Disclaimer Page for Scouting Stuff
This information is provided by volunteers. (Currently it is just me,
but I expect more soon). There is no guarantee for accuracy and no promise
of udpdating.
I have also writen a guidelines page which
is less socially but more technically oriented. Units having directories
on our server must adhere to these rules.
Readership
It is not easy to provide information to the right audience. We might want tell some good crafts to the children. We might talk about educational value to parents. We might disclose organizational structure to fellow leaders. The general public probably prefers an introduction what Scouting is all about.
In a book store the solution is simple: There are lots of books and people buy the book with the right view point. However, here on the internet it is more complex: Cross referencing is the name of the game, but to label all pointers correctly makes the text about as readable as a law book. We also are a small number of volunteers, we can not provide information from all angles.
All this information is secondary. We run our unit for the children who are there physically. The internet is not the primary media for scouting. The internet is a nice supplement, but only a supplement. We hope that if children read our information that they like it. We also hope that some fellow leaders get something out of it. Since this really is secondary, we can not guarantee real time or completeness. I hope you like it anyway.
To be more blunt: We do not propose to give unsupervised access to the internet to children. But if they come anyway, they are welcome.
Security
No private home addresses.
No private home phone numbers.
No full names of people whose name wouldn't also appear in a council newsletter. First name with first letter of last name however is ok for all positions including boys.
We would trust most of our readers. However, this is a completely open medium, so we have to
be careful. After some e-mail exchange I could give you my phone number. But that would mean to give it out to one person at a time, and is very different from broadcasting it. I also do this because I'm council webmaster; I would advice strongly against this for boys.
On the other side, I believe that business addresses, e-mail addresses, and council office phone numbers do not need protection. I also think photographs and voice samples would be ok if the child can not be identified.
I recommend Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) for further thoughts on what could be appropriate and what not.
An example of benign misuse.
How to Comply
With The Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule.
Accuracy
In addition to the standard disclaimers, the following holds:
Most web pages haven't even been read by the officials in charge.
Just in case some person officially in charge would read a page and approve of something, that still would not make it official.
References.We are proud to see that our thoughts have been further improved and used for similar purposes by Troop 5, Troop 566 and Pack 410. There is also an official but somewhat old BSA disclaimer. Larry Magid has a good article on Child Safety on the Information Highway on his wonderful www.safekids.com site. The Internet Advocate promotes positive ways young people are using the Internet. GEC policyused to be good, but now they are getting paranoid.
Please assume that all the standard disclaimers are valid here too. I don't speak for my employer, I don't speak for the owner of the site, I don't speak for BSA, I don't even speak for my Cub Scout pack. Even when I say something, I keep the right to change my opinion anytime.
I even keep the right to change this disclaimer. :-)
[scoutway | Rules
| Guidelines | What's
new ]
Last updated by Chris
Jacobi, September 2, 1998
Small update 9/15/2003