These MiniMentors Site Rules apply to all members of the website. If you see anyone breaking these rules, please send a message to a moderator. MiniMentors staff will take action against members straight away if they break the rules, listed below.
Do not give out your personal information
Never give out any personal information when you are chatting online. That means things like: your mobile number, where you live, passwords, MSN details, school name, email address or how to contact you on sites like MoshiMonsters or Club Penguin.
Never arrange to meet someone in real life that you have met online. Remember, not everyone online is who they say they are, even if they seem really nice. How do you know they are really who they say they are?
Protect yourself with common sense
If a conversation is becoming upsetting or it is making you feel uncomfortable, please log out of the chat room. Remember that MiniMentors, staff and counsellors will invite you to chat in private when they see this going on. You can report something that goes against the site rules to a member of staff and they will do something about it.
No personal photographs
You cannot post pictures of yourself, your brothers or sisters or any friends in your gallery. We have to have this rule, to keep you safe. Instead, you can use one of our widgets on your profile and upload your favourite things into your gallery: favourite cartoon characters, cars, football teams, celebrities and other fun things you can think of!
All pictures are checked by staff before they can be seen on the site, to make sure that they are suitable for everyone to see.
Only offer others support if you are a MiniMentor
All MiniMentors have been trained by MiniMentors staff. If you haven’t been trained as a MiniMentor, please do not call yourself one or offer to mentor other members. This rule is to protect members who haven’t been trained yet so that you aren’t asked for advice when you are not sure what to do. It is also to protect members asking for advice, to make sure that they get the best help possible.
If you are a member of the site and want to help someone, there are things you can do. Firstly, everyone needs a friend – so please welcome new members into the general chat room by saying ‘hi’. You can help to cheer-up members in the chat room if they have had a bad day, for example by asking about their hobbies. If someone needs to talk to a mentor, you can tell them how to do this and even suggest a MiniMentor who they could contact.
If you’d like to be a MiniMentor, ask your teacher if you can be trained as one.
General chat is for fun chat only
The general chat room is a place to talk about things that interest you. It is somewhere to make friends and cheer each other up. We don’t talk about what is worrying or upsetting us in general chat as these kinds of things can make others feel sad or uncomfortable.
If you want to talk about something that is upsetting or worrying you, please use private messages or private chat. Remember only to talk to a MiniMentor, counsellor or member of staff who have all been trained.
Counsellors are available on the site from 8am until 8pm to help with things that might be upsetting you. If you want to talk to a counsellor, ask a MiniMentor to sort this out for you. You can also contact a counsellor or a member of staff directly if you see them online.
Always remember, anything you type in the chat room can be seen by everyone. Please keep yourself safe and don’t type personal information about yourself like your address.
Please always tell the truth
We understand that it can sometimes feel difficult to tell the truth. The truth can sometimes seem embarrassing or we can think it might be fun to tell a little lie. However, everyone at MiniMentors wants to do their best to help you – and if you tell the truth, we can help you better. So please tell the truth about yourself and others on the site. Please don’t make things up about another member for example, when they haven’t done anything wrong.
Remember, that if you do make up something about another member, we can find out who you are even though you have a ‘funny’ username.
Please be kind and friendly to other site members
All of us have different opinions, and it is possible to talk about these on the site without having an argument. Please do not swear, cuss, diss, flame, criticise or harass others. Threatening or bullying behaviour will not be accepted on the site at all.
Please don’t show off on the site. Please remember that many members on the site may not be as lucky as you or have as much nice stuff as you. So before you type something, please think about how others might feel once you have said it.
Do not spam chat
Spamming chat is typing lots of messages into the chat room, one after the other, so that other people can’t type things. Please don’t do this.
Only post links to other websites that are suitable for the site
There is a lot of good information on the internet, and MiniMentors lets you post links to other sites on your profile. All your links are checked by staff before they are seen to make sure they are don’t contain anything which isn’t suitable for the site. Please only post things that won’t upset people and that doesn’t break the Site Rules.
Do you like being online too much?
MiniMentors takes your wellbeing very seriously. If we see that you are chatting for more than few hours a day or you are sending out messages over and over again to lots of members, we will send you a message to ask if you are OK. Some people find it hard to log off their computer, they like being online so much. But this isn’t healthy! You still need to have friends offline at school, and being on this site shouldn’t take over your life. You can speak to a counsellor if you start to feel like you want to be online all the time.