Safeguarding Policy Statement
Safeguarding is the term used to describe the processes that companies put in place to protect children and vulnerable adults from harm. It is one of Tradem’s highest priorities as we believe that no child or young person should experience abuse or harm of any kind.
It doesn’t matter what age, gender, race or ethnicity, belief or religion, disability, or sexual orientation you have, every child has the right to equal protection. We also know that some children need extra support and help because of their level of dependency, communication needs or other issues.
The NSPPC, which is a charity for protecting children, has written a list of suggestions on how we can help keep children and young adults safe. We have adopted this list and commit to keep children and young-people safe by:
- asking everyone who takes part in the Tradem marketplace to follow our rules and code of behaviour
- valuing and listening to and respecting all comments
- appointing a nominated child protection/safeguarding lead and a lead trustee/board member for safeguarding
- developing child protection and safeguarding policies and procedures which reflect best practice
- using our safeguarding procedures to share concerns and relevant information with agencies who need to know, and involving children, young people, parents, families and carers appropriately
- creating and maintaining an anti-bullying environment and ensuring that we have a policy and procedure to help us deal effectively with any bullying that does arise
- developing and implementing an effective online safety policy and related procedures
- recruiting staff and volunteers safely, ensuring all necessary checks are made
- providing effective management for staff and volunteers through supervision, support, training and quality assurance measures
- implementing a code of conduct for staff and volunteers
- using our procedures to manage any allegations against staff and volunteers appropriately
- ensuring that we have effective complaints and whistleblowing measures in place
- recording and storing information professionally and securely
Online Safety Policy
The Tradem marketplace aims to provide a safe place where children and young adults can learn about how to manage their money and use the internet safely for buying, selling and swapping products.
Tradem has a responsibility to help keep everyone using the marketplace safe. We believe that nobody should experience abuse or harm of any kind and that children and young adults should be able to use the internet for education and personal development, with safeguards in place to make sure they are protected.
Some of the risks of being online include:
- Content: seeing things that scare, offend or shock you
- Contact: getting hurt while talking or dealing with other children on the marketplace, for instance through bullying, embarrassing photos shared without permission or a house location being identified
- Conduct: hurting others or breaking rules yourself.
We will aim to keep you and the other users safe from these risks in the following ways:
- ensuring there is a dedicated channel for you to contact us if you get into or witness any trouble
- providing clear and specific directions to staff and volunteers on how to behave online through our behaviour code
- supporting and encouraging the young people using our service to use the internet, social media and mobile phones in a way that keeps them safe and shows respect for others
- supporting and encouraging parents and carers to do what they can to keep their children safe online
- developing a membership code of behaviour
- developing clear procedures to enable us to respond appropriately to any incidents of inappropriate online behaviour, whether by an adult or a child/young person
- reviewing and updating the security of our information systems regularly
- ensuring we have strong monitoring systems in place
- ensuring that usernames, PIN codes, email accounts and passwords are used effectively
- ensuring personal information about the adults and children who are involved in our organisation is held securely and shared only as appropriate
- ensuring that images of children, young people and families are used only after they have got written permission, and only for the purpose for which consent has been given
- providing supervision, support and training for staff and volunteers about online safety
- examining and risk assessing any new products or technologies before they are used within the organisation
However, we also expect that users and their responsible adults will report any concerns to us immediately, not behave in ways that are inappropriate and will encourage positive behaviour on the marketplace.
If online abuse occurs, we will respond to it by:
- having clear and robust safeguarding procedures in place for responding to abuse
- providing support and training for all staff and volunteers on dealing with all forms of abuse, including bullying/cyberbullying, emotional abuse, sexting, sexual abuse and sexual exploitation
- making sure our response takes the needs of the person experiencing abuse, any bystanders and our organisation as a whole into account
- reviewing the plan developed to address online abuse at regular intervals, in order to ensure that any problems have been resolved in the long term.
If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch with us.
Anti-Bullying Policy
Tradem takes bullying very seriously. We don’t want anyone to experience any kind of abuse and we have a responsibility to keep everyone using Tradem safe.
It is not okay to:
- Post messages, images, pictures that would hurt or upset someone else
- Hack or steal someone’s identity or pretend to be someone else
- Take, send or share inappropriate images of people (especially under the age of 18)
Bullying can happen at any time and anywhere. It can affect people for their whole lives and can cause real distress. It can affect a person’s health and development and, at the extreme, can cause significant harm.
Cyberbullying/online bullying can include:
- excluding someone from an online game, activity or friendship group
- sending threatening, upsetting or abusive messages
- creating and sharing embarrassing or malicious images or videos
- "trolling" - sending mean or upsetting messages on social networks, chat rooms or online games
- voting for or against someone in an abusive poll
- setting up hate sites or groups about a particular person
- encouraging people to self-harm
- creating fake accounts, hijacking or stealing online identities to embarrass someone or cause trouble using their name
We will seek to prevent bullying by:
- developing a set of rules (code of behaviour) that sets out how everyone using Tradem is expected to behave
- providing resources to young people and families who use our marketplace and hold regular discussions with staff and volunteers about bullying and how to prevent it
- providing support and training for all staff and volunteers on dealing with all forms of bullying, including racial, sexist, homophobic and sexual bullying
- putting clear and robust anti-bullying procedures in place
- making sure our response to incidents of bullying takes into account:
- the needs of the person being bullied
- the needs of the person displaying bullying behaviour or needs of any bystanders
- our organisation as a whole
- reviewing the plan developed to address any incidents of bullying at regular intervals, in order to ensure that the problem has been resolved in the long term
If you are worried about anything, please report it to the Tradem team via the Contact us form or email us at hello@tradem.uk.
We also ask responsible adults to look out for signs that a child is being cyberbullied or is cyberbullying others. Warning signs may include:
- noticeable increases or decreases in device use, including texting.
- a child exhibits emotional responses (laughter, anger, upset) to what is happening on their device.
- a child hides their screen or device when others are near, and avoids discussion about what they are doing on their device.
- social media accounts are shut down or new ones appear.
- a child starts to avoid social situations, even those that were enjoyed in the past.
- a child becomes withdrawn or depressed, or loses interest in people and activities.
If a responsible adults witnesses any form of cyberbullying, we ask that they:
- don’t respond to any messages or posts
- don’t seek revenge
- save the evidence and report it to us immediately
We expect responsible adults to behave in ways that promote positive online behaviour at all times.
If you are being bullied, have concerns about someone else or would like to talk to someone you can speak to Childline (0800 11 11 11 or www.childline.org.uk) which is a free counselling service for under-19s. We also have an anti-bulling tutorial which provides more information.