At TheUKDaily.uk, we recognise that covering stories involving children and young people carries a heightened responsibility. Our Safeguarding & Minors Policy sets out the additional care we take when reporting on schools, youth organisations, young performers, families, children in community incidents, crime stories involving minors, or any other content that may affect under-18s. This policy forms part of our broader commitment to ethical journalism and is overseen by the Standards & Fact-Checking Lead in conjunction with our Editorial Policy.
Our Approach
We focus coverage on matters of genuine public interest. When reporting on minors we rely on official statements, publicly available information from professional organisations, and context that is clearly relevant to the story. We cover school events, youth achievements, and community activities where the young people involved are participating in a public or professional capacity. In crime or incident stories, we limit detail to what is necessary for public understanding and never include speculative or sensational elements.
What We Avoid
- Sensationalising minors: We do not use dramatic language, emotive imagery, or headlines that exploit the involvement of children.
- Unnecessary private details: We avoid publishing home addresses, school names (where this could identify a vulnerable child), private contact information, or non-public medical and safety-risk information unless there is a clear, demonstrable public-interest reason.
- Invasive imagery: We do not publish photographs or video that intrude on a child’s privacy, show them in distress, or identify them without appropriate consent from a parent or guardian (or relevant authority) in line with our Privacy Policy.
- Non-public information: Details about a child’s family circumstances, behavioural history, or social background are only included when they are essential to the story and already in the public domain through official channels.
Editorial Review for Stories Involving Minors
Any story that names, identifies, or directly concerns a minor receives additional editorial scrutiny. This review is led by our Standards & Fact-Checking Lead, Oliver Reeves, who assesses whether the content meets our safeguarding standards and balances the public interest against the child’s welfare. Editors and reporters involved in such stories are required to consult this policy and the broader Editorial Policy before publication. Where doubt exists about the necessity of including a child’s identity, we err on the side of protecting their privacy.
Privacy Protections
We apply strict privacy safeguards to all content featuring minors. This means we do not publish private addresses, private telephone numbers, non-public medical details, information that could endanger a child’s safety, or identifying details of vulnerable young people unless there is an overriding public-interest justification. When personal data is used, we ensure compliance with data protection law and our own Privacy Policy. Any such decision is documented and signed off by senior editorial staff.
Reporting Concerns
If you believe a story on TheUKDaily.uk breaches this Safeguarding & Minors Policy, or if you have a concern about how we have depicted a child or young person, please contact us immediately via complaints@theukdaily.uk or follow our formal Complaints Procedure. We will investigate promptly, issue corrections where necessary, and remove or amend content that is found to be in breach of this policy.
This policy is reviewed annually and updated in line with best practice in child safeguarding and journalism ethics. For further information on how we operate, please see Ownership & Funding and AI & Automation Policy.