Life 101

Online Safeguarding Policy

Introduction

Be Kind Ltd (trading as Life 101) is committed to protecting the young people who use our services. The purpose of this policy is to provide children, parents, and the Life 101 team with the overarching principles that guide our approach to child protection when using online video conferencing platforms.

Note: this policy should be used in conjunction with the Safeguarding Policy, available here.

Workshop Format and Content

Life 101 uses the Zoom platform to provide our online courses. Zoom is a widely used video conferencing platfor,. In the case of online courses, children are invited via an email to their parent/guardian to sign into Zoom meetings and utilise live video and audio to communicate directly with the Life 101 course leaders. Online courses will generally be attended by a limited number of children.

In these sessions, any of the following things may happen:

  • Members of the Life 101 team (“the Host/s”) will talk through a presentation covering a specific topic (eg. resilience, leadership etc).
  • Children will be encouraged to ask questions by raising their hand to gain the workshop leaders attention or by using the chat box feature.  Children will be able to see each other and talk to each other, and to see each other’s messages in the chat box.
  • Hosts may share their screen with the workshop’s attendees at any time in order to show presentations or video content. They can also send files (e.g. presentation slides or activity sheets) via the live chat function, which students can open on their computers.
  • Zoom’s online “polling” feature may be used to ask multiple choice questions to the group to gauge their thoughts on a range of subjects. The responses are anonymised and this data is not recorded anywhere by Life 101.

Safeguarding Measures

The following measures will be used in all sessions to ensure that young people are protected while taking part in our online courses.

  • First and foremost, abusive or inappropriate behaviour by  children, parents or any other attendee will not be tolerated and the offending person will be immediately removed from the session.
  • The Life 101 Course Leader will hold a valid Enhanced DBS Certificate.
  • At no point will children find themselves in one-on-one conversation with any single member of staff or another child. Other children or Life 101 team members (Hosts or Co-Hosts) will always be present.
  • Each course has a unique meeting ID which is only shared with people who have booked onto the same course.
  • Life 101 uses the waiting room system on Zoom, which allows the course leader to admit or reject participants. This ensures only registered users will be admitted.
  • Our course leader also has the ability to restrict the use of the chat box, to rename course participants, to switch off participant’s cameras or sound and to remove people from the online session.
  • Only the course leader will be able to share their screen.
  • All Life 101 online courses will be recorded for use as reference in the case of an incident or dispute. These recordings will be kept securely for a period of 90 days and then deleted.
  • Children should find a quiet, comfortable place to sit while attending the course, and we appreciate that in some cases this may be the child’s bedroom or a home office. If there is anything in the background that they would be more comfortable not showing on screen for any reason, they are free to use Zoom’s “Virtual Background” feature by clicking on the arrow next to the “Stop Video” button at the bottom of their screen. This will allow them to use a computer generated image as their backdrop for the duration of the workshop. More details on setting this up, and any technical limitations that may apply, are available here.
  • Children will be advised that they should not take screenshots or photographs of their screens on their smartphones. Any relevant presentations or worksheets will be provided in digital format.

Behaviour

Children’s commitment to protecting the young people in our workshops includes protecting them from others who may seek to engage in abusive or inappropriate behaviour. We are well aware that online platforms which offer video and audio functionality are open to many varieties of abuse, and Life 101 is clear that we have a zero tolerance policy to abusive or inappropriate behaviour. The following activities are considered abusive or inappropriate and will result in banning from the Life 101 platform and all future online or in-person courses.

  • Posting abusive or inappropriate messages in public chat
  • Sending abusive or inappropriate messages to the host via live chat
  • Using abusive, insulting, or offensive language over voice call
  • Sharing inappropriate images via chat or as a virtual background
  • Attempting to address or contact other children outside of the workshop
  • Any children or adults visible to others in the course must be dressed in a suitable manner.

Recording & Data Management

Life 101 uses Zoom’s Cloud Recording function to create a record of the online course. However, recordings only store the image of the speaker- so usually the host or anyone who might be answering a question.

This data is held electronically for 90 days and will only be referred to if an incident is reported. After 90 days has elapsed any data stored by Life 101 will be deleted.

You can read more about Life 101’s handling of data in our full Privacy Policy.

Reporting an incident

At Life 101 we want all children to feel that they are in a safe, comfortable, and professional environment when taking part in any of our events, including those held online. If any children, parent, or Life 101 team member feels that anything has taken place such as those detailed above, they should feel free to contact us directly at hello@life-101.co.uk

We will respond to all messages in a timely manner and, if necessary, involve the relevant authorities as soon as possible.

We are committed to reviewing our policy and procedures annually. Latest review:  February 2023.