Sport England school survey and recommending The Mix website to children

[GreenEyedFeminist]

My daughter’s school told us they’re involved in a survey for Sport England about sport and fitness. I looked at the questions 🤦🏻‍♀️ They ask if kids are a … boy, girl, OTHER, prefer not to say. Why aren’t they just giving the choice of boy or girl?

The worst bit is they’re recommending children go to a website called The Mix. I’ve not heard of it so had a look… it’s really unsuitable, my daughter is 11 and this is for under-25s. The discussion forums are a shocker. Really inappropriate for children. I don’t want my daughter to know

I spoke to the school and they said they’d have a look. What do you think?

I don't see this as F-s&g issue. It seems as too big age span problem to me. I'm not sure what should be purpose of the page though.

I don't mind the extra options, prefer not to say is really inoffensive and Other allows teens for whom their gender is a big topic just now to fill in whatever they want, hopefully not messing up the main data. Actually, if it wpuld be able to show whether alternative-gender teens have different sport patterns than majority, it might be even valuable outcome.

Bloody hell that post from a presumably trained moderator whose first concern is about the technical permissions on a site for a child to send nudes online! No questions like how old are you (presumably it’s accessed by 11 year olds if your daughter has been pointed to it), who has asked, legal bars to distributing child pornography, concerns about grooming, advice that the internet is forever and does she really want nudes of herself circulating the school - there is something seriously wrong with this website.

There’s much worse on the website. I registered to see if there were any age checks. You just had to fill in your date of birth (I lied and was accepted). If I can do it then so can anyone which puts kids at risk of being groomed (or worse). I wrote to the school and they are reviewing. I also wrote to Sport England - I don’t think they should be pushing this website to kids - under 25s are adults… The safeguarding risks are serious. And why is a sports org pushing a website that discusses drugs and eating disorders to children aged 11? I just don’t get it b

Absolutely right. One of the (many) problems with the Mermaids website used to be that it lumped together 13-25 year olds with precious little moderation. Total safeguarding nightmare. Who funds the Mix? It needs to be closed down.

Is there any government guidance for organisations who signposting to third party websites for vulnerable individuals - eg child?

Is there anything which says to check the content of these sites and be aware of moderation and to review regularly any recommendations you make to children?

The problem is that any website recommended to children by an organisation that's trusted, is automatically assumed as 'safe' by parents. They shouldn't do this, but there is a built in legitimacy to a website that's signposted by say the NHS or a sporting governing body.

There was a good example of this going wrong with a website Asda signposted for children a few years ago.

There's an argument here that bodies set for for services for children should be responsible for websites they signpost to and should be held accountable if they are linking to websites with dodgy content in order to ensure that these bodies and organisations actually check what they are signposting children to.

Asdas failing in the case above is there was a whole load of assuming and no one actually bothered to check a website and it resulted in a lot of very red faces when parents saw what their children were seeing.

Clearly discussion of nudes is completely unacceptable and out of line with all the safeguarding advice for schools etc.

Parents should be checking themselves but honestly if Sport England have a link to a website how many parents would question it and double check it.

This website is clearly not appropriate for the target audience concerned - it's out of step with safeguarding advice so it should be raised with Sport England. It's not ok.

@GreenEyedFeminist who recommended that website to your daughter? Was it the school or was it a link from Sport England?

The discussion boards are completely unsuitable for an 11yo! I didn’t have an age check and was straight into reading about sexual assault, depressed libido on meds, and self harm kits.
Great for young adults having a tough time though. Supportive replies etc.

It was a Sport England survey sent to schools. There’s a letter to parents with a list of the questions and info about mental health and that’s where the link to The Mix is. Because it’s a Sport England survey you’d assume that they’ve checked the websites they’re recommending. I’ve emailed Sport England today so we’ll see what they say,

Well done OP for picking this up. It should be a reasonable expectation that Sport England has enough expertise to spot safeguarding hazards like this. Evidently not.

There's great excitement amongst predators about accessing vulnerable children, online and in person. That's always been the case.
Any organisation operating mixed age groups (online or in person) that include children through to young adults should automatically come under scrutiny and be able to cite robust safeguarding principles. Especially if they involve any discussions about mental health, emotions, sex and sexuality.

Also be aware that The Mix is recommended by Brook which a lot of schools use. Brook also recommended the truly awful site Bish. If your school is telling kids to use Brook they are one click away. No one is accountable. I would like to see Brook scrapped as a so called PHSE resource.

💯 It’s a free-for-all out there

Somebody needs to look into that community manager because that's a weird answer to a weird question.