Moderation Policy
Our Facebook challenge group is an incredibly positive and supportive place, bringing together amazing people doing wonderful things to support Samaritans. In the group you can share selfies, training tips, details of how the challenge is going and why supporting Samaritans is important to you.
We manage the group from a position of trust. Helping to support everyone to take part in an enjoyable and safe way is our top priority. We want everyone in the group to feel welcomed and feel like they can post openly and honestly without judgement.
To protect the safety and anonymity of everyone involved, Samaritans does not feel that Facebook is the best place to offer emotional support. However, we will provide signposting to support services when we feel it may be beneficial. If you need to talk, our volunteers are always here on 116 123.
Help keep each other safe
Sharing your stories and motivations for taking part can be powerful and help to create connections with others, but it could also be difficult for others to read when they’re feeling more sensitive.
For the benefit of everyone in the group, please use a trigger warning at the top of your post if you are sharing a story that discusses an emotive topic or subject.
For example – ‘Trigger warning: loss of a family member to suicide’
The following is a list of topics that some group members may find difficult. Before posting about these topics, please consider the potential impact your post could have on others and always use a trigger warning: (list to be amended by Online Harms team)
- Suicide methods, locations
- Self-harm methods or graphic descriptions or images
- Graphic descriptions of violence, abuse, sexual assault, hate crimes etc.
- Photos of injuries or medical procedures where this is the focus of the post (e.g. a photo where you're wearing a bandage but the content is focused on the challenge is okay; a post focused on an injury or self harm is not okay)
You can read more about how to talk about suicide safely online here.
Managing harmful or challenging content
We trust everyone in the group to participate in a way that is safe and enjoyable for all. There may be times when, intentionally or unintentionally, some of the content posted could be harmful, challenging or cause distress to members of the group. We have a number of safeguarding measures in place to help us minimise the impact of any such content as quickly as possible.
You can also help alert us to any harmful content or someone you feel may be struggling, by reporting any posts or comments to us through Facebook. This is the fastest way to help keep everyone safe.
Read what to do if you see worrying content online
Keep on topic
The purpose of the group is to bring everyone together, to help support and encourage each other to take part in the challenge, while fundraising for Samaritans. To help keep the group an enjoyable place for everyone, we ask that you only post content that is relevant to the challenge or supportive of Samaritans’ aims.
Removing content
There may be times when we deem it necessary to remove posts, comments or individuals from the group and we reserve the right to do so. In these instances, we appreciate your understanding that this has been done for the safety, wellbeing and enjoyment of everyone in the group. We will always try to let you know why this has been done and where appropriate, suggest ways that your post or comment could be adapted.
The group is moderated from 8am to 9pm, 7 days a week and the group will close two weeks after the challenge finishes.