Our Online Community available at https://engage.benenden.co.uk/ (the 'Online Community') is a closed online platform, available exclusively for Benenden Health members aged 16 and over. It provides a dedicated space for members to share experiences, provide feedback, and access membership information and health related insights that support their wellbeing.

Our Online Community is operated by The Benenden Healthcare Society Limited ("we", "us", or "our"). We are an incorporated Friendly Society registered under the Friendly Societies Act 1992 registered number 480F. Our registered address is at Holgate Park Drive York YO26 4GG and we are registered with the Office of the Information Commissioner under registration number Z4926433. To contact us, please email engage@benenden.co.uk.

The Online Community is hosted by Standing on Giants which is a supplier to the Benenden Healthcare Society Limited.

These terms outline the rules for using our Online Community.   Please note that additional terms will apply if you access our website at www.benenden.co.uk. By using our Online Community, you confirm acceptance of these terms and agree to comply with them. 

Other Terms That May Apply To You

The following additional terms also apply to your use of the Online Community: our Community Guidelines, our Privacy Policy and Online Community Cookie Policy. 

Changes or Updates

We may amend these terms and the Online Community itself, and users should check for updates regularly. 

Accessing the Online Community

The Online Community is directed to people residing in the United Kingdom. We do not represent that content available on or through the Online Community is appropriate for use or available in other locations.

The Online Community is available free of charge, but availability is not guaranteed, and it may be suspended or withdrawn. 

Users must keep account details confidential and notify us of any security breaches. 

Users must not introduce viruses or engage in harmful activities, and breaches will be reported to authorities. 

We do not guarantee that the Online Community will be secure or free from bugs and viruses.

Intellectual Property Rights, Data Mining, web scraping and linking

We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our Online Community, and in the material published on it. All such intellectual property rights are reserved.  You are not permitted to use our trademarks or branding without our approval.  Content may not be used for commercial purposes without a licence. 

Text or data mining and web scraping are prohibited. 

Linking to our Online Community is allowed under certain conditions, but framing or unauthorised linking is not permitted. 

How you may use the Online Community

Whenever you make use of a feature that allows you to create content directly on our Online Community, upload or share content to our Online Community, or to make contact with other users of our Online Community, you must comply with the standards set out in our Community Guidelines. Uploaded content must comply with our standards, and users grant us a licence to use such content.  

We have the right to remove any posting you make on our Online Community if, in our opinion, your post does not comply with the acceptable use standards set out in our Community Guidelines.

Our Online Community may include information and materials uploaded by other users. This information and these materials have not been verified or approved by us. The views expressed by other users on our site do not represent our views or values.

Do not rely on information on the Online Community

The content on our Online Community is provided for general information only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our Online Community.

Although we make reasonable efforts to update the information on our site, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the content on our site is accurate, complete or up to date.

We are not responsible for user-generated content or external links.  

How we protect you from illegal content

We minimise the length of time for which terrorism content is present on the Online Community by having a content moderation process in place where dedicated colleagues are responsible for monitoring and moderating the Online Community every working day between 9am and 5pm. We also use proactive technology which carries out keyword matching which analyses content to assess whether it is content which is prohibited in accordance with these terms of use and our Community Guidelines. We will swiftly take down terrorism content when we find out about it.

We will minimise the length of time for which child sexual exploitation and abuse content is present on the Online Community by having a content moderation process in place where dedicated colleagues are responsible for monitoring and moderating the Online Community every working day between 9am and 5pm. We also use proactive technology which carries out keyword matching which analyses content to assess whether it is content which is prohibited in accordance with these terms of use and our Community Guidelines.  We will swiftly take down child sexual exploitation and abuse content when we find out about it.

We will minimise the length of time for which other content that amounts to an offence is present on Online Community by having a content moderation process in place where dedicated colleagues are responsible for monitoring and moderating the Online Community every working day between 9am and 5pm. We also use proactive technology which carries out keyword matching which analyses content to assess whether it is content which is prohibited in accordance with these terms of use and our Community Guidelines. This applies to content relating to assisting suicide, threats to kill, public order offences, harassment, stalking and fear or provocation of violence, drugs and psychoactive substances, firearms and other weapons, assisting illegal immigration, human trafficking, sexual exploitation, sexual images, proceeds of crime, fraud, financial services, foreign interference, animal welfare and offences relating to being involved in committing any of these offences (known as inchoate offences). We will swiftly take down such content when we find out about it.

Prohibited: pornographic, suicide, self-injury and eating disorder content

The following must not be uploaded, shared or generated directly on this service:

Pornographic content.

Content which encourages, promotes or provides instructions for suicide.

Content which encourages, promotes or provides instructions for an act of deliberate self-injury.

Content which encourages, promotes or provides instructions for an eating disorder or behaviours associated with an eating disorder.

How we prevent children encountering pornographic, suicide, self-injury and eating disorder content

This is how we prevent children from encountering the following types of harmful content:

Pornography: We have a content moderation process in place where dedicated colleagues are responsible for monitoring and moderating the Online Community every working day between 9am and 5pm. We also use proactive technology which carries out keyword matching which analyses content to assess whether it is content which is prohibited in accordance with these terms of use and our Community Guidelines.

