At Lagepunkt, we treat coverage of children and minors with particular care. Our safeguarding policy ensures their welfare, privacy and dignity come first. Every story involving a minor undergoes additional review by our Standards Lead, Lisa Schumacher, before publication. This page explains the principles and procedures we follow.
Why do we need a dedicated safeguarding policy for minors?
Children are especially vulnerable to harm from public exposure. Publishing their names, images or personal details can have long-lasting consequences. As a responsible news publisher, Lagepunkt Media Ltd. has a duty to balance the public interest against the rights of the child. This policy codifies the extra checks we apply whenever a minor appears in our reporting.
It applies to all content – text, photos, video and audio – across our website, newsletters and social media channels. It also covers content that mentions or identifies minors indirectly, such as stories about schools, youth organisations or family circumstances.
Who reviews content involving children?
Our Standards Lead, Lisa Schumacher, is responsible for fact-checking and source verification across all editorial output. She personally signs off on any story that features or could affect a minor. Lisa reports to Chefredaktör Thomas Kuhn and works with the editorial team to assess risks. You can read more about our team on the Our Team page.
If a reporter or editor is unsure whether a story meets our safeguarding criteria, they escalate it to Lisa before any draft is considered for publication. This extra layer of review is a core part of our editorial policy.
What steps do we take before publishing stories about minors?
We begin with a clear editorial rationale: is the child’s involvement essential to the story, and does the public interest outweigh the potential harm? If the answer is no, the story is not pursued or the minor’s identity is protected. We seek informed consent from a parent or legal guardian whenever possible, unless doing so would itself put the child at risk (for example, in abuse or safeguarding cases).
All material is fact-checked by Lisa Schumacher’s team. We avoid speculation, sensational language and unnecessary detail about a minor’s home life, school or health. Where a story involves criminal proceedings or social services, we follow legal restrictions on identification and may take additional advice from our legal desk.
How do we handle images and identifying information?
Photographs of children are published only when they are clearly relevant and do not stigmatise or endanger the subject. We pixelate faces or avoid naming minors in captions unless there is a compelling public interest and explicit consent. The same applies to voice recordings, video footage and geolocation data that could identify where a child lives or goes to school.
We also consider the long-term digital footprint. Even with consent, we ask whether the image or information could cause embarrassment or harm years later. If there is doubt, we err on the side of protecting the child.
What you can expect from us
You can expect that every story mentioning a minor has been examined by a human editor and reviewed by our Standards Lead before publication. We will never use AI tools to generate or alter content about children without a human checking every detail. If we make a mistake – for example, publishing identifying information inadvertently – we will correct it promptly and transparently. Our complaints procedure explains how to raise concerns.
We also train all journalists and editors on safeguarding principles annually. Commercial or sponsored content involving minors is prohibited unless it is clearly labelled and has prior approval from the editorial leadership. No commercial relationship can override our safeguarding commitments.
How do we address concerns about a story involving a minor?
If you believe a story on Lagepunkt has failed to protect a child’s welfare, please contact us immediately at complaints@lagepunkt.de. Your email will be handled by our Standards Lead and, if necessary, escalated to Chefredaktör Thomas Kuhn. We will acknowledge receipt within two working days and investigate thoroughly. You can find more details on how we handle complaints on our dedicated page.
Questions or concerns?
If you have any questions about this policy, or want to report a potential safeguarding issue involving content on our site, write to complaints@lagepunkt.de. For general editorial inquiries, use editorial@lagepunkt.de. You can also reach our newsdesk via the contact page. We take every concern seriously and will respond promptly.