Policies

Child Protection Protocol

Last updated July 17, 2026

Effective upon formal approval and communication. Applies to all adults and entities engaged in BLVD work that involves, affects, portrays, or processes information about children. No story, image, event, deadline, audience target, or commercial interest is more important than a child's safety, dignity, privacy, and best interests. This policy is designed for BLVD Magazine's editorial, production, digital, commercial, events, and community-facing work. It should be reviewed against BLVD's final organizational structure, reporting channels, contracts, and legal obligations before adoption.

Section 1. Policy Objectives and Commitments

1.1. General Commitment. BLVD Magazine ("BLVD") is committed to protecting children from abuse, exploitation, neglect, discrimination, humiliation, unsafe exposure, and other conduct that may harm their physical, emotional, sexual, social, or digital well-being. 1.2. Editorial Mission and Values. BLVD is a premium digital magazine for the virtual professional community. Its work is built on truthful, independent, respectful storytelling and careful treatment of the people whose lives and work it covers. When a child is involved, accuracy and public interest must be weighed alongside the child's safety, dignity, privacy, development, and right to be heard. 1.3. Best Interests and Do No Harm. The best interests of the child will be a primary consideration in decisions about access, interviews, participation, recording, photography, publication, promotion, events, payments, partnerships, and responses to safeguarding concerns. A parent's permission, a compelling story, or a commercial opportunity does not justify avoidable harm. 1.4. Zero Tolerance. BLVD will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, grooming, trafficking, neglect, harmful labor, retaliation, concealment, deliberate inaction by a person with a duty to act, or misuse of BLVD access, equipment, platforms, money, influence, or relationships to harm a child. 1.5. Relationship to Law and Professional Duties. This policy supplements applicable Philippine law, contracts, editorial standards, and professional obligations. It does not replace legal advice, law-enforcement action, social-welfare intervention, emergency assistance, or any mandatory reporting duty that applies to a particular person or situation.

Section 2. Scope

2.1. Persons Covered. This policy applies to every adult or entity acting for, working with, appearing in, or participating in BLVD activities where children may be involved or affected, regardless of employment status, compensation, location, or duration. This includes: • owners, directors, officers, managers, editors, and employees; • writers, reporters, columnists, researchers, fact-checkers, photographers, videographers, designers, producers, social media personnel, and other newsroom or production staff; • interns, trainees, volunteers, fellows, moderators, hosts, and event personnel; • freelance contributors, consultants, independent contractors, service providers, agency personnel, and fixers; • interview or profile subjects, sources, guests, community representatives, parents, guardians, and chaperones; • sponsors, advertisers, brand partners, vendors, suppliers, venues, schools, civil-society groups, and institutional partners; and • any other person or organization whose conduct or access is connected to BLVD work involving children. 2.2. Children Covered. For this policy, a child is any person below eighteen (18) years of age. When age is uncertain, BLVD will apply child-safeguarding precautions until age is reasonably verified. Comparable care should be applied to adults who may be unable to protect themselves from abuse or exploitation because of disability or another condition, in coordination with BLVD's other safeguarding policies. 2.3. Settings Covered. The policy applies to offices, co-working spaces, homes, schools, studios, public venues, field assignments, interviews, photo and video shoots, remote work, direct messages, email, group chats, video calls, social media, websites, cloud storage, travel, accommodation, transport, launches, forums, competitions, awards, training, outreach, and any other setting connected to BLVD. 2.4. Third Parties. Where BLVD does not employ or control the person reported, BLVD will still take reasonable action within its authority. This may include ending an interview or shoot, removing access, changing a venue or partner, stopping publication, terminating a contract or sponsorship, declining future engagement, or referring the concern to the appropriate organization or authority.

