Safeguarding & Privacy Policy
Last updated: 29 September 2026
Because young people are at the heart of PPH, safeguarding is built into everything we do. This policy explains how we protect young players, how we handle personal data, and what you can expect from us as a platform that works with minors.
Our Safeguarding Commitment
- PPH is designed from the ground up for youth football. Anyone can create an account, but only accounts that pass an identity check can be contacted by coaches and scouts.
- We follow industry best practices to ensure a safe, secure environment for players, families, and scouts.
- For players under 18, contact is only ever possible through a parent or guardian aged 18 or over who has completed the identity check and receives all messages for that profile.
- Our safeguarding standards align with the UK's Children Act 1989, the Online Safety Act 2023, and the ICO's Children's Code (Age Appropriate Design Code).
What Data We Collect
- Account data: name, email address, phone number, and account credentials.
- Parent or guardian contact details, where a parent or guardian completes the identity check so that a player under 18 can be contacted.
- Player profile data: name, date of birth (used to compute age bracket — not displayed in full), position, club, location (city/country), bio, and profile photo.
- Video and highlight content: match videos uploaded by account holders and highlight clips generated from them.
- Engagement data: profile views, follower counts, highlight views, likes — used to compute player tier.
- Identity verification data: when an identity check is completed, we store a minimal record (document type, issuing country, verification reference) for audit purposes. We do not store document numbers, full addresses, or raw identity document images.
- Device and usage data: IP address, device type, browser type — used for security and abuse prevention only.
What We Do Not Collect
- We never use a child's own contact details for contact requests. Messages for a player under 18 go only to their verified parent or guardian.
- We do not allow anyone to contact a player under 18 directly.
- We do not sell any personal data to third parties.
- We do not use personal data for advertising profiling.
- We do not retain original source videos beyond 24 hours of upload.
How We Use Personal Data
- To deliver the PPH platform services (hosting profiles, generating highlights, enabling discovery by scouts and coaches).
- To operate the tier system and engagement features.
- To send account notifications (highlight ready, new follower, storage alerts) to the account holder.
- To process subscription payments.
- To carry out identity checks for accounts that want to be contactable.
- To investigate reports of abuse, harassment, or safeguarding concerns.
- Our lawful basis for processing is: contract performance (delivering the service), legitimate interests (platform security, abuse prevention), and legal obligation (safeguarding duties).
Profile Visibility and Controls
- The account holder controls whether a player profile is public or private at all times.
- Public profiles are visible to all registered PPH users.
- Private profiles are only visible to the account holder.
- The account holder can change visibility at any time from the player's profile settings.
- Contact requests for a player under 18 are received by their verified parent or guardian — never by the child.
- The account holder can delete any highlight, video, or the entire player profile at any time.
Scout and Coach Contact
- Scouts and coaches may contact a player profile via the controlled contact form, and only once that profile's account has passed an identity check.
- Messages for a player under 18 are delivered only to their verified parent or guardian, never directly to the child.
- PPH does not facilitate direct messaging with a player under 18.
- Any user found attempting to contact a child outside the platform's safeguarded contact system will be immediately banned and reported to the relevant authorities.
Reporting and Blocking Content
- Every player profile and highlight can be reported directly from the platform — no need to leave PPH or email us first. Reports can flag spam, harassment, nudity or sexual content, hate speech or discrimination, violence or dangerous content, impersonation, or another concern, with an optional description.
- Every report is reviewed by our safeguarding team. Depending on the outcome, we may remove the offending content, ban the specific player profile or highlight, or dismiss the report if no policy was broken.
- A ban only hides the reported player profile or highlight — it does not affect the account or any of its other player profiles. The account holder is notified by email and can raise a dispute with us.
- Any user can also privately block a player profile at any time from that profile's menu, or from their account settings. Blocking hides that profile from your view without notifying anyone or filing a report.
Video and Content Safety
- All video content is hosted on a secure, access-controlled video platform.
- Original source videos are automatically and permanently deleted 24 hours after upload — only generated highlight clips are retained.
- Highlight clips are only accessible to users who can view the player profile (public or private setting).
- The account holder may delete any highlight clip at any time.
Data Retention
- Account data is retained for as long as the account is active.
- On account deletion, all associated player profiles, videos, and highlight clips are permanently deleted.
- Identity verification records are retained for 7 years for legal compliance, then permanently deleted.
- Billing records are retained for 7 years as required by UK financial regulations.
- Anonymised, aggregated usage analytics may be retained indefinitely.
Your Rights Under UK GDPR
- Right of access: you can request a copy of the data we hold about you.
- Right to rectification: you can correct inaccurate data at any time via your account settings.
- Right to erasure: you can request deletion of your data by deleting your account or contacting us.
- Right to restriction: you can ask us to restrict processing of your data in certain circumstances.
- Right to data portability: you can request a machine-readable export of your data.
- Right to object: you can object to processing based on legitimate interests.
- To exercise any right, contact us at louis.holmes@playerprofilehub.co.uk. We will respond within 30 days.
Reporting a Safeguarding Concern
- If you witness behaviour on PPH that you believe places a child at risk, please contact us immediately at louis.holmes@playerprofilehub.co.uk with the subject line "Safeguarding Concern".
- We take all reports seriously and will investigate promptly.
- Where necessary, we will refer concerns to the relevant statutory authorities, including local safeguarding boards and the police.
- In the UK, you can also contact the NSPCC helpline on 0808 800 5000 or report online at www.nspcc.org.uk.
Changes to This Policy
- We may update this policy from time to time. We will notify account holders of material changes by email.
- The most current version is always available at /safeguarding-policy.
Contact
- For any privacy or safeguarding enquiries, contact us at louis.holmes@playerprofilehub.co.uk.
- PPH Platform, England and Wales.