Community Standards & Acceptable Use Policy

1. Purpose and who this covers

These standards apply to visitors, public members, subscribers, volunteers, campaigners, campaign leaders, supporters, applicants, donors, event participants and anyone using Right First Time UK (RFTUK) websites, forms, membership areas, messaging, community spaces or official channels. Additional role-specific policies may also apply.

Our purpose is to protect people, evidence, privacy and digital systems while encouraging open, evidence-led public-interest discussion. These rules govern RFTUK-controlled spaces; they do not prevent people from expressing lawful views elsewhere.

2. Open challenge, criticism and fair participation

Strong criticism, negative reviews, complaints, whistleblowing, political disagreement and scrutiny of RFTUK or public bodies are welcome where lawful. Being uncomfortable, angry or critical does not by itself make a contribution abusive.

People should challenge ideas, claims, conduct and decisions without intimidation or personal degradation. Lawful discussion of contested issues - including politics, faith, equality, immigration and public services - is not automatically prohibited because others disagree.

RFTUK moderation must address conduct and genuine risks, not conceal mistakes, protect our reputation from legitimate scrutiny or suppress lawful complaints.

3. Threats, harassment and prohibited abuse

Credible threats of violence, encouragement of harm, stalking, doxxing intended to expose someone to harm, targeted harassment, bullying, intimidation and discriminatory abuse are not permitted.

Unwanted sexual comments, sexual harassment, non-consensual intimate imagery, deceptive sexualised deepfakes and other unlawful sexual content are prohibited. Material may be removed or escalated where safety or law requires it.

An allegation of misconduct and a person reasonably following up an unresolved issue must not automatically be treated as harassment. Contact restrictions should address genuinely abusive conduct and remain proportionate.

4. Children and safeguarding

RFTUK spaces must not be used to groom, exploit, threaten, sexually contact or deliberately expose children to harmful or inappropriate material. Children and adults at risk must be treated with care and dignity.

Users must not publish information that identifies a protected child, discloses restricted family-court proceedings or exposes confidential safeguarding material simply because they possess it. Private submission is appropriate only where lawful and necessary.

Suspected child sexual abuse material must not be forwarded, copied or informally archived. Any concern must be escalated safely through appropriate safeguarding and legal reporting channels. Immediate danger should be reported to emergency services.

5. Privacy, confidential information and restricted records

Do not publish someone else's private address, phone number, medical information, financial details, identity documents, passwords or other sensitive information without a lawful and appropriate basis.

When submitting evidence, remove unnecessary third-party identifiers where practical. Sending a record privately to RFTUK does not authorise its public release. Court material, leaked documents and whistleblower information require extra assessment of confidentiality, authenticity, safeguarding, public interest and legal restrictions.

Publicly available information is not automatically prohibited, but its use must be lawful, necessary, proportionate and considered in context.

6. Truthfulness, evidence, allegations and intellectual property

Do not knowingly submit forged evidence, fabricated stories, deceptive screenshots, false identities or deliberately manipulated records to mislead others. Honest mistakes, disputed recollections and unproven allegations must not automatically be labelled malicious.

Materially misleading public submissions may be corrected or moderated proportionately. Serious allegations about identifiable people or organisations should distinguish evidence from allegation, respect privacy and defamation law, and use suitable confidential channels when public posting would create avoidable harm.

Respect copyright, trade marks and licences. Content found online is not automatically free to republish; statutory quotation, criticism and reporting exceptions depend on the circumstances.

7. Account integrity and digital security

Unauthorised access to accounts, databases, servers, payment systems and administration areas is prohibited. Do not share stolen credentials, impersonate RFTUK or its representatives, falsely claim professional or organisational authority, or introduce malware or destructive code.

Harmful scraping, denial-of-service activity, automated form flooding and deliberate disruption are prohibited. Ordinary accessibility tools, reasonable indexing and harmless automation are not treated as abuse merely because software is involved.

Report suspected security vulnerabilities through an appropriate private contact route. Discovering a weakness is not permission to exploit it or extract information. Security measures may include rate limits, malware checks, firewalls and temporary blocks.

8. Spam, commercial content and fundraising

Do not overwhelm RFTUK forms or community spaces with repetitive irrelevant submissions, scams, unauthorised advertising, affiliate promotions or commercial solicitations. Repeated genuine complaints and reasonable follow-ups are not automatically spam.

Only authorised fundraising may be conducted in RFTUK's name. Users must not collect money while falsely claiming to represent RFTUK or redirect donations to unauthorised personal accounts.

People may refer to businesses, charities, petitions or campaigns when relevant to a discussion. RFTUK may restrict unrelated promotions and should make clear when a third-party campaign is not an RFTUK activity.

9. Political discussion and independence

RFTUK is an independent, non-party-political public-interest organisation. Factual discussion and lawful criticism of politicians, parties, laws, manifesto promises and public decisions are allowed.

RFTUK-controlled spaces must not be misused for unauthorised party recruitment, candidate advertising, party or candidate fundraising or voting instructions. Personal political opinions are not automatically disallowed, but they must not be deceptively presented as official RFTUK positions.

