Safeguarding Minors at Fan Franchise Events

Ghostbusters fan franchises routinely interact with children. Children come to conventions, parades, library events, and hospital visits in large numbers, because a lot of families love the characters. That is a gift and a responsibility.

This guide describes the community-standard safeguarding practices every franchise should implement before its first public event. The rules here are not aspirational — treat them as the minimum.

Bottom line: a child is never alone with an unscreened adult or a single adult from your franchise. Every other rule follows from that one.

The three core practices

1. Two-deep leadership

At every event, and in every situation where a member might interact with a minor, at least two vetted adult members are present and in each other's line of sight. "Two-deep" is the term used by the Boy Scouts of America and widely copied because it works: a predator cannot use the organization if they are never alone with a potential victim.

Practically, this means:

• The second adult is not in a different room, not in the parking lot, not "checking on the van". They are present.
• If an event has only one vetted member available, the event does not happen.
• Members on probation never satisfy the two-deep requirement alone. A probationary member + a vetted member = one vetted adult for safeguarding purposes. Two probationary members does not work at all.
• "Two-deep" applies to digital contact as well (more on that below).

2. The rule of three

In any one-on-one situation with a minor that cannot reasonably be avoided — a kid follows you to the restroom, a parent steps away for five minutes, a child wants to show you their drawing — move immediately to a setting where a third person is present or visible.

• "Can you ask your mom to come over and see this too?"
• "Let's walk over to where [other member] is so she can see your costume also."

This is not about distrust of your members. It is about removing the situation entirely.

3. No closed-door contact

Members do not take minors into private rooms, dressing rooms, restrooms, vehicles, or closed-off areas of a venue. If a child needs to change, use the restroom, or be somewhere away from the crowd, the child's parent or an authorized event guardian handles it. Your members wait outside.

Photography and consent

Ghostbusters fan events involve a lot of photos. Clear rules:

• Parents take photos of their own kids with your members. That is the default scenario and is fine.
• Your members' phones do not photograph unaccompanied minors. Even an innocent group shot creates a data-handling mess.
• Group photos you plan to post publicly require consent. At events where a photo will be used by the franchise in promotion, have a parent/guardian verbally consent (or use a written waiver for formal events). When in doubt, don't post.
• Never post photos that identify a specific child by name, school, or location. "Great event at [library] today!" with a wide shot of a costumed member in a crowd is fine. "Shout-out to little Jake — age 8, from [elementary school]!" is not, regardless of how cute Jake was.
• Take down on request. If a parent asks that a photo be removed, remove it immediately and without argument.

Online contact with minors

This is where a lot of safeguarding policies fail.

• Members do not direct-message minors. Full stop. Not on Discord, not on Instagram DM, not on SMS, not anywhere.
• Franchise communication with a minor member goes to a parent/guardian with the franchise's leadership CC'd.
• If a minor member is allowed in your Discord server (some franchises do this, many don't), they are in a visible channel where all messages are visible to everyone. No private DMs. Leadership retains full audit access.
• If a minor asks a member a question via DM, the member redirects to the public channel or to the parent and notifies leadership immediately.

"I was just being nice" is not a defense. There are adults who use costumed fan groups specifically because they offer the social cover to build one-on-one rapport with a child's attention. Your policy removes that tool.

Who can bring kids to closed events

For internal events (member build days, cookouts, holiday parties), your policy should define whether minors of members can attend. Two common approaches:

• Family-allowed events are explicitly designated and two-deep with multiple parent-member pairs.
• Adults-only events (build days, planning sessions, social events at a bar) are not places to bring kids at all.

Mixing these policies invites confusion. Label each event clearly on the calendar.

Incident reporting

A safeguarding policy is only as good as its escalation path. Every member should know:

• Who to tell if something happens or doesn't feel right. Name a specific officer (the Safeguarding Lead) and an alternate.
• That they are not expected to confirm or investigate. Their job is to report what they saw.
• That retaliation for reports is itself a termination-grade offense.
• That certain reports require law-enforcement contact, not just internal handling.

The bar for escalation is intentionally low: "I noticed X and it felt off" is a legitimate report. You will have a number of reports that, on follow-up, were misunderstandings. That is the system working.

Mandatory reporting

In many US states and other countries, certain roles are mandatory reporters — legally required to report suspected abuse to authorities. Whether your members are mandatory reporters depends on your jurisdiction, the nature of your activities, and sometimes on whether you operate under a sponsoring non-profit. Know your local rules.

The practical stance: when in doubt, report to authorities, not just to your franchise's leadership. A false alarm investigated by a professional is far less damaging than a missed alarm that you handled internally.

Code of conduct provisions

Your franchise's code of conduct should include specific, named prohibitions:

• No physical contact with minors beyond publicly visible and brief interactions (high-fives, group poses with parent present).
• No "special friendships" with individual child fans over repeated events.
• No gifts to individual minors from individual members.
• No transportation of minors in any member's vehicle at any time, for any reason.
• No private online communication with minors.
• No photography of unaccompanied minors by members.

These are explicit because predatory behavior often starts with the softer version: "just giving them a little gift", "just texting to check in", "just offered them a ride because their mom was late". Your rules remove the slope entirely.

Enforcement — the hardest part

Safeguarding policies fail when they exist on paper and no one enforces them. Plan for:

• Quarterly policy review with the whole membership, 15 minutes at a member meeting.
• Event-by-event briefings naming the two-deep pairs for that event before doors open.
• Consistent, explicit consequences when someone violates the policy — even for the first time, even if it was "a mistake", even if they're a founding member.

If enforcement hesitates because the member is popular, the policy will not survive its first real test.

If something has happened

If you become aware that a member may have harmed a child:

1. Ensure the child is safe. Remove the member's access to events, channels, and any franchise resources immediately, before anything else.
2. Notify law enforcement and, where applicable, child protective services. You are not the investigator.
3. Secure and preserve evidence. Do not delete Discord messages, event photos, or member records. Do not "investigate" by confronting the accused.
4. Consult an attorney before any public statement.
5. Support the child's family in whatever way they ask for — including silence, if that's what they want.
6. Do not cover for the member. A franchise that protects an abuser is over. Your obligations are to the child, in this order.

This is the worst moment of your time as a franchise leader. The policy exists to minimize its likelihood and to make the response clear when it still, somehow, happens.

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Not legal or safeguarding advice. Child-safeguarding law, mandatory-reporting duties, and the specific practices required by schools, venues, hospitals, and insurers vary enormously by jurisdiction and by the type of event. Before finalizing your safeguarding policy, consult a qualified attorney, your insurance carrier, and — if possible — a safeguarding specialist with experience in volunteer and youth-serving organizations. Groups like the U.S. Center for SafeSport, local Boys & Girls Club training programs, and denominational safeguarding offices often offer low-cost or free training to small community groups.