Section 3. Guiding Principles

3.1. Best Interests of the Child. Decisions must consider the likely short- and long-term effects on the child, including risks created by publication, searchability, screenshots, reposting, harassment, stigma, family conflict, or future employment and education. 3.2. Child Participation and Assent. Children should receive age-appropriate information and a genuine opportunity to express their views. A child's discomfort, refusal, silence, fatigue, distress, or request to stop must be taken seriously even when a parent or guardian has agreed. 3.3. Non-Discrimination. Safeguarding applies without discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, sex characteristics, disability, race, ethnicity, language, religion, socioeconomic status, family background, migration status, health status, or any other condition. 3.4. Dignity and Privacy. BLVD will avoid sensationalism, shaming, stereotyping, unnecessary exposure, invasive questioning, and publication of details that create avoidable identification or risk. 3.5. Child-Sensitive Response. A disclosure or concern will be handled calmly, respectfully, and with as little repeated questioning as possible. The child will not be blamed, confronted with the person reported, or required to prove abuse before protective action is considered. 3.6. Fairness and Due Process. Reports will be assessed impartially. A report is not itself a finding of wrongdoing. The person reported will be given a fair opportunity to respond, subject to measures needed to protect the child, preserve evidence, and comply with law. 3.7. Confidentiality on a Need-to-Know Basis. Information will be shared only with people who need it to protect the child, assess risk, investigate, decide an outcome, provide support, or comply with law. BLVD cannot promise absolute secrecy where safety or legal duties require disclosure. 3.8. Non-Retaliation. No person may threaten, shame, isolate, discredit, deny work to, withhold payment from, remove credit from, or otherwise disadvantage a child, parent, guardian, reporter, witness, or participant because a safeguarding concern was raised. 3.9. Editorial Independence with Safeguards. This policy must not be misused to suppress legitimate journalism. At the same time, public interest and editorial independence do not excuse abusive access, coercion, unsafe identification, or avoidable harm to a child.

Section 4. Definitions and Indicators

4.1. Child Safeguarding. The responsibilities, conduct standards, risk controls, and response measures used to prevent and address harm to children connected to BLVD work. 4.2. Child Abuse. Physical, psychological, emotional, or sexual maltreatment; neglect; cruelty; exploitation; degrading treatment; or another act or omission that harms or creates a serious risk to a child's safety, dignity, health, or development. 4.3. Physical Abuse. Actual or threatened physical harm, including hitting, shaking, choking, burning, poisoning, unlawful restraint, harmful punishment, or deliberately exposing a child to physical danger. 4.4. Emotional or Psychological Abuse. Conduct that humiliates, terrorizes, threatens, degrades, isolates, manipulates, or persistently rejects a child, including public ridicule, discriminatory abuse, coercive control, and threats involving publication or reputation. 4.5. Sexual Abuse and Exploitation. Any sexual activity, contact, communication, exposure, image-making, inducement, or use of a child for sexual gratification, profit, influence, content, or advantage. A child cannot consent to exploitation, and apparent cooperation does not remove the duty to protect. 4.6. Neglect. A serious or repeated failure by a responsible person to provide appropriate care, supervision, protection, medical attention, or safe conditions where the person has a duty or agreed role in relation to the child. 4.7. Grooming. A pattern of building trust, secrecy, dependency, access, or emotional attachment with a child or people around the child in order to facilitate abuse, exploitation, boundary violations, or concealment. Grooming may occur in person or online. 4.8. Online Abuse and Exploitation. Harm carried out through digital technology, including sexual messages, coercive requests, livestreamed abuse, cyberstalking, doxxing, manipulation, non-consensual sharing, sexualized deepfakes, or the production, possession, access, or distribution of child sexual abuse or exploitation material. 4.9. Consent and Assent. Consent is permission given by a person legally authorized to decide for the child. Assent is the child's informed, voluntary, age-appropriate agreement. BLVD should seek both where practicable. Neither permits abusive, unlawful, or clearly harmful conduct. 4.10. Identifying Information. A child's name, image, voice, school, address, family details, online handle, exact location, health or case history, or a combination of details that may reasonably identify the child. 4.11. Safeguarding Concern. Any observation, disclosure, allegation, incident, pattern, boundary violation, or information suggesting that a child may be unsafe or that BLVD's safeguards have not been followed. Proof is not required before reporting. Possible indicators — such as unexplained injuries, sudden fearfulness, unusual withdrawal, distress around a particular person, age-inappropriate sexualized behavior, repeated hunger, or unsafe living conditions — may warrant concern, but no single sign proves abuse. Staff should report observations, not diagnose or interrogate.

