Acceptable Use Policy

1. Youth protection

In short: Follow your organization's youth-protection rules online exactly as you would in person.

• Keep your Youth Protection Training current and follow your organization's youth-protection policies whenever you use information from ScoutHitch.
• No one-on-one private contact with youth. If you use contact details from ScoutHitch to message a young person, copy their parent or guardian and at least one other registered adult leader.
• Never use information from ScoutHitch to contact, locate, photograph, or follow a young person outside of legitimate unit activities.
• Never share a young person's contact details, birth date, school, or location with anyone outside the unit's leadership.

If you suspect a child is being abused or is in danger, act now: call 911 (or your local emergency number) if there is immediate danger, and report to your local child protective services or law enforcement. Then follow your organization's reporting process — for Scouting America units that includes the Scouts First Helpline at 1-844-726-8871. Reporting to ScoutHitch is never a substitute for reporting to the authorities.

2. Need to know, least access

In short: Only look at, enter, or share what you need for your role in the unit.

• Only access records you need for your role in the unit. Curiosity is not a reason to look.
• Admins: give each adult the lowest role that lets them do their job (Viewer if they only need to look), approve only adults you know serve your unit, and remove access as soon as someone stops serving.
• Don't export, copy, screenshot, or forward roster information except for legitimate unit business.
• Keep your devices locked, and sign out on shared or public computers.

3. Information that must not go in ScoutHitch

In short: No medical, financial, government ID, custody, or disciplinary details.

ScoutHitch is not designed to hold highly sensitive information. Do not enter:

• Medical, health, medication, allergy, disability, or mental-health information.
• Social Security numbers, government ID numbers, or financial or payment details.
• Custody arrangements, court orders, or other legal matters.
• Disciplinary, behavioral, or incident details about any young person.
• Photos of documents (forms, IDs, medical records), or passwords for any system.

Keep that kind of information in the secure channels your organization provides for it.

4. Photos, videos, posts, and comments

In short: Share only appropriate photos, posts, and comments about unit activities, with families' permission, and nothing that identifies where a scout can be found.

Leaders can share photos and short videos with their unit. Everyone in the unit, including Viewers, can see them. Before you share one:

• Get permission. Only share photos of youth whose parents or guardians have agreed, and follow your unit's and chartered organization's photo-release rules. If a parent, guardian, or scout asks for a photo to be taken down, delete it promptly.
• Keep it appropriate. Only photos from unit activities. Never photos of anyone changing, showering, or sleeping, or photos that are revealing, show an injury, or could embarrass someone. Share only what you'd be comfortable showing every family in the unit.
• Don't identify where a scout can be found. No full names, schools, home addresses, house numbers, or license plates in photos or captions. ScoutHitch removes location data from files automatically, but it can't remove what's visible in the picture.
• Don't download or share the unit's photos outside the unit without the family's permission.
• Repair photos on Quartermaster are for showing what's broken. Photograph the gear, not people, and keep notes about the item — never about who broke it.
• The same rules apply to posts: everyone in the unit, including families, reads them. No full names with schools or addresses, no health, behavior, or discipline details about any young person, and nothing you wouldn't say in front of every family. Use posts for the whole unit, never as a way to single out or privately contact one young person.
• Comments on posts and events follow the same rules, and every member of the unit can write and read them. Keep them about the post or event, kind, and fit for every family to read. Don't use them to argue about or criticize a young person or a family; take that to a leader in person. If a comment breaks these rules, report it to your leaders from its menu. Leaders review reported comments promptly, delete ones that break these rules, and can turn comments off on a post or event.
• Fundraisers are read by every family in the unit, too. Keep plans, tasks, lists, and money notes about the fundraiser: no young person's contact details, school, or health, and nothing about what a family can or can't afford. Shift names are just names — never add someone who didn't agree to cover the shift.

5. Respect and honesty

In short: Be truthful in records and kind in what you write.

• Record advancement honestly. Only sign off requirements that were actually completed.
• Write notes you would be comfortable having the scout, their parents, or another leader read. No insults, labels, harassment, discrimination, or jokes about anyone.
• Don't impersonate anyone, or create records for people who aren't real unit members — except people who asked to hear from the unit about joining, recorded on Recruitment.

6. Never use ScoutHitch to

In short: No marketing, fundraising lists, scraping, or attacks on the service.

• Send marketing, fundraising, political, or religious solicitations using roster contact details.
• Contact people recorded as interested in joining about anything other than joining the unit, or keep contacting them after they ask you to stop. Delete their record when they ask.
• Sell, rent, or trade any information from ScoutHitch.
• Scrape, bulk-download, or automate access to the service.
• Try to get into units, accounts, or data you aren't authorized for, probe for vulnerabilities without permission, or interfere with the service. (Found a security problem? Please report it — see the Security page.)
• Upload or link to malware, illegal content, or anything that sexualizes or endangers minors.
• Break any law, or your chartered organization's or council's policies.

7. Reporting misuse

In short: Tell your unit admin and us. We take every report seriously.

If you see something that breaks these rules, tell your unit's admin (for a comment, you can also report it to your leaders from its menu) and email safety@scouthitch.com. We review every report, will act to protect youth first, and will not retaliate against anyone who reports in good faith.

8. Enforcement

In short: Breaking these rules can cost you access — immediately if youth may be at risk.

Unit admins can remove members from their unit at any time. ScoutHitch may suspend or delete accounts, preserve records, and cooperate with authorities and the relevant scouting organization when these rules are broken — immediately and without notice when a young person may be at risk.