Risk Management Checklist: How Prepared is Your Youth ... · 1 Club executives must understand these laws and policies before creating Risk Management Plans that hold their staff

How Prepared is Your Youth Soccer Club in the Digital Age?

Risk Management Checklist:

a whitepaper presented by

Find out if you’re 100% compliant with new 2019 rules and regulations.!

“Safe Sport Authorization Act,” “COPPA,” and “KidSafe

Program” don’t strike a chord with you right now, they

will very soon. That goes for every single owner,

executive, director, coach, and volunteer in your youth

soccer club. Updated laws, rules, and regulations in the

United States have caused a fundamental shift in the

way youth sports organizations manage player safety,

both on and off the field.

The potential risks and liabilities loom large over the

entire sport and the leaders of every soccer club.

In this whitepaper we’ll take a close look at the digital

components of these laws, rules, and regulations, and

highlight the steps your club can take today to ensure

you are on the path to being fully compliant and

protected. Technology has undoubtedly altered the way

we interact with each other on a daily basis. Now, in

2019, data privacy and adult-to-minor conduct

concerns need to be dealt with head-on by every youth

soccer club, large or small.

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If the terms

1learn more at playmetrics.com

learn more at playmetrics.com

We are not lawyers nor

regulators. We encourage you to do your own research

on the below topics, discuss with your in-house counsel,

and contact your governing soccer associations before

taking any action.

OBLIGATORY NOTE:

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Laws,Rules & Regulations

Recently updated U.S. laws require youth sports clubs to follow

strict guidelines for overseeing player data and interactions

between minors and adult staff.

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Club executives must understand these laws and policies before

creating Risk Management Plans that hold their staff accountable

for everyday interactions with minors.

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National and local youth soccer associations have instituted

policies that hold clubs directly responsible for the ways in which

adult staff members and volunteers electronically communicate

with players under the age of 18. For example, no adult staff

member should ever send a digital communication to a minor

without a legal guardian copied.

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Key TakeawaysLaws, Rules & Regulations

Consider the "chain of custody" involving your players' data.If one of your coaches decides to sign up for a messaging app on his own, then sends an email to a player, your club has instantly lost control of its member data and oversight of its usage. Without standardized, club-approved technology, you could be facing a host of issues with legal risks involved.

same national and local associations that govern your club’s official status

in youth soccer have implemented new player safety protocols that require close attention

and proactive behavior. Based on federal laws like the Protecting Young Victims from

Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act, along with state privacy and civil liability

laws, these policies are designed to ensure youth sports organizations have measures in

place to prevent and report inappropriate behavior between adults and minors.

The

Are you able to audit the history of every message a

coach sends and receives to players?

Do these third party tools have controls in place to

prevent coaches from messaging minors one-on-one?

Are legal consents being captured when data is

uploaded and shared within messaging apps?

Is there a way to automatically add legal guardians to

any message sent from a coach to a minor?

Adding another level of complexity into the mix, if the player in this situation is under the

age of 13, the club may be in violation of The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or

COPPA as it is commonly known, which imposes certain requirements on the use of data

specifically regarding children under 13 years of age.


Each “Organization Member [who] has adult

members who are in regular contact with

amateur athletes who are minors” must

maintain a “risk management program.”

— U.S. Soccer Federation Policy Manual

“...promulgating risk management guidelines

for youth websites [and] encouraging and

facilitating compliance with the Children’s

Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).”

— U.S. Youth Soccer KidSafe Program

“Keep barriers in place. If communication

occurs by text or emails, send group

messages to the entire team, including

parents. Don’t use these means to

communicate on an individual basis.”

— U.S. Youth Soccer KidSafe Program

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“Organizations are required to establish

reasonable procedures to limit one-on-one

interactions between individual Youth

Participants and any Adult participant who is

not their legal guardian.” This includes via

“social media and electronic communications.”

— U.S. Soccer Federation Policy Manual

“Participating adults are not permitted to

communicate privately via electronic

communications with amateur athletes who

are minors, except under emergency

circumstances. If a participating adult needs to

communicate directly with an amateur athlete

who is a minor via electronic communications,

another participating adult or the minor’s legal

guardian will be copied.”

— U.S. Youth Soccer’s Code of Conduct Policy

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The policies and regulations established by youth soccer’s governing bodies inform the building blocks for a club’s Risk Management Plans (RMPs). RMPs encompass the methods a club utilizes to avert issues, actively manage potentially libelous activities, and report details around suspected incidents.

Below is just a sampling of these policies:

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Getting Your Club Risk Management Ready

Clubs are responsible - and may be legally liable - for the actions of

their staff and volunteers, and the ways in which they use

technology to communicate with players who are minors.