Section 5. Required Conduct and Editorial Safeguards

5.1. General Standards. Covered persons must treat children respectfully, use age-appropriate language, maintain professional boundaries, plan for foreseeable risks, follow approved consent and data procedures, and report concerns promptly. 5.2. Prohibited Conduct. No covered person may: • hit, threaten, humiliate, intimidate, bully, exploit, groom, sexually harass, sexually abuse, or otherwise harm a child; • engage in sexualized conversation, flirting, sexual jokes, sexual contact, or exchange of sexual content with a child; • ask a child to keep a relationship, meeting, message, gift, photograph, or incident secret from safe adults; • use a story, assignment, publication, byline, payment, prize, access, mentorship, recommendation, sponsorship, or opportunity to pressure a child or family; • meet, transport, host, or communicate privately with a child in a manner that is unnecessary, hidden, unapproved, or difficult to account for; • give alcohol, tobacco, nicotine, illegal drugs, sexually explicit material, weapons, or other age-inappropriate or dangerous items to a child; • publish or share a child's personal data, image, voice, location, or case details outside approved editorial and safeguarding processes; • create, request, store, forward, or manipulate sexualized or exploitative images of a child, including through artificial intelligence; or • ignore, conceal, destroy evidence of, retaliate over, or privately "settle" a safeguarding concern. 5.3. Interviews and Reporting. Before an interview, the child and parent or guardian should ordinarily be told who BLVD is, the purpose of the story, the topics likely to be discussed, whether the interaction will be recorded, how the material may be published, and any meaningful limits on withdrawal. Questions must be necessary, proportionate, and age-appropriate. A child may pause, decline a question, request a support person, or end the interview. 5.4. Sensitive and Traumatic Stories. Interviews about abuse, exploitation, bereavement, violence, displacement, illness, family conflict, or legal proceedings require additional planning. BLVD should avoid repeated retelling, graphic detail that is not essential, leading questions, promises of help it cannot deliver, and language that blames the child. A qualified support person or referral should be considered where distress is foreseeable. 5.5. Photography, Video, and Audio. The purpose, setting, intended use, wardrobe, posing, physical direction, people present, and publication channels should be explained in advance. Children must not be pressured into clothing, poses, reenactments, or settings that are sexualized, degrading, deceptive, frightening, or unsafe. Private changing areas must be protected. A parent, guardian, or approved chaperone should be present unless a documented risk assessment supports another arrangement. 5.6. Publication and Identification. BLVD should use the least identifying detail necessary. Editors must assess whether publication could expose a child to retaliation, stigma, trafficking, harassment, family conflict, legal prejudice, or long-term digital harm. Children involved in abuse, exploitation, trafficking, intimate health matters, or legal proceedings should not be identified unless identification is lawful, clearly justified in the child's best interests, and approved through senior editorial and safeguarding review. 5.7. Digital Communication. Communication with a child must use approved channels and be transparent, purposeful, and limited to legitimate work. Where practical, include a parent, guardian, school representative, or another BLVD adult. Disappearing messages, secret accounts, late-night personal conversations, sexualized reactions, and pressure to move to private channels are prohibited. 5.8. Artificial Intelligence and Digital Manipulation. BLVD must not use AI or editing tools to sexualize, fabricate, age-alter, ridicule, or misleadingly depict a real child. Uploading a child's image, voice, story, or personal data to a third-party AI system requires prior editorial, privacy, and safeguarding approval. Synthetic or illustrative child imagery must not falsely imply that a real child experienced an event. 5.9. One-to-One Contact. Avoid isolated one-to-one contact where a safer alternative is reasonably available. Interviews, rehearsals, coaching, and shoots should occur in observable or interruptible settings. Closed doors, private rooms, and unsupervised home visits require documented justification and additional safeguards. 5.10. Travel, Transport, and Accommodation. A child must not be transported or accommodated by BLVD personnel without prior approval, parent or guardian permission, itinerary and contact details, appropriate supervision, and required legal clearances. An adult covered by this policy must not share a bed or private sleeping room with a child who is not their own child, except in a genuine emergency where no safer option exists and the situation is documented immediately. 5.11. Physical Contact. Physical contact must be necessary, appropriate, non-sexual, culturally respectful, and responsive to the child's comfort. Personnel should ask before touching when practicable. Restraint may be used only to prevent immediate harm and must be proportionate, documented, and reported. 5.12. Gifts, Payments, Prizes, and Assistance. Payments, honoraria, prizes, meals, transport support, or gifts must be transparent, documented, and appropriate. They must not create secrecy, favoritism, dependency, or pressure to participate. Payment to a parent or guardian does not purchase control over the child's story, image, or boundaries. 5.13. Events and Community Activities. Event plans involving children must identify supervision, registration, emergency contacts, access control, transport, photography rules, toilets and changing areas, medical response, lost-child procedures, and reporting contacts. Sponsors, venues, hosts, photographers, and volunteers must receive relevant safeguarding instructions. 5.14. Commercial and Partner Influence. Sponsors, advertisers, public figures, and partners may not bypass safeguards or demand access to a child. BLVD must decline content, promotions, campaigns, or partnerships that sexualize children, promote harmful products to children, or create an unreasonable risk of exploitation or unsafe identification.

