SAFEGUARDING POLICY

1. Our commitment

• MyRacingPath is committed to creating a safe environment for all users, with particular care for children and young people.
• We comply with the Online Safety Act 2023, the ICO Age Appropriate Design Code, and relevant safeguarding principles from Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023.
• 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.
• The sole founder who currently operates MyRacingPath, and any future moderators, contractors, or verified coaches given access to child-facing features.

3. Our safeguarding structure

• MyRacingPath is operated by a sole founder. The founder acts as the safeguarding contact and the named accountable individual for children's online safety under the Online Safety Act 2023. Contact: support@myracingpath.com.
• The founder undertakes age-appropriate safeguarding training relevant to operating an online platform that may be accessed by children, with periodic refreshers.
• If MyRacingPath grows to employ moderators, contractors, or other staff, role-appropriate safeguarding training will be required for each before they take on child-facing responsibilities, and a Designated Safeguarding Lead and Deputy will be formally appointed.

4. Risk assessments

We have completed the following risk assessments per the Online Safety Act 2023:

• Illegal Content Risk Assessment (OSA s.9).
• Children's Access Assessment (OSA s.36): concluded likely to be accessed by children.
• Children's Risk Assessment (OSA s.11) by age band for primary priority content, priority content, and non-designated content.

We review risk assessments annually and whenever a material change is made to the service.

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 apply “highly effective age assurance” per Ofcom's criteria (technical accuracy, robustness, reliability, fairness) to separate adults from children.
• Children's accounts have high privacy settings by default, no direct messaging from adults (other than verified parents or authorised coaches), no geolocation sharing, no public profile by default, enhanced content moderation, AI chat safety filtering (crisis detection, content filtering), and Parent Portal oversight.
• Adult coaches listed on MyRacingPath must 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:

• Keyword filters preventing unsafe or inappropriate content generation.
• Crisis detection system that triggers an automatic safeguarding alert to the founder for self-harm or emergency indicators, alongside in-product signposting to crisis services.
• No methods-related information provided in response to self-harm queries.
• Automatic escalation to Parent Portal for under-18 safety concerns.
• Adversarial red-team testing against grooming and manipulation patterns.
• Session limits to prevent parasocial dependency.
• Regular “I am an AI” reminders.
• Logged conversation history available to parents for under-18 users.
• No AI training on user conversations.
• Redirection to qualified professionals for medical, legal, or regulatory questions.

From 2 August 2026, we comply with EU AI Act Article 50 transparency requirements, making it clear when users are interacting with AI.

8. Reporting concerns

• In-platform reporting: every piece of content and every profile has a report button. Reports are acknowledged within 24 hours and actioned within 72 hours for child safety concerns.
• Direct contact: support@myracingpath.com for urgent concerns. Monitored during working hours with out-of-hours escalation for critical safeguarding risks.
• 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.
• Users experiencing mental health crisis are signposted to Samaritans (116 123), Shout (text 85258), Childline (0800 1111), or equivalent services in their country.

9. Incident response

On receiving a safeguarding concern, the founder 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.

10. Responsibilities

• The founder 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 MyRacingPath later engages moderators or contractors, the same responsibilities will apply to them, with role-appropriate training before they take on child-facing duties.

11. Training

• The founder undertakes age-appropriate safeguarding training relevant to operating an online platform that may be accessed by children, with periodic refreshers.
• Adult coaches verified on the platform must hold current safeguarding certification.
• Future moderators or contractors will be required to complete role-appropriate safeguarding training before taking on child-facing responsibilities.

12. Review

• This Policy is reviewed annually and after any significant incident.
• Next review date: 26 April 2027.

13. Safeguarding contact

• Safeguarding contact: the founder, reachable at support@myracingpath.com.
• For urgent concerns out of hours, contact the police (999 emergency, 101 non-emergency) or CEOP (ceop.police.uk).
• See also our Parental Consent Policy and Community Guidelines.