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PRIVATE BETA

MyRacingPath is in private beta and not open to the public. These policies apply to you now: they are not drafts. We update them as the product changes, and we will tell you before any material change takes effect.

SAFEGUARDING POLICY

Last updated: 24 August 2026

1. Our commitment

  • MyRacingPath is for racing drivers of any age from 13 up, and many of the drivers using it are under 18. We design and run it on that basis, not as an adult product that children happen to find.
  • The Online Safety Act 2023 and the ICO Age Appropriate Design Code both apply to us, and we work to the safeguarding principles in Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023. Section 4 sets out plainly where we have got to against each of them.
  • We apply the same care to our digital environment that Motorsport UK applies to physical motorsport settings.

2. Who this policy applies to

  • All users of MyRacingPath, with enhanced protections for users under 18.
  • Everyone who works on MyRacingPath, and any moderators, contractors or verified coaches we give access to child-facing features in future.

3. Our safeguarding structure

  • MyRacingPath is run by MY RACING PATH LTD.
  • Our safeguarding contact is Ioan Chifan, the company's director. He is also the named person accountable for children's safety on this service under the Online Safety Act 2023. Reach him at safeguarding@myracingpath.com.
  • He undertakes age-appropriate safeguarding training for running an online service that children use, and refreshes it periodically. That training is currently being upgraded. We will state here what he holds once the current course is complete.
  • There is no second safeguarding lead and no out-of-hours rota. We would rather tell you that than imply cover that does not exist, because a parent who believes someone is always on duty might wait instead of calling 999 or Childline.
  • If we take on moderators, contractors or other staff, each will complete role-appropriate safeguarding training before doing anything child-facing, and we will formally appoint a Designated Safeguarding Lead and a second lead to cover them at that point.

4. Risk assessments

  • We have assessed this service against the ICO Age Appropriate Design Code and written a Data Protection Impact Assessment. Both were written by inspecting the live system rather than from a template. The Data Protection Impact Assessment is complete, re-verified against the live system on 21 August 2026, and awaits the director's signature; the Code assessment is still a working draft. As of 20 August 2026 the Code assessment marks one of the fifteen standards as not met and one more as at risk, and we would rather work from an honest one than a green one.
  • We have not yet completed the formal risk assessments the Online Safety Act 2023 asks for: the illegal content risk assessment under section 9, the children's access assessment under section 36, and the children's risk assessment under section 11. They are in progress and we will record here when each is finished.
  • We are not waiting for a document to tell us the answer to the access question. This service is open to drivers from age 13, it is plainly likely to be accessed by children, and we run it on that basis today.
  • We review all of this annually, whenever we make a material change to the service, and after any significant incident.

5. Content we prohibit

The following content is always prohibited and will be removed:

  • Child sexual abuse material and any sexualised content involving minors.
  • Grooming, including invitations to private contact from adults to minors.
  • Terrorism-related content.
  • Content encouraging or facilitating self-harm or suicide (OSA s.184).
  • Harassment, stalking, or threatening behaviour.
  • Content inciting hatred on protected characteristics.
  • Intimate image abuse (revenge pornography, cyberflashing, deepfakes).
  • Content promoting illegal drug use.
  • Fraud and scams.
  • Doxxing and unauthorised sharing of personal information.

For child accounts, additional prohibitions apply, including adult sexual content, gambling promotion, eating disorder content, and content encouraging dangerous behaviour.

6. How we protect children

  • We ask for a date of birth at sign-up and use it to set the account up as a child account. That date is self-declared and we do not verify it. We are not claiming “highly effective age assurance” under Ofcom's criteria, because we do not run photo ID, facial age estimation or any equivalent check. If we add one, we will say so here and explain what it does.
  • Sign-up refuses anyone under 13, the UK digital consent age, and there is no under-13 account type. Our Parental Consent Policy sets this out.
  • There is no user to user messaging in the private beta. Drivers cannot message each other, and nobody can send a child a message through MyRacingPath.
  • There are no public profiles, no posts, no comments and no location sharing between users. A driver's racing record is private to them.
  • Team membership is the one route into part of a child's account, and for a driver under 18 the join needs a parent or guardian's approval before it completes. The team manager sees performance data only: no conversations, no private notes, no date of birth, no consent status and no safety flags. Teammates on the same team see topline numbers only: display name, session and race counts, podiums and overall skill score.
  • Child accounts have high privacy settings by default and AI chat safety filtering (crisis detection and content filters, set out in section 7).
  • We do not list or introduce coaches in the private beta, so no coach vetting is running today. Before we list any coach, they will have to complete identity verification, provide proof of Motorsport UK safeguarding compliance, provide enhanced DBS clearance (or equivalent), and agree to our coach code of conduct.

