Online Terms of Use

Who and what do these terms of use cover?

VSA encourages all members of our online community to engage with us via our online channels. We want to encourage a fair and free exchange of views and information. This is a guide for anyone interacting with Volunteer Service Abroad (VSA) Te Tūao Tāwāhi online to ensure that:

• Users of VSA’s online channels are aware of, and comply with, these online terms of use.
• Users are aware of situations where content may be removed, or they are requested to remove information from their own channels.

What online channels and communications does it cover?

Our online channels include: www.vsa.org.nz; Facebook; Twitter; YouTube; LinkedIn; Pinterest; and Instagram. These terms of use also cover any other channels that are managed by VSA such as those with names that reflect other countries, e.g., VSA Timor-Leste Facebook page. It also covers the use of VSA tag and/or handle in any online communications.

What are the terms of use?

By participating on this website, our social media channels or other online platforms, submitters of material and comments will be deemed to have agreed to the following terms of use:

• Be respectful of and use te reo Māori correctly. Be respectful of other users of the site and uphold the mana of everyone.
• Do not use other people's content or images without consent and attribution. Only tag individuals if the content is relevant to them. If someone asks not to be tagged, please respect that.
• VSA has zero tolerance towards inappropriate behaviour towards children and vulnerable adults. All identifiable imagery must have the consent to use it from guardians, ideally written consent. Any material posted, including text and images, will abide by VSA’s Children and Vulnerable Adults Policy, and VSA Photo Guidelines. You can request a copy of these by emailing info@vsa.org.nz.
• Any material posted, including text and images, will abide by VSA’s Privacy Policy which is in line with the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020. A copy of the VSA Privacy Statement is on the VSA website.
• Do not post personal information (addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, or other online contact details) relating either to yourself or others.
• Do not impersonate someone else.
• Stay on topic and not upload content or post a comment that is unrelated to the purpose of the site or post.
• Do not make any commercial endorsement or promotion of any product, service or publication – this will be judged as spam and deleted.
• Do not post the same message, or very similar messages, more than once (known as spamming).
• Do not use language that is offensive or inflammatory (this includes derogatory, swearing, culturally insensitive, and obscene comments). VSA will not tolerate any messages or images that are racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, misogynist, xenophobic, body shaming, ableist, ageist, or comments that are abusive, offensive, or harmful.
• Do not post or upload any content that violates or infringes in any way upon the rights of others or breaks the law, or encourage others to do so (this includes defamation, breaching privacy, breaching another person’s intellectual property rights such as copyright, condoning illegal activity, and contempt of court).

What will happen if I breach these terms of use?

• VSA takes the data security and the privacy of personal information very seriously.
• Any content, images, comments and/or posts that do not adhere to these rules may be deleted without notice. Followers that do not adhere to these rules may be blocked. Any content, images, comments and/or posts that do not adhere to that use the VSA tag and/or handle, will be asked to be removed immediately.

Other information

• Our social media channels are monitored during working hours and not all comments, posts or messages will be replied to outside of these hours.
• If you have a question, complaint or other issue relating to these terms of use, or would like to report a breach of these terms of use online, please contact us at info@vsa.org.nz with the subject line ‘Online Terms of Use’, or use the ‘contact us’ form.