This policy is for everyone, but specifically outlines how parkrun expects volunteers and staff to behave on social media, in order to keep themselves, the rest of the parkrun community, and parkrun’s reputation, safe.
If you have any concerns about online content related to parkrun, always report it to the parkrun Safeguarding Team via safeguarding@parkrun.com.
If you or someone else is in immediate danger, always call your local law enforcement agency in the first instance, following up with a communication to parkrun when the immediate danger has passed.
Regardless of the local law, parkrun considers all people under the age of 18 to be children.
This policy supports our responsibilities to respond to any incident or allegation regarding abusive or illegal behaviour, where social media is involved in a safeguarding concern. While this policy covers a significant range of situations where concerns may arise it is not exhaustive and individual situations can be managed on a case by case basis, consistent with the relevant local laws where relevant.
Always be aware that social networking sites are public, and are bound by the law. Please do not post negative, unpleasant or defamatory remarks, comments or photos on social media, in connection with parkrun or its sponsors. Once such comments are posted they are impossible to fully delete and can cause upset and damage to reputations. Incidents or disputes that spill over onto social media can soon escalate and can become much harder to resolve.
There may be times when local, national or international media shows interest in something related to your event, or to parkrun in general, and seeks information from participants, including volunteers. Particularly with regards to safeguarding-related issues, it is important that event teams make no comment, and refer any media enquiries to media@parkrun.com and safeguarding enquiries to safeguarding@parkrun.com.
It should be remembered that social media constantly evolves; developing and maintaining an up to date knowledge of the technology used by parkrun events, and more widely, can help everyone keep safe.
We recommend CEOP Educationn as a helpful resource for parents, young people and professionals, raising awareness and improving knowledge around keeping people safe online.
Before using any social media platform on behalf of parkrun, you must familiarise yourself with, and make use of its privacy/safety features. |
TIn addition, it is important that teams pass no comment or opinion relating to parkrun safeguarding issues, on any social media that is connected to the event. Children and some adults may be more vulnerable to online abuse, however it is important to remember that online abuse can also occur between two adults who might not obviously appear to be vulnerable. There may be times when adult parkrun volunteers need to communicate with a child or vulnerable adult, regarding their participation in parkrun; when this happens, you must follow these guidelines:
- All communications with children and/ or potentially vulnerable adults should be through official parkrun channels, e.g. your event email address, and not through personal social media channels such as WhatsApp or Strava.
- Communications should only be in relation to the day-to-day running of the parkrun event.
- If teams use social media or messaging apps to arrange volunteer rosters etc children and vulnerable adults should not be added to these communication channels.
- You must remember you are an adult communicating with a child/ vulnerable adult; language and content should be appropriate at all times.
- We would strongly advise careful consideration of any relationship formed online between an adult and a child/ vulnerable adult.
Only children’s first names should be used on social media.
The safeguarding considerations to the publishing of photos and videos on social media is governed by the parkrun Photo & Video Safeguarding Policy.
If an individual, or event team, has any concerns connected with social media please contact the safeguarding team at safeguarding@parkrun.com or by submitting an incident on the Event Management System. We can then support you with next steps which may include signposting to support services or contacting local law enforcement. It may be helpful if you take screenshots of any messages or comments. The safeguarding team will contact you to discuss any appropriate follow up which may include advice to block the sender.