Our community has a set of guidelines to keep discussions on the forums safe and supportive. These guidelines are based on ReachOut’s organisational values which are shared by members of our forums and shape the way we interact with each other (see our community values here).
Mandatory reporting:
ReachOut Australia are mandatory reporters, the safety of young people is really important to us.
What does being a mandatory reporter mean?
It means that when we have concerns that a young person is at risk of harm or has been previously harmed, then we are required by law to make reports to Child Protection in your state, emergency services (such as ambulance or police) and/or other relevant authorities.
What do we mean by “harm”?
Danger to Self and/or Others
Physical Abuse
Neglect
Sexual Abuse
Psychological Harm
There are two main times when we are required by law to make a report:
a) If you are at imminent risk of harm to yourself or others, then we may share your IP address and any other information we have about you with emergency services;
b) If you post that you or anyone you know under the age of 18 is at risk of harm or has been harmed in the past, we may need to contact Emergency Services or Department of Family and Community Services.
We want to acknowledge that the circumstances that are perceived by law as “risk” or “harm” may not align with your views. As young people under the age of 16 aren’t legally able to provide consent to engage in sexual acts we also have to make reports on these matters as well.
We want you to understand this so that you can make informed choices about what you share online with ReachOut. If there is anything about this you don’t understand we encourage you to let us know in your response.
Our guidelines cover four main areas: Personal Safety and Wellbeing, Community Wellbeing, Respect and Peer Support.
For immediate support/help, please click the URGENT HELP button at the top right-hand side of the page
For more information on how to post about suicide on the forums, click here
For a list of services outside Australia, please click here
- ReachOut staff or Moderators may edit or remove any posts that do not meet our guidelines without notice.
- ReachOut staff and Moderators may ask you to step off the forums to seek professional, medical or crisis supports. We are a peer support service and do not offer clinical services or crisis support- there may be times we refer you to clinical/crisis services for further support. We trust that you will take steps to seek supports outside of ReachOut when you need them.
- Should guidelines continue to be broken, we may put in place time restrictions, pauses or bans on your account at the discretion of the ReachOut staff. ReachOut staff may contact you by email to communicate this decision, provide referrals to appropriate services and encourage you to stick to the community guidelines.
- Some guideline breaches may lead to an automatic ban including spamming, trolling, inciting hatred or discrimination, bullying, posting with commercial interests or for purposes not related to the values of our forums, evading site controls or threatening violence.
- Posts that do not meet the guidelines or may contain triggering/unsafe/distressing information that could be harmful to the community may be edited or removed at the discretion of ReachOut staff and Moderators.
- Posts may be moved to new threads or between boards at the discretion of ReachOut staff and Moderators.
- International members: When a member posts from a country outside of Australia, a staff member may send an email to the member with referrals to services in their local country. The account will then be banned within 24 hours. International users will still be able to view and read the forums.
