Terms and Conditions
Parents’ Guide
Parents, welcome to Young MS. We're working hard to make sure that Young MS provides an informative and safe experience for your children. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns that you might have.
What is Young MS?
Young MS is a website that has been developed by the MS Society to inform, educate and connect children and teenagers. It provides information in an accessible way with interesting navigation and imagery.
Who is Young MS for?
Young MS is split into different target groups:
- children between the ages of 6-12, who are either affected by MS or who have MS themselves
- teenagers between the ages of 12-17 in those same categories
The language and imagery has been chosen to be appropriate for each audience. The older age group have the opportunity to make a profile and interact with others on the forums. Younger children have the chance to explore their site and discover things about MS.
Young MS membership/registration
Teenagers will be able to express themselves through avatars (cute little representations like fairies or footballs or animals) and their profile pages. The registration will always be free.
Privacy
We take privacy very seriously at Young MS.
- we use a combination of automated filtering systems and live human moderators to help prevent kids from revealing personal information online
- we never send out advertisements, or other promotional material via email
- Young MS adheres to strict information collection, use and disclosure requirements
Safety Tips
Help your children create a username that doesn't reveal any personal information – it’s a good idea to avoid using their real name, nickname, or where they go to school or hometown.
Insist your kids never give out personal information online, such as their home address, telephone number, or the name and location of their school without your permission first.
Tell your kids to inform you of anything that makes them feel uncomfortable. There shouldn’t ever be anything on this site that does, as every comment is seen by a moderator before it goes 'live'
- Young MS reserves the right to change its privacy policy at its sole discretion.
- Young MS users will be informed of any such change by Young MS posting a new privacy policy on the Young MS site. The effective date of any change of the privacy policy will be clearly marked.
- Young MS is committed to providing an informative, entertaining, and safe website for young people.
Personal information collection and use policies
It is our policy to require only the minimal collection of information from our users. We will never sell your email to anyone, but we may email you from time to time with relevant information.
If an account has been inactive for 12 months or longer, we reserve the right to remove all of the user-information associated with the account from our database.
Contact Information
MS Society
MS National Centre
372 Edgware Road
London
NW2 6ND
Telephone 020 8438 0700
Email infoteam@mssociety.org.uk
Terms and Conditions
Welcome to Young MS .com (the "Site"). This Site is owned and operated by The MS Society (referred to as "Young MS" , "us" or "we"). This Site is offered to you (referred to as "you" or "user") on the condition that you accept all of these Terms of Use (the "Terms of Use"). By accessing, browsing or using this Site, you acknowledge you have read, understand and agree to be legally bound by these Terms of Use, so please read them carefully. If you do not agree to these Terms of Use, please discontinue your use of this Site immediately.
Disclaimer
The information contained on these pages ("the information") is of a general nature and is intended to provide a public information service, free of charge. The information should not be relied upon or used without first confirming the accuracy thereof with the MS Society. No rights or obligations, whether contractual, delictual, in tort or other, shall arise as a result of the information contained herein. The MS Society, its trustees, directors, employees, agents, officers and other persons connected with the creation, maintenance or dissemination of these pages will not be liable for any damage or loss, direct or indirect, occasioned by the use of the information. Any contract for the supply of goods or provision of services concluded as a result of the publication of the information shall be subject to the standard terms and conditions of supply of the MS Society which will be provided at the time of conclusion of such contract.
All text, photographs, audio or other media presentation provided on the UK MS Society's website is provided for information purposes only. Information on this website is subject to change without prior notice. Whilst every reasonable effort is made to ensure that the information on the website is complete, correct and up-to-date, this cannot be guaranteed and the MS Society shall not be liable whatsoever for any damages incurred as a result of its use.
Content Policy
This policy describes the processes in place to ensure content quality on the MS Society's website.
Editorial and Quality Assurance Processes
Every page on this website is checked by content managers and editors with relevant knowledge.
Before any page is updated or published it is reviewed by the web team.
All editors are given advice on using plain english and are required to use strict templates and standards to create consistent and uniform presentation.
Evidence based information
In cases where evidence based or health information is provided - this information is checked with relevant professionals and sources noted where appropriate. Lists of sources for particular items are available on request, email the web team (please note the page address of the item).
Reviews of content
Reviews take place regularly, with a particular emphasis on health information as any changes become public.
Dates confirming the last update are displayed at the bottom of each page and information is accurate at the time of publication.
