TFA Social Media Community Code

Touch Football Australia

SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNITY CODE

Introduction

At Touch Football Australia (TFA), we recognise the importance of using social media to entertain, communicate and engage with fans and participants of the game. Social media allows us to share our stories, hear your stories and start meaningful conversations with people across the country.

We understand the responsibilities that come with having a large social media community. It is important to TFA that fans and participants can engage with us and each other in a respectful, positive, and safe environment.

We understand and acknowledge that social media can sometimes be an unpleasant place, where some people choose to bully, and abuse others and a minority use these platforms to spread hate.

TFA has a zero-tolerance policy on racism, homophobia, bullying, abuse, hate speech or discrimination of any kind on our social media channels. People participating in such actions are not welcome in our online community.

The Touch Football Social Media Community Code sets clear guidance on what is acceptable when engaging with us, our members and fellow participants. It also outlines what will not be tolerated. This is a collective effort, and we call on our participants to support us in our mission to create a welcoming, safe, and inclusive online environment for all.

Our official social media channels include, but are not limited to: 

Guidance for participants

We are committed to creating a safe online environment across our social media channels and we ask that our participants support our mission by reflecting our values and beliefs when engaging with us and each other online.

Our commitment to you

While social media companies must work to prevent hateful, abusive, and discriminatory content appearing on their platforms, we will take the necessary action to protect our members, participants, partners, and fans.

Touch Football Australia has a dedicated team actively monitoring comments posted on our social media channels and via direct message. We will remove posts that breach our social media community guidelines or that we otherwise deem to be inappropriate or unacceptable. We will block users that violate our policy and, where appropriate, report users to social media platform providers.

While we take a proactive approach to dealing with comments and messages that violate our policy, due to the sheer volume of posts on our social media channels, there may be instances where you spot them before we do. If so, please notify us by sending an email to: socialreport@touchfootball.com.au with the information requested below.

We will not tolerate any form of abuse or discrimination including: 

Racism;
Homophobia;
Sexism;
Hateful, abusive and offensive language;
Cyber Bullying;
Sexual harassment; and
Incitement to violence.

Your commitment to us

Block users and report incidents to social media platforms

You can block any user that is causing you harm or distress. If you encounter any abusive, hateful, or discriminatory comments online, we strongly advise that you report this directly to the respective social media platform where you witnessed the incident. Each platform has its own reporting procedure, and we would advise following their processes. You can find out more about reporting directly via the platforms here: 

Report incidents to Touch Football Australia

If you have witnessed something that you believe violates our community guidelines, you can report this to us at socialreport@touchfootball.com.au

To support our investigations please provide the following: 

A screenshot of the content that you are reporting;
The date and time of posting;
The username of the person posting; and
A link to the original post where the comment was left.

We will investigate these reports on an individual basis before deciding on an appropriate course of action. Examples of these actions can include, but are not limited to: 

Removing posts/comments/messages;
Blocking a person from our social media channels; and
Reporting the account/user/comment to the relevant social media platform.

The decision on whether to take action will remain at our discretion. Any decision not to act does not constitute an endorsement by Touch Football Australia of the content under complaint. 

All reports will remain confidential and anonymous, and each report will be investigated on an individual basis. We will acknowledge your report and contact you if we require any further information.  Where the content of a post is found to be abusive, bullying, harassment, sexual misconduct, unlawful discrimination, victimisation or vilification, action may be taken by us under the National Integrity Framework. If the post breaches the TFA Code of Conduct or other rules of Touch Football Australia action may also be taken under the Touch Football Disciplinary Regulations.

While we discourage engaging with any offensive or abusive posts, we would suggest keeping a note of any comments or messages of this nature. You can keep a record of online abuse by taking a screen shot of the comment/message, be sure to include the author’s username and the time and date of posting. You can do this on your smartphone, tablet, laptop, or computer. Keeping a record would be helpful should you decide to report this later. 

Where necessary, we will assist the authorities/police should they wish to act on any reports made by our community in relation to any behaviour that has occurred on our social media channels. 

Report crimes to the Police  

If you feel that you have been the victim of or have witnessed a crime on social media, you should report this to the police.