Staying safe online – Zoom Meeting Protocol

In order to make sure that your child stays safe online, we ask that you do the following:

• Access to the platform is made through the parent/carers account, unless your child meets the age restrictions for the platform.
• An appropriate adult, like a parent or carer will remain in the room with young members (under 14 years) during video or conference calls to help or join in. For older members (over 14 years) please make sure there’s an appropriate adult nearby so that they can ask for help if they need it.
• For younger members, you will ‘drop off’ your child at the meeting like you would at a section meeting, so we know that they have an appropriate adult nearby if they need a hand. This will also give us a chance to talk with you if we need to.
• Where possible your young member must take part in the video call in a suitable communal environment. We appreciate that this is not always possible and some of the video calling software has a built-in option to ‘blur’ the background – you may feel this is an appropriate feature to turn on. All members of the household must be aware that the call is taking place and make sure they use appropriate language and behaviour when nearby or in the background. Please be mindful of background conversations that may be picked up.
• Your young member must be appropriately dressed (scouting sections in uniform top with neckerchief once invested, they should be fully dressed in clothing that covers top and bottom half of the body).
• You will make sure your young member has ‘logged off’ the call correctly and signed out before turning off any devices.
• You and your young member will not try to contact any leaders using these online tools outside of the pre-arranged calls. If you need to contact a leader for any reason you will do so following your normal contact procedures (ie emailing).

In order to protect your child, we will:

• Have a minimum of two adults volunteers present throughout the video call who will stay on the call until all the young people have ‘logged off’.
• At least one adult volunteer involved in the call will have completed mandatory training and will have a current disclosure certificate as required for their role.
• No leader will contact you outside of any pre-arranged meetings using these online tools and if they do need to contact you will do so following their normal contact procedures (ie emailing)
• Leaders will watch through and check any links or videos they may direct your young member to in advance. They will make sure everything they use is age-appropriate for the section
• Leaders and other adults on the call will use appropriate language/behaviour throughout the call.
• All leaders will ensure they are in a communal living space throughout the call where possible. Where not possible they will blur the background in any video calls and any members of their household will use appropriate language/behaviour throughout the call.
• Calls may be recorded by leaders who will say when they are going to record and when they’ve stopped. Anyone who doesn’t want to be seen can turn their camera off. Leaders will state the purpose of the recording (evidence of training validation, or post on the closed social media groups – Facebook group/WhatsApp group). Recordings will not be shared on publicly available social media without parental consent.

Tips:

Use grid view to see as many people as possible. If you can use a laptop or PC the grid view shows more people at once

Please use mute button to reduce background noise for us as much as possible

Use you children’s names when connecting so we know who we are talking too! It also helps us recognize who we are admitting to the call if you disconnect part way through

Please don’t use the chat function unless asked; it distracts from what we are trying to get done (party pooper I know)

Running meetings online is really hard work, but it’s also really rewarding to see all our young people stepping up and having some fun!