Section 6. Consent, Assent, and Participation

6.1. Ordinary Requirement. BLVD should ordinarily obtain documented permission from a parent or legal guardian and age-appropriate assent from the child before a planned interview, recording, photo or video shoot, event participation, or identifiable publication. Permission should be specific to the activity and intended uses rather than treated as unlimited consent. 6.2. Child's Right to Refuse or Stop. A child may refuse, pause, or withdraw from an interaction even when an adult has agreed. Personnel must not punish, shame, persuade repeatedly, or threaten lost opportunities because a child changes their mind. 6.3. When Parent or Guardian Involvement May Create Risk. Where contacting a parent or guardian may endanger the child, compromise a legitimate investigation, or be inappropriate in a serious public-interest story, the Editor-in-Chief and Human Resource Manager must conduct and document a risk assessment, seek qualified legal or safeguarding advice where practicable, and use the least harmful approach available. 6.4. Public Places and Incidental Images. A general event notice or public setting does not automatically make every use of a child's image appropriate. Close-up, repeated, sensitive, commercial, or identifying use may require specific permission and an additional risk assessment. 6.5. Limits of Withdrawal. BLVD should explain that withdrawal may be possible before publication but may become difficult after publication, distribution, syndication, screenshots, or third-party sharing. Requests made after publication will still be assessed in good faith, with the child's safety given substantial weight. 6.6. Employment, Performances, and Paid Participation. Before engaging a child in paid work, modeling, entertainment, advertising, production, or another regulated activity, BLVD must verify and comply with applicable labor restrictions, working-hour rules, contract requirements, permits, education protections, and health and safety obligations.

Section 7. Risk Management, Recruitment, and Partner Controls

7.1. Assignment Risk Assessment. Editors or assignment leads must assess foreseeable risks before work involving children, especially sensitive interviews, private-location meetings, body-focused shoots, online contact, travel, overnight activity, live broadcasts, and publication of identifying information. The assessment should identify safeguards, responsible persons, emergency contacts, and a stop-work threshold. 7.2. Safer Recruitment and Selection. Roles involving regular or unsupervised contact with children should include appropriate reference checks, identity verification, safeguarding questions, disclosure of relevant conflicts, and background screening where lawful, proportionate, and feasible. No screening process eliminates the need for supervision and reporting. 7.3. Two-Adult and Observable-Setting Practice. Where practical, BLVD should use two adults, an approved chaperone, or an observable and interruptible setting for direct work with children. Departures from this practice must be justified by the assignment and managed through other safeguards. 7.4. Partner Due Diligence. Schools, venues, production houses, agencies, NGOs, sponsors, and other partners working directly with children should be informed of BLVD's standards and asked to identify their safeguarding contact and procedures. Serious gaps may require additional controls or cancellation of the engagement. 7.5. Data and Equipment Security. Child-related files must be stored only in approved systems with access limited to the assignment and safeguarding need. Personal devices, shared links, raw footage, contact lists, location data, and case records must be protected, retained only as long as necessary, and securely deleted or archived under BLVD's records and privacy procedures.

