Our Online Safety Agreement sets out expectations for Festival contributors or attendees.

We are committed to creating an open, inclusive and safe environment where all attendees, exhibitors, UoS Festival supporters, collaborators and organisers feel welcome and able to participate to their fullest.

Being part of the Festival means:

• Listening to, tolerating and respecting each other’s views;
• Communicating in an open and respectful way;
• Using welcoming and inclusive language;
• Respecting each other’s choice of pronoun (if in doubt, please just ask);
• Being fair and treating everyone equally with respect and dignity;
• Being considerate of event attendees, event contributors and organisers.

We will NOT accept (in speech, text and imagery):

• Abusive, intimidatory, threatening, hateful, bullying, insulting, degrading, or otherwise behaviour deemed inappropriate;
• Harassment and discrimination of any kind i.e. offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, physical appearance, race, and religion;
• Impersonation;
• Display or sharing of illegal or inappropriate content,;
• Sustained disruption of talks or events;
• Spamming, disinformation and misinformation;
• Unauthorised recording or photographing.

It is the responsibility of parents and carers to ensure the online safety of the children and adults at risk of harm in their care. This includes:

• making sure that the events and activities accessed by the person(s) in their care are age-appropriate and accessible;
• monitoring their choice of name or nickname and profile image (if intending to use any) to sign in to online platforms;
• monitoring their written and spoken communications through the online event platform;
• monitoring the webcam usage through the online event platform, including making sure that no sensitive content, e.g. family portrait or home/school/email address, are visible once the video is on;
• monitoring any remote activity as part of an online workshop.

For more information and resources about keeping children safe online, please visit the dedicated area on the NSPPC website at: www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety

Exhibitors and attendees participating in online events involving children and young people should ensure that their content, contributions, language and behaviour are age appropriate.

Some online events may be recorded, and chats, questions and answers may be saved. When this occurs, attendees will be informed at the start of the event. We will remind contributors and attendees not to make their own recordings of the event nor to take screenshots or photographs of other people in the digital platform.

Failing to comply with the Online Safety Agreement could result in your immediate exclusion from the event you are taking part in and banning from any other Festival events you have planned to attend.

If you think the Online Safety Agreement is not being followed at an event, please contact the moderator in the session or get in touch with the UoS Festival team at festival@soton.ac.uk.