Parents Community Guidelines.
Welcome to the ReachOut Parents Forums! This is an anonymous, safe space, open 24/7, for parents and carers of teenagers to chat with each other about all things parenting, and explore issues their teens may be facing in a safe and supportive space.
We have moderators online from 9am–11pm weekdays, 10am–11pm weekends, however these forums are not monitored 24/7 and we cannot guarantee someone will see or reply to anything you post. These forums are for peer support; where parents can talk to and support each other.
ReachOut is not a counselling or a crisis service - if you or someone you know is at risk or you want to talk to someone now, go to our Urgent help page.
Mandatory reporting:
We respect your privacy and anonymity, however there are times when we are obliged under law to make reports to the relevant authorities. There are two main times when this occurs:
- If you are at imminent risk of harm, including suicide, then we will share your IP address and any other information we have about you with emergency services;
- ReachOut are mandatory child protection reporters - If you post that anyone you know under the age of 18 is at risk of harm, we may need to escalate to Emergency Services or Department of Family and Community Services.
These guidelines have been developed in consultation with parents, to keep the forums a helpful, constructive and safe space for everyone.
House Rules:
Be respectful: we value diversity! We want to make sure our forums are a safe and inclusive space for all people regardless of their ethnicity, faith, disability, gender identity, or sexuality. Any posts that are discriminatory or aggressive towards another member may be removed.
Promote positive mental health : ReachOut is an organisation centred around helping young people be mentally healthy and well. Any posts that contain advice that could be harmful to the mental health and wellbeing of young people or their families may be removed.
Respect cultural diversity There are many different values and beliefs in our community, it's important that you remember that these differences are okay even if you might not always understand them.
How to post: Think about what you’re wanting to gain from the forums,write a clear title for your post, and post in the appropriate section of the forums so that you can get the support you need.
Be supportive : please provide support about parenting techniques in a non-judgemental way. We try to be as constructive as possible and focus on people’s strengths.
Don’t promote your faith to other people. It's okay to share your experience with your faith and we recognise that this is very important to a lot of people, it's not okay to push or promote your faith to other people.
Please don’t post any links to external content This includes links to YouTube videos, any external websites, or social media pages. Any content posted for commercial purposes will also be removed. Please don't cross post identical content across the forums.
Please seek approval for research posts: please don’t post any campaigns, media request, research or assignment surveys/ interviews directly to the forums. You can contact ReachOut staff with your request here
Safety
Stay anonymous at all times: please don’t post any information that could identify you or anyone you’re posting about, including school names/ teachers, or link to personal information like blogs or social media accounts. Please respect other people’s anonymity, even if you think you may know them in real life.
ReachOut cannot provide crisis support: call 000 if you or your young person is at immediate risk of harming themselves or others. You can also click the Urgent help link (top right of your screen) to access services that can help you or your teenager.
If you’re experiencing abuse it’s really important that you seek additional help. Check out this page: Getting Help If You've Been Abused.
Steer clear of posting professional advice to other members: this includes legal, medical, or financial advice, such as suggesting a medical diagnosis. Although you may want to help another member you can’t be aware of their full set of circumstances, and what you say could have dangerous consequences.
Please don’t post any specifics about medications (for example dosage) or names of medications, or advice about changing or stopping medication.
Please don’t post explicit details about eating disorders (including methods of disordered eating, details of body weight and measurements), self harm methods, methods of suicide, or abuse. This information can be harmful or triggering to others who have experienced trauma. Please talk about these topics using general terms such as “self-harm”, “eating disorder”, and “assault”.
Content/Trigger warnings: if you're posting about a topic that may be distressing to people reading the post, please include a Content warning (CW), so that people can decide if they want to read the post. For example, your post may read CW: Mentions suicidal thoughts. ReachOut staff may edit posts to include content warnings at our discretion, to make sure the community stays safe for everyone.
Don’t post obscene, explicit, or inappropriate content: this includes screen names, images, videos and links to sites.
Never break the law in any way and don’t encourage others to break the law. This includes discussing illegal actions, taking someone’s intellectual property, or breaking copyright laws by posting what isn’t yours (including pictures & videos). Don’t post content that would harm the reputation of a business, organisation or person - this may be defamatory.
Don’t target, “troll” or personally attack other members. Respectful disagreement and discussion is okay, any kind of abuse is not.
Report content. As members of the ReachOut.com community, please tell us if there’s content that may be causing a problem- you can contact us at forums@reachout.com. Please also use the report button if you are worried about someone. You can help keep your community a safe space.
How ReachOut helps to keep the community safe
- ReachOut staff or Moderators may edit or remove any posts that do not meet our guidelines without notice.
- ReachOut staff and Moderators may ask you to step off the forums to seek professional, medical or crisis supports. We are a peer support service and do not offer clinical services or crisis support- there may be times we refer you to clinical/crisis services for further support.
- Should guidelines continue to be broken, we may put in place time restrictions, pauses or bans on your account at the discretion of the ReachOut staff. ReachOut staff may contact you by email to communicate this decision, provide referrals to appropriate services and encourage you to stick to the community guidelines.
- Some guideline breaches may lead to an automatic ban. This includes:
- Spamming, trolling, inciting hatred or discrimination
- Bullying or threatening violence.
- Posting with commercial interests
- Posting for purposes not related to the values of our forums,
- Evading site controls
- Posts may be moved to new threads or between boards at the discretion of ReachOut staff