Section 8. Reporting and Immediate Response

8.1. Primary Reporting Point. All safeguarding concerns connected to BLVD should be reported promptly to the Human Resource Manager, who acts as the Child Safeguarding Focal Point. A report may be made by a child, parent, guardian, witness, staff member, contributor, subject, source, partner, or any person with relevant information. 8.2. Conflict or Unavailability. If the Human Resource Manager is the person reported, has a conflict of interest, or is unavailable, the concern must be sent to BLVD's designated neutral senior management representative. BLVD must then appoint an impartial internal panel or qualified external professional with appropriate safeguarding competence. 8.3. Internal Duty to Report. Employees, managers, editors, assignment leads, event staff, regular contributors, and contractors must promptly report any disclosure, observed incident, serious boundary violation, suspected abuse, online exploitation, missing child, imminent danger, or material breach of this policy. They must not wait for proof or conduct their own investigation. 8.4. Ways to Report. Reports may be made in person, by official email, through a secure written message, or through another designated BLVD channel. A verbal report is valid. The receiving person should record the concern accurately and confirm the record with the reporter where reasonably possible. 8.5. Responding to a Child's Disclosure. The person receiving a disclosure should: 1. Stay calm, listen, and take the child seriously. 2. Do not blame, express disbelief, confront the person reported, or ask leading or repeated questions. 3. Tell the child they did the right thing by speaking and explain that the information must be shared with people who can help keep them safe. 4. Record the child's words as accurately as possible, together with the date, time, setting, and immediate safety concerns. 5. Report immediately to the Human Resource Manager or alternate reporting point and follow urgent safety instructions. 8.6. Urgent Safety and External Help. When a child faces immediate danger or needs urgent medical attention, the first priority is to reach a safer setting and contact appropriate emergency, medical, law-enforcement, or social-welfare services. Internal reporting must not delay urgent protection. BLVD will cooperate with lawful external referrals and reporting obligations. 8.7. Anonymous and Third-Party Reports. BLVD will assess anonymous and third-party reports. Anonymity may limit fact-finding, but it does not make a concern invalid. Credible information may support protective action even when a formal complaint is not possible. 8.8. Information to Include. A report may describe what happened, when and where it occurred, the people involved, witnesses, relevant messages or files, immediate risks, and what support is requested. A person should not delay reporting because they cannot recall every detail or do not have documentary evidence.

Section 9. Assessment, Investigation, and Case Management

9.1. Initial Response. The Human Resource Manager will acknowledge the report as soon as practicable, assess immediate safety, medical, digital, and retaliation risks, identify necessary protective measures, explain confidentiality limits, and determine whether external referral or specialist advice is required. 9.2. No Informal Investigation by Untrained Personnel. Managers, editors, and colleagues must not interview the child repeatedly, search the child's private devices without authority, pressure a family to settle, or attempt to determine guilt. Their role is to preserve safety, information, and evidence and to report. 9.3. Case Assignment and Conflict Check. BLVD will identify conflicts of interest and assign the matter to an impartial investigator or panel with suitable competence. An external safeguarding professional, lawyer, social worker, digital forensics specialist, or other expert may be engaged where the case requires it. 9.4. Child-Sensitive Fact-Finding. Any direct interaction with the child must be necessary, age-appropriate, and planned to reduce distress and repeated retelling. A parent, guardian, social worker, lawyer, or trusted support person may be involved when appropriate and safe. BLVD's internal process must not interfere with an official investigation. 9.5. Fair Process. The person reported will be informed of the substance of the allegation and given a reasonable opportunity to respond. Both the reporting and reported parties may identify relevant evidence and witnesses. Findings will be based on available information and the standard appropriate to an internal policy process, without representing a criminal judgment. 9.6. Interim Protective Measures. BLVD may temporarily change assignments, restrict access to children or systems, issue no-contact directions, remove a person from an event, pause publication, preserve devices or records, require supervision, or place a person on preventive suspension where lawful. Interim measures are not a finding of guilt. 9.7. Confidentiality and Records. Safeguarding records must be kept separately from ordinary editorial files, secured against public or unnecessary staff access, and disclosed only for protection, investigation, decision-making, legal compliance, or support. Publication of a safeguarding allegation or a child's identity requires a separate editorial and legal decision; an internal report is not permission to publish. 9.8. Outcome and Communication. BLVD will document the outcome, actions, and reasons. Information shared with the child, parent, reporter, or person reported will be limited by privacy, safety, employment, and legal considerations. Where possible, the child and safe adult supporting them should receive an age-appropriate explanation of next steps.

Section 10. Protective, Corrective, and Disciplinary Action

10.1. Available Action. Action may be protective, corrective, disciplinary, contractual, editorial, or a combination of these, depending on the risk, evidence, relationship, law, and the child's needs. 10.2. Employees and Managers. Subject to due process and applicable labor law, action may include coaching, required training, written warning, closer supervision, removal of child-contact or managerial duties, reassignment, suspension, or dismissal where lawful grounds are established. 10.3. Freelancers, Contractors, Vendors, and Partners. BLVD may modify or terminate an assignment or contract, remove access, disqualify a person from future work, require corrective measures, change a venue or partner, or refer the matter to the person's employer, professional body, or a competent authority. 10.4. Subjects, Guests, Sponsors, Advertisers, and Other Third Parties. BLVD may stop an interview or shoot, issue a no-contact direction, remove a person from an event or platform, decline publication or promotion, end a commercial or institutional relationship, and refuse future engagement. 10.5. Support and Remedies for the Child. Where reasonably possible and appropriate, BLVD may provide a safe contact person, adjust participation, remove or anonymize content, preserve evidence, help connect the child or family with qualified services, address retaliation, correct records, and review how the harm occurred. BLVD will not promise services or outcomes it cannot provide. 10.6. Good-Faith Reports. A person will not be penalized for raising a concern in good faith merely because the available evidence does not establish a policy violation. Deliberately false or malicious reports may be addressed separately, but a report that is mistaken, incomplete, or difficult to prove is not automatically malicious.