User consultation
The views of those affected by MS are a key part in the editorial policy. The content, design and navigation are developed in consultation with People affected by MS. This is achieved through user and editorial focus groups, specifically children, teenagers and their parents who are consulted on website developments on a regular basis.
Key Resources and Helpful Organisations
We have produced guides to websites, books and journals in the MS field. This information has been written using a quality criteria to judge the value and accuracy of the resources.
Region and Branch Websites
While the MS Society makes every attempt to ensure it's regions and branches follow our quality criteria, we are unable to guarantee this.
If there are any issues with content on a branch or region site, please contact us in the first instance so that we can investigate and resolve the problem.
Website Links
Content containing links to external websites follow our separate linking policy.
Linking policy
This page details our policy about linking to websites.
Who do we link to?
We do not provide links to private companies, unless that private company provides a national and recognised service. In some cases private companies may not obtain a link dependant on the relevancy and other factors such as the MS Society's desire to present unbiased and balanced signposting.
We may provide links to a site if it is judged to be particularly relevant to the aims and priorities of the MS Society.
We provide links to recognised marketing resources, both private and commercial, if these have been judged to be appropriate.
In each case sites are linked to only if they have passed our quality checks to ensure the good standard of these sites.
How do we decide?
Websites who wish to obtain a link from the MS Society website must contact the web team to be considered.
A website will be assessed on accessibility, quality of information, nature of content and the way in which it handles any personal data.
If a website is found to be suitable to the organisation as a whole and passes these quality checks a link may be supplied.
The MS Society retains the right to reject or remove a link at any time without notice.
External links disclaimer
The MS Society takes no responsibility for the content of external websites. The existence of a link to an external website or a link to the MS Society's website from an external website does not imply that the MS society endorses the activities or views of that organisation.
In no event shall The MS Society be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any such content, goods, or services available on or through any such site or resource.
Privacy
This policy has been drafted in accordance with the Data Protection Act and The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.
This policy covers our collection of personal information you provide to us during the course of your interaction with the MS Society website and data collected through related electronic communications.
Personal information includes any information attached to your name or contact details i.e. any information that can be traced back to an individual person.
Data collected through electronic communications includes anonymous data relating to use of the website.
Disclosure of personal information
The MS Society will not use or disclose either your or your children’s personal information without your consent, except:
- As described in our site policies
- As required by law, court order or as requested by other government or law enforcement authority.
Automatic collection of data
We use cookies in certain areas of the site to make interactive parts of the site more convenient to use. We also use cookies to identify unique browsers that visit us, and to track usage throughout our site.
What’s a cookie?
Each time a visitor comes to the Website, our servers collect some basic information (for example the visitor's domain name, referral data and browser and platform type).
Information collected in this way will be used to monitor the performance of the website and MS Society services. This information will not disclose your individual identity or personally identifiable data without your permission.
Use of personal data
From time to time personal data provided by a user may be used for the additional purpose of quality monitoring and service development.
Data collected for the purpose of organising or holding a specific event may occasionally be released to named co-organisers or co-sponsors without the user's consent.
All our employees and data processors, who have access to, and are associated with the processing of personal data, are obliged to respect the confidentiality of our visitors' personal data. Although the only personal details that we collect are email address and postcode
Accessing the personal data we hold on you
You may at any time contact us to discuss/delete/amend any data we may hold on you by:
sending postal mail (Web team, MS Society, 372 Edgeware Road, London, NW2 6ND, UK)
telephoning (020 8438 0700 and asking for the web team)
We reserve the right to refuse access to personal data unless valid proof of identity is provided.
Writing or other submissions from visitors
Any communication or material that you or your child supplies to the public areas of the site (such as the forums) will be treated as non-confidential and non-proprietary.
We'll only place your personal details on these pages with your permission.
Opinions expressed in our online community should not, in any way, be attributed to the MS Society, nor does it imply endorsement or recomendation by the MS Society. Please read our separate discussion board guidelines for more information on this.
Third party websites
Third-party websites may have their own policies on privacy and collection of data. The MS Society is not responsible for the conduct or content of these sites, including without limitation any link contained in a third-party website.
Copyright
The material contained on these pages and in any printed form hereof ("the material") is subject to copyright under the Berne Convention.
No part of the material may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the MS Society.
The MS Society grants the user the right to use the material by downloading, storing and making copies for private use only.
None of the above grants any person the right to copy or substantially include any of the material in a published work, whether consisting in physical, electronic or whatever form, without prior written consent from the MS Society.
The Multiple Sclerosis Society of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a charity registered in England and Wales (207495) and Scotland (SCO16433)