1. Volunteer Centre Glossop (VCG)
Facebook Safeguarding Procedure
This procedure forms part of Volunteer Centre Glossop’s ICT and
Safeguarding policies which state that Volunteer Centre Glossop has a
responsibility to ensure that their staff members understand what is expected
of them in the work they do and how they can keep themselves, children and
young people safe.
Through our work with young volunteers we have found that many people
between the ages of 16 and 25 use social networking sites such as Facebook,
thus making it a very effective way of staying in touch with them. This
procedure highlights that there are certain safeguarding risks in using
Facebook. Volunteer Centre Glossop has developed this guidance to ensure
that it makes use of Facebook in a responsible and professional manner,
ensuring that children, young people and the reputation of the organisation
remain as safe and intact as possible.
Purpose of using Facebook
Certain teams within Volunteer Centre Glossop, e.g. the vinvolved Derbyshire
team, use Facebook as a tool to follow up volunteer referrals with young
people, to advertise opportunities, and to offer advice and information about
the vinspired awards’ online logging system. Many young people between the
ages of 16-25 use Facebook, it is therefore important that Volunteer Centre
Glossop carefully considers the use of social networking in an effort to help
young people into volunteering as part of its work.
Responsibilities for input
The project managers of each team within VCG who wish to use Facebook
will set up the Facebook profile in discussion with the other members of their
team and the Volunteer Centre Manager. Upkeep, maintenance and input on
this Facebook profile will only be carried out by approved members of staff.
Password protected
Gaining access to the Facebook account requires the inputting of a correct
email address and user password. This information is known only by
Volunteer Centre Glossop staff. If there is any reason to believe that someone
other than Volunteer Centre Glossop staff knows the password it will be
immediately changed.
Profile Account
Profile that can be seen by general public
• The only visible details are who/what the
Volunteer Centre Glossop profile account (e.g.vinvolved Derbyshire) is a
Fan of. Therefore people need to do a certain amount of research first in
order to find out that we run a youth based project.
• The picture is a standard marketing picture.
• Volunteer Centre Glossop’s Friends are not
visible to the public (having switched the settings to private).

2. Profile that can be seen by Friends
• All Friends are carefully accepted. They
either:
o Need to have registered with the Volunteer Centre Glossop
profile account so that we know them in person.
o Need to have a minimum of two mutual Friends on Facebook
who we know personally. In this case we will then look at their
profile carefully before accepting them. This will include looking
at which school/college/group/voluntary group they attend and
checking for correspondence between them and our mutual
Friends (wall posts, tagged photographs etc).
o Need to be a group that we know of e.g. Volunteer Centre South
Derbyshire or another vinvolved team.
• Wall posts are carefully monitored. Posts
on our Wall can be seen by all of our Friends. If posts are deemed
unsuitable they are deleted. If the comments are particularly rude or
inappropriate the Friend will either be warned by the YVDM or YVA
through a personal message or removed straight away. This relates to
when the comments are aimed directly at Volunteer Centre Glossop,
Volunteer Centres Derbyshire or BTCV or written in response to another
Friend’s comment on Volunteer Centre Glossop’s Wall. Thus disallowing
any cyber-bullying from taking place via Volunteer Centre Glossop’s profile
account.
• Volunteer Centre Glossop’s personal
communication with Friends will always be done privately either via the
Chat function or through a private message. Volunteer Centre Glossop
will never write on someone’s Wall.
• Photographs that are put on Facebook by
Volunteer Centre Glossop will only be available for Friends to see.
Volunteer Centre Glossop will never allow Friends of Friends or Everyone
to see our photographs particularly if they are of young people.
• The Volunteer Centre Glossop team will always consider the safety of
young people, colleagues and others when disclosing or displaying
photos. The Volunteer Centre Glossop team will never broadcast open
details (including photos of individuals)) that may reveal personal
information such as home address, date of birth, street name, car number
plate or other similar information
• When Volunteer Centre Glossop advertises
opportunities through status updates we will never say when and where
the opportunity is taking place. We will state what the role is and what the
organisation is as well as the general area. Friends will then need to
request details. We will reply with these details in a private message.
• Volunteer Centre Glossop will never use
Facebook inappropriately.
• Volunteer Centre Glossop will never
jeopardise the privacy of our Facebook account and therefore the privacy
of our Friends accounts

3. Volunteer Centre Glossop cannot be held responsible for the following:
• Our Friends’ privacy settings
• Friends of Volunteer Centre Glossop
accepting other Friends of Volunteer Centre Glossop as their Friends.
• Cyber-bullying that takes place between our
Friends on other people’s profile pages.
• Photographs that are put on Friends profile
pages that depict mutual Friends.
Group Accounts
Profile of Group that can be seen by general public
• The Group has been made private so that
only people we invite can see the Group’s profile and become a Member.
It cannot be searched for.
• The people who are invited to become
Members of Volunteer Centre Glossop Group are selected by Volunteer
Centre Glossop staff from our Profile Account.
Profile of Group that can be seen by Members
• Wall posts are carefully monitored. Posts on our Wall can be seen by all
of our Members. If posts are deemed unsuitable they are deleted. If the
comments are particularly rude or inappropriate the Member will either be
warned by a member of staff through a personal message or removed
straight away. This relates to when the comments are aimed directly at
Volunteer Centre Glossop or written in response to another Member’s
comment on Volunteer Centre Glossop’s Wall. Thus disallowing any
cyber-bullying from taking place via Volunteer Centre Glossop’s Group
account.
• The Volunteer Centre Glossop team will always consider the safety of
young people, colleagues and others when disclosing or displaying
photos. The Volunteer Centre Glossop team will never broadcast open
details (including photos of individuals)) that may reveal personal
information such as home address, date of birth, street name, car number
plate or other similar information
• Volunteer Centre Glossop will not use Facebook inappropriately
• Volunteer Centre Glossop will never jeopardise the privacy of our
Facebook account and therefore the privacy of our Members accounts
Volunteer Centre Glossop cannot be held responsible for the following:
• Our Members’ privacy settings
• Members of Volunteer Centre Glossop
accepting other Volunteer Centre Glossop Members as their Friends.
• Cyber-bullying that takes place between our
Members on other people’s profile pages.
• Photographs that are put on Members’
profile pages that depict mutual Friends/Members.

4. Volunteer Centre Glossop can only be held responsible for our own actions
and our own privacy settings and not those of other people. The Volunteer
Centre Glossop team will keep up to date with privacy and security
developments within Facebook.
Written 29 January 2010. To be reviewed January 2011