Online safety statement

This statement has been drawn up on the basis of legislation, policy and guidance that seeks to protect children in England, but applies to all members of our online community.

Purpose of this policy statement  
The Greater London Authority (GLA) works with young people and adults as part of its activities. These include the online community Talk London, where anyone aged 16 or older can join and have their say on big issues in the capital. 

The purpose of this online safety statement is to: 

  • ensure the safety and wellbeing of young people is paramount when adults, young people or children are using our online community, Talk London.
  • ensure that, as an organisation, we operate in line with our values and within the law in terms of how we use online devices and services. 

The statement applies to anyone involved in Talk London’s activities. 


Legal framework 
This statement has been drawn up on the basis of legislation, policy and guidance that seeks to protect children in England, but applies to all members of our online community. 

Summaries of the key legislation and guidance are available on:  

We recognise that the online world provides everyone with many opportunities; however it can also present risks and challenges.  We have a duty to ensure that all children, young people and adults involved in our online community are protected from potential harm online, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. 

We will seek to keep our online community safe by:  

  • appointing an online safety coordinator who can be contacted via [email protected]. 
  • providing clear and specific directions to staff how to behave online through our high standards of conduct.
  • supporting and encouraging our members to use our online community in a way that keeps them safe and shows respect for others through our community guidelines. 
  • developing clear and robust procedures to enable us to respond appropriately to any incidents of inappropriate online behaviour, whether by an adult or a child/young person through the GLA’s Digital Safeguarding Policy and Talk London’s Moderation Policy.  
  • reviewing and updating the security of our information systems regularly.
  • ensuring that usernames, logins, email accounts and passwords are used effectively. Members are encouraged not to use their real name as a user name and select an anonymous avatar to personalise their account. Members also can’t communicate to each other via direct messages. 
  • filtering all contributions with a profanity filter, which flags inappropriate words or combination of words to the moderator. 
  • ensuring personal information about the adults and children who are involved in our organisation is held securely and shared only as appropriate and set out in our privacy policy.
  • providing supervision, support and training for staff about online safety and online community management. Our moderators are here to help keep the community a lively, encouraging and safe place. They actively monitor the site between office hours on weekdays. 
  • examining and risk assessing any social media platforms and new technologies before they are used within the organisation. 

If online abuse occurs, we will respond to it by:  

  • having clear and robust safeguarding procedures in place for responding to abuse (including online abuse). This may include signposting to external agencies or reporting to the police in extreme cases, if members post or share something that reveals an immediate threat to life. 
  • providing support and training for all staff on dealing with all forms of abuse, including bullying/cyberbullying, emotional abuse, sexting, sexual abuse and sexual exploitation. 
  • making sure our response takes the needs of the person experiencing abuse, any bystanders, and our organisation as a whole into account. 
  • reviewing the plan developed to address online abuse at regular intervals, in order to ensure that any problems have been resolved in the long term.