7. AI and safeguarding

Our Race Engineer AI feature includes specific safeguards:

  • Filters that screen both what a driver types and what the AI produces. If either trips a safety pattern, the AI reply is replaced with a safety message that points at real help.
  • Crisis detection that triggers an automatic safeguarding alert to our safeguarding contact for self-harm, suicide, abuse, violence or medical emergency indicators, alongside in-product signposting to crisis services.
  • No methods-related information provided in response to self-harm queries.
  • For under-18 accounts, genuine flags go to our safeguarding contact. For self-harm, suicide and medical emergency signals we also email a parent or guardian, where we hold an address for one. Disclosures about abuse go to our safeguarding contact only and are never sent automatically to the household, because home is not always the safe place to send them.
  • The AI is instructed to say plainly that it is AI whenever a driver asks, and to remind under-18 drivers periodically that they are talking to AI and should check important decisions with a parent, coach or qualified professional.
  • No AI training on user conversations.
  • Redirection to qualified professionals for medical, legal, or regulatory questions.

We do not dress our AI features up as people: they are labelled as AI, and the AI will tell you it is AI whenever you ask it. That is our own rule, not a legal requirement we are passing on.

8. Reporting concerns

  • Inside the app, Report a concern in the account menu goes straight to our safeguarding contact. You can also email safeguarding@myracingpath.com at any time.
  • We aim to acknowledge within 24 hours, and to act within 72 hours on anything involving a child's safety. We cannot promise cover at every hour, so if something is urgent do not wait for us: the numbers at the end of this section are staffed around the clock and we are not.
  • For serious or suspected criminal concerns, we report to the appropriate authority: CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre) for online grooming and CSEA; Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) for suspected child sexual abuse material; Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) for allegations against staff or coaches; police for immediate risk of harm; Action Fraud for fraud concerns.
  • If a child is at risk right now, use these first: police 999 in an emergency or 101 otherwise, Childline 0800 1111, Samaritans 116 123, Shout (text 85258), NSPCC 0808 800 5000, or the equivalent services in your country.

9. Incident response

On receiving a safeguarding concern, our safeguarding contact will:

  • Preserve evidence (screenshots, logs, message IDs).
  • Make appropriate interim safety measures (content removal, account suspension).
  • Assess whether external reporting is required.
  • Make any required reports without tipping off suspected perpetrators.
  • Communicate with affected users and parents appropriately.
  • Record the incident in our secure safeguarding log.

We maintain a confidential safeguarding log, retained for 7 years from case closure or longer if legally required. That log survives account deletion: if the account concerned is deleted, the record is kept with its details and the identity it recorded intact, and the link to any live account is removed, because a safeguarding record that cannot name its subject is useless to the authorities it exists for. Our Privacy Policy sets out this retention.

10. Responsibilities

  • Our safeguarding contact is responsible for receiving, triaging and acting on safeguarding concerns, and for engaging external authorities where required.
  • Reports to external authorities are made without tipping off suspected perpetrators.
  • Confidentiality is preserved as far as possible while following reporting procedures. We will not promise confidentiality that prevents onward reporting.
  • Allegations are not investigated internally: serious matters are referred to the appropriate authority.
  • If we later engage moderators or contractors, the same responsibilities apply to them, with role-appropriate training before they take on child-facing duties.

11. Training

  • Our safeguarding contact undertakes age-appropriate safeguarding training for running an online service that children use, with periodic refreshers. That training is being upgraded right now.
  • We are not claiming a Designated Safeguarding Lead qualification, a formal training level, or an online-harms specialism, because the course in progress is not finished. When it is, we will name the certificate, the level, the provider and the date here.
  • Adult coaches verified on the platform must hold current safeguarding certification.
  • Any moderator or contractor we take on will complete role-appropriate safeguarding training before taking on child-facing responsibilities.

12. Review

  • This Policy is reviewed annually and after any significant incident.
  • We are in private beta, so we expect to update it more often than that while the product changes. We will tell you before any material change takes effect.
  • Next review date: 15 August 2027.

13. Safeguarding contact