Safeguarding.

Safeguarding on ScoutsOnline.

ScoutsOnline is an online portal for scout groups to collaborate and share. It's important that we work together to keep everyone safe on our platform. We strictly follow The Scouts (UK) Safeguarding Guidelines and WOSM Safe from Harm policies. We take all safeguarding concerns seriously, we'll pass on your report to your local safeguarding team and remove content from our website if it breaks safeguarding policy. For more information on safeguarding within scouting please see WOSM Safe from Harm (opens in new tab).

How we handle Safeguarding Reports.

Safeguarding Reports get sent to our ScoutsOnline Support Team. Your report is also sent to your local safeguarding team.
If you have any questions you can email support@scoutsonline.org for more information.

• We'll immediately pass on your report to your country's safeguarding team.
• Next, we will investigate the report and take down any content that violates safeguarding policy.
• When we've taken down any offending content, we'll add the content's "fuzzy hash" to our blocking system to prevent it from being re-uploaded.
• Your country's safeguarding team will take the case further if required. This may involve contacting local scouts leadership, law enforcement, etc if needed.
• Finally, we'll update you on the status of your report and let you know if we need any further information.

If you've found something online that you think shouldn't be there, tell someone. If it's on our website you can report it to us by filling out a content report or by emailing us at support@scoutsonline.org, and we'll sort it out.

How we check content is safe to be online.

When you upload pictures to ScoutsOnline, we immediately scan the picture's "fuzzy hash" against our database of blocked images previously submitted in reports, and the CSAM database*. We do not store blocked images only the 'hash' of them, a hash is a one-way non-reversable string of random numbers and letters that are used to identify if content matches.

We also routinely conduct spot checks on recently uploaded albums, checking the pictures are suitable. Unfortunately, we're unable to check every picture on the website due to the high volumes of content but we hope that these spot checks will help to ensure a safer environment for all.

And finally, you! Content reports help us to identify pictures and videos that may not be suitable.

Learn more about fuzzy hashes and CSAM scanning (opens in new tab).

How you can Safeguard young people on ScoutsOnline.

It's important to understand your role in this, you need to ensure that content that you upload is safe to be online. For both the viewer, and the person in the image. Please read the Scouts UK Digital Safeguarding page online (opens in new tab).

The Scouts UK Guidelines state:
Under the GDPR you need a process that helps you find and delete personal data at a later date. When you capture content, find a way to link your content with an individual. Our image profiling tools allow you to privately make notes on who's in images, then search through them pictures and delete them later if you need to. You should always ensure that you tag pictures with names and dates.

You can also password protect groups or albums if you'd like to.

Only allow photographs to be taken of suitably dressed subjects and in appropriate situations.
We do not allow images of sleeping areas, images of bathrooms / restrooms, revealing images, or images that violate safeguarding on ScoutsOnline. Please see our Terms and Conditions for more information.