Web-sites - ASA Guidelines

Following some queries regarding what is acceptable for clubs to include on their websites, the ASA Working Party are endeavouring to obtain advice from a number of different sources.  In the meantime the general guidelines are:

• not to include photographs which show full length images of children in swim suits
• better to ensure that photographs are, where possible, group shots, but should be head and shoulders or fully clothed or action shots in the water.
• whilst information on sites is inevitably going to be used to include names in results and selection lists, profiles should only be included with the permission of the person concerned and, for those people under 18, with the permission of their parents.  The information in the profiles should be carefully selected - PB's, best events, medals won, favourite TV programmes etc are fine, but they should not reference where peoples live or go to school and for very young swimmers photos are best avoided.
• websites should not include any information which allows swimmers to be contacted either through the internet or by reference to individual phone numbers and addresses
• the opportunities for access to chatlines should be thought through carefully and may need to be monitored in some way
• any contact details for club officers should only included with their permission.

The internet is a new and rapidly growing medium which will have lots of advantages for communicating information and ideas, but it is also proving to be a difficult  area to police in relation to inappropriate access to the young and vulnerable.