Any issue campaigning during election or referendum periods must also comply with applicable electoral law and relevant RFTUK policies.

10. Complaints, communication needs and reasonable adjustments

A person whose post or account has been moderated should still be able to raise a legitimate complaint through an appropriate private route unless a lawful and proportionate restriction is necessary.

Complaints must not be rejected merely because a person is upset, distressed, dyslexic, neurodivergent, uses imperfect grammar or needs extra time. RFTUK should consider reasonable adjustments such as clear written explanations, extra processing time and an alternative contact method.

Where a communication becomes threatening or seriously abusive, RFTUK may manage the method or frequency of contact while continuing to consider any legitimate underlying issue where safe and practicable.

11. Community messages, user content and online safety

Where RFTUK operates forums, public comments, user uploads, member messaging or other interactive features, it must assess how the service works in practice. Some features may be in scope of the Online Safety Act 2023, including where user-generated content can be encountered by other users.

For any in-scope service, RFTUK must comply with the applicable Ofcom requirements for illegal-content risk assessment, safety systems, complaints, reporting, records and protection of freedom of expression and privacy. Services in scope must also assess whether they are likely to be accessed by children and meet additional duties where applicable.

The obligations vary by service; a private form whose submissions are only received by RFTUK is not necessarily a user-to-user service. RFTUK should review its existing functionality and reassess before making significant changes, using current Ofcom guidance rather than assuming that small organisations are exempt.

Where legal duties to report detected child sexual exploitation and abuse material apply, RFTUK must follow the prescribed reporting process. This policy does not by itself establish whether any particular RFTUK service is within scope.

12. Proportionate moderation and urgent action

Depending on severity and context, RFTUK may take no action, explain a rule, issue a warning, ask for an edit, hide content, limit a feature, temporarily suspend access, block harmful traffic, preserve relevant evidence or make an appropriate referral.

For ordinary lower-risk breaches, a warning or narrower measure should normally be considered before exclusion. RFTUK may take urgent action without advance notice for credible threats, child safeguarding concerns, serious privacy breaches, malicious code, exposed credentials, unlawful content or restricted court material.

Technical protections such as Fail2Ban or automated IP blocking may produce false positives. Legitimate users should have a route to report mistaken restrictions without RFTUK having to disable essential security controls.

13. Review, appeals and records

Significant moderation decisions should consider severity, repetition, harm, intent, accessibility and whether less restrictive action would work. Affected people may request a review through RFTUK's contact or complaints route.

Where reasonably practicable, someone not solely responsible for the original decision should review a disputed significant restriction. RFTUK may uphold, change or reverse the decision and provide a clear explanation.

Records of serious incidents, reasons, warnings, technical evidence, safeguarding referrals and outcomes should be proportionate, access-controlled and retained under RFTUK's data-protection and retention policies, not indefinitely solely because someone disagreed.

14. Responsibilities of people acting for RFTUK

Founders, Directors, Campaign Leaders, Campaigners, Volunteers and staff using RFTUK-controlled channels must follow these standards and their relevant role-specific codes.

Administrative privileges must not be used to conceal evidence, remove criticism for reputational convenience, retaliate against complainants, misuse personal information or pursue unrelated commercial or party-political interests.

Before introducing new interactive features, RFTUK should assess safeguarding, moderation resources, privacy, accessibility, cybersecurity and any Online Safety Act duties.

15. Company and organisational information

Right First Time UK Ltd (company number 17493370) is a non-profit company limited by guarantee with no share capital. RFTUK is not a registered charity or Community Interest Company.

Its Parent Contribution Service (PCS) is a service operated by Right First Time UK Ltd, not a separate legal entity. Under the current model it offers information, communication, calculation and record-keeping tools for voluntary parent-to-parent arrangements; it does not itself hold or transfer parent-to-parent maintenance money or exercise statutory enforcement powers.

Unpaid organisational roles are voluntary. Properly authorised reasonable expenses may be reimbursed, and any future paid roles require lawful organisational approval.

16. Contact, related policies and review

For a complaint about moderation, inappropriate conduct, privacy or community access, use the RFTUK complaints process or the contact page at contact-us.php. Report urgent threats or immediate safeguarding danger directly to the appropriate emergency or safeguarding authority.

This policy should be read alongside the Website Terms, Complaints, Safeguarding, Accessibility, Data Protection and Privacy, Information Security, Evidence and Corrections, Campaign Leader and Campaigner, and Political Independence policies.

Last reviewed: 12 October 2026. RFTUK will review these standards at least annually, and sooner after material legal changes, serious incidents or changes to community and messaging functions.

Official guidance

• Ofcom: Regulation Checker
• Ofcom: Online Safety Assessment Tool
• Ofcom: Protection of children duties
• Computer Misuse Act 1990, section 1
• CPS: Communications offences guidance

External legal and regulatory guidance may change. Check current requirements when operating or changing an interactive service.