Not all safeguarding policies are created equal
When evaluating any after-school digital programme, the safeguarding question is not whether a provider has a policy. Every provider has a policy. The question is whether the operational model actually delivers on what the policy describes. These five questions will tell you.
1. Who are the adults in the room, and how are they vetted?
Every session facilitator should hold a current enhanced DBS check. Ask for the date of the most recent check and the name of the responsible person within the organisation who manages compliance. If the answer is vague, that is your answer. School of Gaming's Gedus carry current enhanced DBS clearance and compliance is managed centrally. Schools receive confirmation before a club begins.
2. What do children see and who can contact them?
This is the most important structural question. In an open gaming environment, children can encounter strangers, inappropriate content, and unmoderated communication. Ask specifically: is the session environment fully private? Can anyone outside the session join? Is there any open chat? In Sogverse, the answer to all three is no. It is a walled garden. No strangers, no outside access, no direct messaging between participants outside the session.
3. How is personal data handled?
Under UK GDPR and the Children's Code, children's personal data requires specific protections. Ask what data is collected about children, where it is stored, who has access, and how it is deleted when a child leaves the programme. Children in Sogverse play under a display name. No personally identifiable information is collected about the child. Parent data is encrypted and stored on UK and EU compliant servers.
4. What happens when something goes wrong in a session?
Ask for a specific example of how the provider handles conflict or inappropriate behaviour during a session. The answer reveals whether moderation is active or reactive. Gedus are trained to treat in-session conflicts as teachable moments and follow a structured moderation protocol. There is no unsupervised time within a session.
5. How are parents kept informed?
A programme that operates without parental visibility is a safeguarding risk regardless of how well-designed it is. Ask what parents receive, how often, and whether they can withdraw consent at any point without consequence. Every SoG session generates a progress report to parents. Parents can withdraw their child from the programme at any time.