etc;

  • Involvement in making or distributing illegal or inappropriate content;

  • Theft of personal information;

  • Exposure to information and interaction with others who encourage self-harm/suicide;

  • Exposure to racist or hate material;

  • Encouragement of violent behaviour and the recording of an assault for the purpose of widely sharing the recording;

  • Promoting violence and acts of terrorism;

  • Glorifying activities such as drug taking or excessive drinking;

  • Physical harm to people in making video content, such as enacting and imitating stunts and risk-taking activities;

  • Leaving and running away from home as a result of contacts made online;

  • Defamation and/or breach of copyright.

Where might digital safeguarding incidents take place?

A Digital Safeguarding Incident can occur anywhere across an organisation’s digital footprint.

A digital footprint is a unique set of digital activities, actions, and communications that can identify an organisation online.

A digital footprint of an organisation, such as Future Leaders Network, can be extremely broad and - because it comprises everything the organisation has said and everything others have said about the organisation - not all of a digital footprint is under the control/influence of the organisation itself. A digital footprint can include, but it not limited to, content that can be found via:

  • Organic search (through a search engine, such as Google, or a social media platform);

  • Directories, event platforms and review sites;

  • Social media/social sharing;

  • Influencers & affiliates;

  • Blogs;

  • Marketplaces;

  • Brand Partnerships;

  • PR.

In addition to the ‘official’ digital footprint of an organisation – that is, content created at the direction, or with the endorsement of the organisation, there exists significant potential for a large ‘unofficial’ digital footprint to exist. This ‘unofficial’ footprint includes genuine user-generated content (such as reviews or posts in networking group) and illegitimate content. Unofficial content, in whatever form, poses significant Digital Safeguarding risks.

The greatest Digital Safeguarding risk is posed by social media. Social media refers to digital platforms that provide such services as blogs, discussion forums and instant messaging. Social media includes, but is not limited to:

  • Social networking sites e.g. Facebook

  • Micro-blogging services e.g. Twitter

  • Video-sharing services e.g. YouTube

  • Photo-sharing services e.g. Instagram

Social media platforms often incorporate more than one of the features listed alongside their primary services.

Examples of popular social media sites include, but are not limited to: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Flickr, TikTok, Yammer, Yahoo/MSN messenger, Wikis and blogs, Weibo, WeChat and WhatsApp.

Digital Monitoring

While we do not actively moderate user content, we will monitor our digital footprint and will report or remove and user content which could be deemed a digital risk.

Our digital footprint is monitored by a designated FLN Digital Monitor, on  a regular basis, between 9am and 5pm (GMT or BST) Monday to Friday. The Digital Monitor will seek advice from the FLN Safeguarding Lead where Safeguarding concerns arise.

The Digital Monitor will have the authority to:

  • remove ANY content of any nature that is deemed inappropriate;

  • report the user and the content to the relevant digital / social media channel;

  • escalate to relevant authorities (including law enforcement authorities), if appropriate.

The Digital Monitor will act without waiting for a second opinion from anyone, if they feel the situation merits such action. FLN’s policy in this regard is to act first to remove/report inappropriate content.

Data Protection

FLN’s Privacy Policy outlines how we protect the privacy of others and adhere to data protection laws in relation to any personally identifiable information (PII) that is collected, stored, used, or shared.

We recognise that additional measures may, from time to time, need to be taken with regard to Data Protection in a Safeguarding context.

In situations where children young people or adults deemed at risk may need extra protection, FLN will seek to protect identities and moderate content accordingly, with only first names and non-identifiable locations used.

In extremely sensitive cases, a first name can be changed, or a pseudonym used, to protect an individual’s identity, and will be footnoted with the following:

“Names have been changed in order to protect the identities of those involved”.

Guidelines for online conduct are provided to all FLN Representatives and Visitors via our Safeguarding Handbook.

Informed Consent

FLN will only publish stories and images, still or moving, where it is satisfied that informed written consent has been received, from the adult featured or the person’s parent/guardian as appropriate.

FLN will ensure individuals can see how content featuring them is being used and shared, disclose any potential risks, and ensure individuals are aware of their rights so that informed consent can be given.

Third parties supplying content to FLN will be required to demonstrate that they have acquired written consent from those featured.

Where a project has a focus on younger children, careful consideration will be given to the most appropriate format to publish online.

FLN will not encourage children to use social media platforms.

Trust

Trusted Content

FLN endeavours to share content that does not mislead viewers, is factually accurate, and does not seek to control the conversation.

Due diligence will be carried out to ensure that content shared is truthful.

Content will not click through to unexpected destinations and will only link out to trusted and relevant third parties.

Please refer to our Terms and Conditions to understand our general approach to user content and to access the code of conduct that we expect all users of our digital footprint to abide by.

Trusted Communications

When working with children, young people and vulnerable adults connected with FLN, only official communication channels will be used.

FLN Representatives and Visitors should only use official email, social media accounts and networking groups. If a Representative or Visitor cannot use an official account themselves, they must seek support from someone that can.

Personal email, social networking accounts, private networking groups or other means of unofficial communication are an inappropriate communication method.

Messages for children should be passed through parents and guardians, or through their school, with their parents/guardians informed. Messages should never be passed directly to children.

Official Future Leaders Network Communication Channels

FLN’s domain is “futureleaders.network”. All official emails will originate from this domain. This means that every official FLN email account will contain a person’s name, followed by @futureleaders.network. No other domain will be used.

FLN’s official social media presence includes:

  • Twitter

o   https://twitter.com/ukfutureleaders

o   https://twitter.com/FlnWales

o   https://twitter.com/FLN_north

  • Instagram

o   https://www.instagram.com/ukfutureleaders/

o   https://www.instagram.com/walesfutureleaders/

  • Facebook

o   https://www.facebook.com/ukfutureleaders/

  • LinkedIn

o   https://www.linkedin.com/company/future-leaders-network/

FLN operates the following official networking groups:

  • No official networking groups currently active.

The FLN Digital Monitor must be part of a networking group in order for it to be considered an official networking group.

If you discover an email, social media account, or networking group, alleging to represent Future Leaders Network, but that is not listed in this policy, please get in touch.

Account Security

Our email service is provided by Google. Administrator access to this service, which is required to change our domain or to add new users, is available only to the Board of Directors.

The email addresses associated with our social media accounts will always use the “futureleaders.network” domain. Passwords for these accounts are held centrally by Senior Leadership Team.

The changing of usernames/handles, email addresses and passwords for these accounts is prohibited without the authorisation of the Board of Directors.

Any new networking platform, networked group or social media account will only be created with the approval of the Board of Directors.

This is to ensure that every account:

  • is consistent with the advice provided in this policy;

  • aligns with FLN’s Communications Strategy;

  • aligns with FLN’s Brand Strategy; and

  • aligns with FLN’s branding guidelines.

FLN takes all breaches of security seriously, and will act to improve account security at every opportunity and will consider all disciplinary options available to it in response to a security breach. This includes anything from suspension of access, to termination of relationship with any Representative or Visitor found to be in breach of this Digital Safeguarding Policy.