Section 11. Training, Prevention, and Monitoring

11.1. Orientation and Acknowledgment. Employees, editors, managers, interns, event personnel, and regular contributors will receive this policy at onboarding and sign the acknowledgment form. Relevant obligations should be incorporated into contributor agreements, vendor terms, event briefs, releases, partnerships, and production contracts. 11.2. Role-Specific Learning. BLVD will provide periodic child-safeguarding learning, with additional instruction for editors, reporters, photographers, videographers, social media staff, event teams, managers, and the Human Resource Manager. Training should cover disclosures, digital risks, consent and assent, safe interviewing, publication decisions, and reporting. 11.3. Visible Reporting Channels. BLVD will publish the Human Resource Manager's official contact and the alternate route for conflicts. Children and families should receive simple, accessible information on how to raise a concern during relevant assignments and events. 11.4. Monitoring and Learning. The Human Resource Manager will review patterns, near misses, recurring risks, training needs, and implementation gaps without disclosing unnecessary personal information. Lessons should improve systems rather than identify or shame children and reporters. 11.5. Annual Review. This policy should be reviewed at least once each year and after a serious incident, material change in BLVD's work or structure, significant technology change, or relevant legal or regulatory development.

Section 12. Administration, Approval, and Legal Framework

12.1. Policy Owner. The Human Resource Manager is responsible for receiving reports, coordinating immediate protection, maintaining safeguarding records, arranging impartial assessment, monitoring implementation, and ensuring that reporting routes remain functional. Senior management remains accountable for providing authority and resources. 12.2. Interpretation. Questions about this policy should be referred to the Human Resource Manager. Where a mandatory legal requirement conflicts with this policy, the legal requirement prevails while the remaining provisions continue to apply. 12.3. Key Legal and Ethical References. This policy should be read with applicable law and current official guidance, including: • Article II, Section 13 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution; • Republic Act No. 7610, the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act, as amended; • Republic Act No. 9231 on the elimination of the worst forms of child labor and stronger protection for working children; • Republic Act No. 11930, the Anti-Online Sexual Abuse or Exploitation of Children and Anti-Child Sexual Abuse or Exploitation Materials Act; • Republic Act No. 10173, the Data Privacy Act of 2012, and applicable National Privacy Commission issuances; • Republic Act No. 11313, the Safe Spaces Act; • Republic Act No. 11648, which strengthened protections against rape and sexual exploitation and raised the age of sexual consent; • Republic Act No. 11596, prohibiting child marriage; • applicable labor, criminal, social-welfare, cybercrime, trafficking, and juvenile-justice laws; and • the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Quick Safeguarding and Reporting Guide

You do not need proof or a legal label before reporting. Record what you saw or heard, protect the child from immediate harm, and let the authorized process assess the concern. 1. GET TO SAFETY. Move away from immediate danger where it is safe to do so. Seek urgent medical, emergency, police, or social-welfare help when needed. 2. LISTEN, DO NOT INVESTIGATE. Stay calm. Do not blame, confront, promise secrecy, or ask the child to repeat the account to multiple people. 3. RECORD THE FACTS. Note the child's exact words where possible, what you observed, dates, times, people present, messages, files, and immediate risks. 4. REPORT PROMPTLY. Contact the Human Resource Manager. Use the alternate senior-management contact if the Human Resource Manager is involved, conflicted, or unavailable. 5. PROTECT PRIVACY. Do not discuss the concern in group chats, editorial meetings, social media, or with people who do not need to know. 6. PRESERVE EVIDENCE. Keep relevant messages, files, URLs, devices, call sheets, releases, and assignment records secure. Do not circulate harmful content unnecessarily. 7. FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS. Cooperate with protective measures, external referrals, and an authorized investigation. Do not retaliate or interfere.

Reporting Contacts

Primary Reporting Point — Human Resource Manager / Child Safeguarding Focal Point: [To be added] Alternate Reporting Point: [To be added]

Contact Us

If you have questions about this policy, please reach out to us: