Social media guidance

Winston’s Wish social media

We have accounts on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. We use these to share advice and resources from our support workers, news about Winston’s Wish and fundraising. On these platforms, young people and adults are also able to share their grief journey and experiences to help other young grieving people. Our social media accounts are one of the main ways we can reach and support grieving young people and the adults supporting them.

All of our accounts and profiles are public, which means anyone online can read and see your content if you share something with us. Even if a comment or post is deleted, it might have been saved offline. We may also use comments or posts for marketing purposes on other channels. You can read our privacy statement and privacy statement for children and young people.

Our social media accounts are not for direct grief support. They are run by people from Winston’s Wish, but they are not bereavement support workers or counsellors. They will reply to private messages and comments and can direct you to online information or our Helpline team, but they cannot offer one-to-one bereavement support or counselling.

We monitor all our accounts within office hours (9am to 5pm, weekdays) but we can’t always reply straight away.

Our bereavement support workers are available to offer information, guidance and support, right away. Reach out on 08088 020 021 or use our live chat (click the blue ‘chat’ button on the bottom right of your screen) between 8am and 8pm, Monday to Friday. You can also email us on ask@winstonswish.org and we’ll get back to you within two working days.

Our social media accounts are not confidential. If we’re worried about something that you have said in a message or a comment to us, then we may need to tell someone. You can read our safeguarding policy here.

Safe sharing online

When interacting with content on our social media accounts, whether it be a ‘like’, ‘comment’ or ‘share’, it is important to know that other users will be able to see you interaction.

Similarly, if you’re sending content for us to post on our channels, we will always ask you to sign a consent form before sharing. Social media is public, so make sure you’re happy with your content being seen by anyone online before you decide to share.

If you send content to us but change your mind about it appearing on our social media, we can cancel the post before it has been made public. If the post has already been made public, we will remove it as soon as possible. Please remember that if you request to delete a post after it has been made public it does not necessarily mean it has been deleted form the internet. Anyone who sees your posts can screenshot them and repost them on new accounts. Also, certain websites exist that automatically save and archive public social media posts online.

Journalists are lawfully allowed to publish photos, comments and information from social media profiles, forums or blogs that exist in the public domain and where there are no privacy settings protecting them. This may have been put there by you or someone else via social media. More information on how journalists can use social media and your rights is available here.

Privacy settings

When you’re browsing social media on your own devices, it’s important that you check your own media and privacy settings. It’s recommended that you keep your personal profile private or set to be viewed by your friends/connections only. There are ways to block or report users on every social media platform if you receive contact from someone you don’t know or don’t want to have contact with. It’s also important to check your location services and settings within your device. Where possible, it’s recommended that you have these services turned off to avoid sharing any data or information.

Social media platforms usually only allow you to create an account if you’re 13 or over. To keep yourself safe online, you should always state your true age when you sign up for an app so that you’re only being shown content suitable for you. Keep in mind that when using social media, other people can sometimes see your activity online. For example, your friends/followers on some platforms may be able to see that you’ve interacted with posts by liking or commenting on them.

House rules

If we see or receive comments of a discriminatory or hurtful nature on the Winston’s Wish social media platforms, we will act as quickly as possible to remove them. Please remember our social media is not monitored outside of office hours (9am to 5pm, weekdays), so sometimes we may only get to remove the post or comment on the next working day.

We encourage safe sharing and ensuring your privacy while searching and posting online. There are also some house rules we ask everyone to follow.

If any of the following is posted on our social media pages, it will be removed as soon as possible.

Bullying, or aggressive behaviour
Deceptive or inaccurate content
Self-harm, violent, neglectful content
Suicidal comments
Racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic or other discriminatory remarks
Impersonation or misrepresentation of your or another person’s identity.
Linking to anything inappropriate
Anything similar to the above points
Any content that doesn’t align with our online standards or privacy policy

If you see any content that does not comply with the house rules, please inform us immediately and we will take action in accordance with the rules above.

These house rules may be updated at any time and the latest version can be found on this page only.

Any queries, please contact communications@winstonswish.org

Any queries regarding specific social media platform policies, please raise your concern with the platform directly.

Our online standards

Winston’s Wish social media platforms comply with all applicable laws in the UK and any other country from which posts are shared. All facts are accurate at the time of posting, and all content creators have signed appropriate consent forms before their posts are shared.

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