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Third party technology can be your friend or your foe. Clubs are

responsible for all software tools that coaches, parents, and players

use on a daily basis. Sourcing and implementing standardized, club-

approved technology will go a long way in ensuring compliance

through efficient oversight and transparency.

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The manner in which player data is captured, shared, and

accessed by staff members and volunteers plays a significant role

in how compliant clubs might be with privacy laws. Let’s say a

coach asks a player for her cell phone number so he can text her a

drill video link; that coach is legally required to get and record

consent from the player’s legal guardian to use her phone number

in official club communication.

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Key TakeawaysGetting Your Club Risk Management Ready

through the policies mentioned above,

certain themes emerge that should form the foundation of your club’s

Risk Management strategy:

Reading

How would you know if one

of your coaches violated

regulations by, as an example,

inviting a minor player into a

mobile chat? If a player levied

an accusation against a coach,

how would you track down

the digital footprint of their

interactions? Without the

right set-up, monitoring, and

oversight capabilities, clubs

are in constant danger of

running afoul of the law and

may not even know it.

We often see coaches within

the same club using different

messaging tools to

communicate with their

players and player families.

Most youth soccer clubs we

speak to are using upwards of

8-10 different software tools

to run daily operations:

Gmail, iMessage, Dropbox,

spreadsheets, team

registration...the list goes on

and on. This makes it

extremely difficult to enforce

standards and safeguards to

adequately protect the club

and all of its members.

Can you recall how - exactly -

contact information for every

player in your club was uploaded

into your system, and by whom?

Your club is responsible for

managing all data according to

the law, from having consent

language in place when someone

hands over their email to

ensuring only approved staff

members can access this

information at any given time.

This goes beyond your own

club’s member database; any

third party technology your club

employs must also be fully

compliant with laws and policies.


Transparency& Oversight

ClubStandardization

DataManagement

At PlayMetrics, we’ve built safety and security measures right into our Club Operating

System to help clubs mitigate risk and, should an incident occur, quickly follow the digital

breadcrumbs of any questionable interaction.

Maintain clear records of club members accepting Terms &

Conditions and Privacy Policies and consenting to the use of

their contact information, including the date and time.

Prevent collection of data from players under the age of 13.

By default, a player’s primary contact (adult/guardian) will be

automatically added to all messages sent to that player and will

be included when the player is invited to group chats. This is a

significant safeguard that stops potentially libelous activity

before it can become a problem.

Hide all contact information for players who are minors, unless

the staff member has approved access to it.

Track all messages sent to minors and store for quick access at

any time by club executives and administrators.

An admin interface allowing club representatives to filter and

review messages and chats involving minors. Messages can be

tagged with a “level of risk” to make the review process easier.

Club representatives are able to flag messages that require

additional analysis

These measures include:


With the right technology partners, you can arm your whole club with the tools it requires to stop potentially troublesome activities before they happen.

we’ve covered in this paper can be downright scary for youth soccer clubs, but they don’t need to be. With the right mindset - and the right tools - your approach to risk management can be a significant

factor in your club’s success.

A solid Risk Management Plan shields coaches from dangerous activities, protects club officials from landing on the wrong side of the law, and

provides comfort to players and families who desire safety above all else.

The topics


What can you expect of the technology that your club uses every day?

Before you answer that, we recommend you perform a tech audit using the

checklist provided below. Evaluate your chosen software through the lens

of risk management, aiming to identify and mitigate areas of concern.

Review COPPA

Review the Safe Sport Authorization Act

Review your state soccer association’s rules and recommendations regarding child safety, including required staff training

Official Regulations

Review your club’s privacy policy to ensure it reflects updated data privacy and consent best practices

Check to see which members of your staff have access to player information in your member database, such as email address, age, photo, and more.

Check to see which members of your staff have the ability to edit player information in your member database.

Club Data Collection & Management

Risk Management Checklist

Technology Partner Audit

Make a list of all third party software your club uses for registration and/or member contact management

Make a list of every third party tool your staff uses to communicate with players and parents

Review the privacy policies for all active third party software and communication tools to ensure they are processing data in accordance with current privacy laws

Determine if it’s possible for an adult staff member to communicate digitally with a minor one-on-one using those third party tools

Determine if there are any built-in restrictions in your third party tools that automatically prevent adults from having one-on-one communication with minors

Find out if you have access to messages sent via those third party tools for auditing purposes



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PlayMetrics is youth soccer’s first fully integrated Club Operating System, connecting all your coaches, teams, tools, and data in one easy-to-manage hub.

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Risk Management Checklist: How Prepared is Your Youth ... · 1 Club executives must understand these laws and policies before creating Risk Management Plans that hold their staff