Content which encourages, promotes or provides instructions for suicide: We have a content moderation process in place where dedicated colleagues are responsible for monitoring and moderating the Online Community every working day between 9am and 5pm. We also use proactive technology which carries out keyword matching which analyses content to assess whether it is content which is prohibited in accordance with these terms of use and our Community Guidelines.

Content which encourages, promotes or provides instructions for an act of deliberate self-injury: We have a content moderation process in place where dedicated colleagues are responsible for monitoring and moderating the Online Community every working day between 9am and 5pm. We also use proactive technology which carries out keyword matching which analyses content to assess whether it is content which is prohibited in accordance with these terms of use and our Community Guidelines.

Content which encourages, promotes or provides instructions for an eating disorder or behaviours associated with an eating disorder: We have a content moderation process in place where dedicated colleagues are responsible for monitoring and moderating the Online Community every working day between 9am and 5pm. We also use proactive technology which carries out keyword matching which analyses content to assess whether it is content which is prohibited in accordance with these terms of use and our Community Guidelines.

How we protect children from other harmful material

This is how we protect children from encountering the following types of harmful content: We have a content moderation process in place where dedicated colleagues are responsible for monitoring and moderating the Online Community every working day between 9am and 5pm. We also use proactive technology which carries out keyword matching which analyses content to assess whether it is content which is prohibited in accordance with these terms of use and our Community Guidelines. Content which is abusive and which targets any of the following characteristics:

• race;

• religion (including lack of religion);

• sex;

• sexual orientation;

• disability (meaning any physical or mental impairment); 

• or gender reassignment.

Content which incites hatred against people:

• of a particular race (including colour, nationality, and ethnic or national origins), religion (including lack of religion), sex or sexual orientation;

• who have a disability (meaning any physical or mental impairment); or

• who have the characteristic of gender reassignment (meaning the person is proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of reassigning the person's sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex).

• Content which encourages, promotes or provides instructions for an act of serious violence against a person.

• Bullying content (which may in particular include content that conveys a serious threat, is humiliating or degrading or forms part of a campaign of mistreatment).

Content which:

• depicts real or realistic serious violence against a person (including a person who is not real); 

• or depicts the real or realistic serious injury of a person in graphic detail (including a person who is not real).

Content which:

• depicts real or realistic serious violence against an animal (including an animal that is not real);  

• depicts the real or realistic serious injury of an animal in graphic detail (including an animal that is not real); or

• realistically depicts serious violence against a fictional creature or the serious injury of a fictional creature in graphic detail.

Content which encourages, promotes or provides instructions for a challenge or stunt highly likely to result in serious injury to the person who does it or to someone else.

Content which encourages a person to ingest, inject, inhale or in any other way self-administer: 

• a physically harmful substance; 

• or a substance in such a quantity as to be physically harmful.

Restricting access

We use measures to prevent access to the whole of our Online Community by children under 16. The measures we use are that all individuals have to be 16 years old or over to hold a Benenden membership (or to be a nominee on a member's membership).  Additionally, all members accessing the Online Community have to have a MyBenenden account which they create using their Benenden membership number.

What content and behaviours you should report

You can report content you believe to be illegal or complain if you think we are not handling illegal content properly. You can also report if our systems do not allow easy reporting of illegal content, if your rights to freedom of expression or privacy are not considered, if your content is removed as illegal, or if you are warned, suspended, or banned due to content we consider illegal. Additionally, report if technology results in your content being removed or restricted in a way not outlined in our terms.

You can report or complain about the following content and behaviours:

• Content accessible to children that you consider harmful to children.

• When you think we are not dealing with our duties to protect children as we should.

• Where your content has been removed or access-restricted on the basis that it is harmful to children.

• Where we have given you a warning, suspended, banned or restricted you in any way as a result of your content which we consider to be harmful to children.

How to complain and how we will deal with your complaint or reported content

To complain about content or the behaviours described in the section above or to report content please click the 'report' button which is next to each post made on the Online Community.

If you report content, our moderation process follows a staged approach comprised of initial reminders, formal warnings, and, if necessary, removal of access to the Online Community, depending on the severity of the reported content. In exceptional cases of serious breaches, immediate removal may occur to protect the integrity of the Online Community.

If you have a complaint relating to your Benenden membership, please consult your Guide to Benenden Healthcare which provides details of how you can complain.

Your rights to claim against us if we suspend or ban your use of our service

If we suspend or ban you from using our service in a way that breaches these terms of use, you have a right to bring a claim against us for breach of contract.

Our responsibility for loss or damage suffered by you

We do not exclude or limit in any way our liability to you where it would be unlawful to do so.

Which country's laws apply to any disputes

These terms of service, their subject matter and their formation, are governed by English law. We both agree that the courts of England and Wales will have exclusive jurisdiction, except that if you are a resident of Northern Ireland you may also bring proceedings in Northern Ireland, and if you are a resident of Scotland, you may also bring proceedings in Scotland.