Safeguarding

Our commitment

Immanuel Virtual World is used by children and young people. Their safety and wellbeing come before everything else we do. Safety is built into how the world works, not added afterwards.

How the world keeps children safe

• Age and parent consent. We ask for a date of birth when an account is made. For anyone under 16, a parent or guardian finishes the sign-up and confirms it from their own email before the account can be used. We use 16 in every country, or a higher age where a country’s law asks for it (18 in India), so a child is never the person who agrees. The detail is in our GDPR policy.
• Chat. Chat stays off until a parent or guardian’s email is confirmed, and chat and voice stay off for anyone under 13. Messages only reach people nearby in the same school or community, and unkind words are stopped before they are sent. There is no chat during quiz games, only a few ready-made emotes.
• No public profiles. Nobody can search for a child by name. People are shown by their username only.
• Friends. Friends join only by typing a private friend code, and both people must say yes. Adults, including teachers, cannot be friends with anyone under 18.
• Parents stay informed. An under-16 needs a parent’s approval to become friends with someone from a different school or community, and we email a parent each time an under-16 gets a new friend.
• Private worlds. A private world can only be entered with its code. When a child starts one, only their friends can join.
• No photographs. We never ask a child to upload a photograph of their face. Avatars are made from shapes and colours.
• Safe content. Words that people write for their own worlds, quizzes and quests are checked before anyone else sees them.

Reporting a concern

Anyone can report a person from their account page, and they can also block them. Every report is read by an adult on our team, and we keep the report, the usernames involved and the date.

Our safeguarding lead is Ruth Benjamin Marvin. To raise a concern about a child, write to info@immanuelvirtualworld.com with as much detail as you can: usernames, the place in the world and the time. We aim to reply within one working day.

What we do with a concern

We look into every concern. Depending on what we find, we may turn off chat, remove content, suspend or block an account, contact a parent or guardian, or pass information to the police or children’s services where the law requires it or a child is at risk.

Staying safe online

• Keep your password and personal details to yourself.
• Only add friends you know in real life.
• If anything makes you feel uncomfortable, leave, block and tell a trusted adult.

Teachers, schools and organisations

Teachers and leaders who run private worlds are responsible for the groups they invite and should follow their own safeguarding procedures as well as this policy. Schools can ask us for help at any time.