Child Safety

We are currently reviewing our child safety guidelines and hope to be able to publish these very soon. The following guidelines were revised in 2001.

Anyone designing her own pages, either for personal use or as a unit and who wishes to establish links with the Girlguiding Scotland site, should follow these guidelines:

Individuals, both adults and girls, should not be identified and where it is essential to give a contact name, only the job title should be used.
Pictures of named individuals should not be 'posted'.
Information about meeting times and places should not be given, but should be made available only on request - to control the information that is given out.
If camps and special events are being advertised, give enough detail to whet the appetite but not enough to alert anyone who might cause a nuisance. For example, for a big camp, give the County, month and year and the age range expected with a taster of the programme, plus an e-mail, fax or office address for further details.
Activity ideas should only be ones which are permitted and any instructions must follow our safe practice rules, as set out in The Guiding Manual and The Guider Handbook.
Activity ideas on any other WWW sites should be checked carefully before use - remember our usual safety rules still apply!

You should also follow these guidelines when entering your details into guestbooks or similar sites on the web for your own safety and that of the girls.

Ensure that their parents/carers are aware of what the girls are doing and have given permission.
Give guidance about protecting the girls' identities as outlined in the general guidelines.
Encourage them to check activity ideas with parents, Guiders or other adults to ensure that the ideas are practical and safe.
Never encourage the girls to develop their Internet friends into face-to-face friendships without first obtaining parental consent.
And never go alone to the first of any such meetings you choose to arrange for yourself.

My parent(s)/guardian(s) "their rules" for me using a computer, and the World Wide Web.
I will not give my address or telephone number without permission.
I will not give my school's name and address without permission.
I will say 'No' if anyone who I've met on the World Wide Web wants to meet me, unless my parent(s)/guardian(s) have agreed and will go with me.
I won't put my photograph on a web site.
I will tell my parent(s)/guardian(s) or a teacher if I discover something on the World Wide Web which worries or upsets me.

With thanks to the Girl Scouts of America for the initial ideas contained in this warning for children.

More information about safety on the Internet can be found on the Safe Kids Online site.
Look at A Parent's Guide to the Internet on the NCH Action for Children site for more ideas.
You can make a report to the Internet Watch Foundation if you do see anything illegal posted on the Internet.

*Source: Girlguiding UK.