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How we behave online
Social media policy
Most of what happens at this club now happens on a phone. This page sets out how we use social media, what we will and won't post about your child, and what we ask of you.
Status of this policy
This is a club policy drafted for committee adoption. Neither the BMBA nor Basketball Victoria publishes a standalone social media policy — online conduct sits inside Basketball Australia's Member Protection and Child Safeguarding policies. This page fills that gap at club level and sits underneath those documents; where anything here conflicts with them, they win.
Our channels
Where we actually post
These two accounts are the club's only official channels. If something claims to speak for the Panthers and isn't one of these, it doesn't.
Facebook — Panthers Basketball Club
Our main channel. Grading lists, team announcements, wet-weather changes, presentation nights and results.
Instagram — @panthersbasketballbacchusmarsh
Photos and short highlights from game days and club events.
The association runs its own accounts for fixtures, referees and representative basketball: BMBA Facebook · BMBA Instagram.
Social media is not how you reach us urgently
Our accounts are run by volunteers between work and family. Direct messages and comments may go unread for days. Anything that matters — registrations, fees, a child safety concern — should go to bmpanthersbasketballclub@gmail.com, not a DM.
Photos of your child
What we will and won't post
We will
Post team and action photos of children only where a parent or guardian has given permission.
Name a child only where that's normal and expected — a team list, an award, a premiership — and only with permission.
Take a photo down within 48 hours of being asked, no reason needed.
Check images before posting for anything that could embarrass a child, now or in ten years.
We won't
Post a child's surname, school, age, suburb or any contact detail alongside their photo.
Post photos taken in change rooms, toilets, or any other private area — ever, by anyone.
Post images of a child in distress, injured, or being disciplined.
Tag a junior player's personal account, or share a photo we've been asked to remove.
Withdrawing permission
You gave a photo permission answer when you registered. You can change it at any time, for any reason, and you don't have to justify it. Nobody will treat your child differently.
Email bmpanthersbasketballclub@gmail.com — we'll update our records and remove existing images within 48 hours.
What we ask of you
Players, parents, coaches
The codes of conduct don't stop at the stadium door. What you'd be pulled up for shouting from the sideline is what you'll be pulled up for posting.
Referees are off limits
Never name, photograph or criticise a referee online. Most of ours are teenagers. A single post can end someone's officiating before it starts — and when referees go, games get cancelled.
Other people's kids
Before you post a photo from a game, think about the other children in frame and their families. If a child is identifiable and they aren't yours, don't tag them and don't name them.
Take the grievance offline
Selection, grading, court time, a call that went against you — none of it gets resolved in a comment thread. Email the committee. We'd genuinely rather hear it directly.
Coaches and team chats
Team communication happens in group chats that include parents, not one-to-one between an adult and a child. Coaches should not be messaging juniors privately or connecting with them on personal accounts.
You're identifiable as a Panther
In club colours, or posting about a game, you represent the club whether you meant to or not. Discriminatory, abusive or threatening posts are a code of conduct breach like any other.
Sharing our posts
Please do — that's how new families find us. Share the post rather than re-uploading the image, so that if we take something down it disappears everywhere.
If something goes wrong
Reporting a post
If you see something posted by or about someone at this club that worries you — a photo that shouldn't be up, abuse of a player or official, or contact between an adult and a child that doesn't look right — tell us.
You do not need to be certain before reporting something, and no person will be disadvantaged for having done so in good faith. If you can, screenshot it first — posts get deleted.
Child safety concerns go to our Child Safety Officer or the club Secretary and are handled under our child safety process, not this page.
If a child is in immediate danger
Call 000. For online abuse or image-based abuse, the eSafety Commissioner can have content removed.
What we'll do
Take down anything posted on a club channel that breaches this policy, ask a member to remove a post that does, and escalate to the association, Basketball Victoria or police where it's serious.
Breaches are handled as code of conduct matters and can lead to a warning, suspension or removal from the club.
Drafted for committee review. Once adopted, add the adoption date and review cycle here.