This Code of Conduct is designed to permit each Participant or any other user of the Program online platform or any other AFS online platforms (“Participants” or “you”) to enjoy the experience of sharing with others in accordance with AFS values and mission. It contains a set of guidelines to maintain a welcoming, supportive, engaging, and meaningful experience for all Participants in the AFS Intercultural Programs (AFS) online community. Our online community consists of individuals from different backgrounds and walks of life across the globe, reflecting a richness of cultural, intellectual, and social diversity. Therefore, participants are expected to exhibit good conduct that will inspire public confidence and trust by this community. The following guidelines are established by AFS and apply to all Participants of the AFS online community. Participants’ engagement during all AFS online programs, projects, activities, and events should be conducted in a respectful manner that reflects positively on the AFS online community and the individual at all times.
If you fail to respect these basic rules, AFS at its sole discretion, may remove your comments, and your account may be blocked or deleted with or without warning; you may also be banned from future use of the site.
- AFS online programs connect and bring together people from all different parts of the world and a great variety of cultures and backgrounds. Therefore, it is important that all Participants are respectful to other people’s cultures, traditions, and religious beliefs when communicating online with others including fellow participants, speakers, and AFS staff and team members.
- Participants are encouraged to be thoughtful in what they say, post, share, or comment in any communication platforms. Being mindful of strong language and use of all caps or exclamation points are critical to avoid any forms of misunderstanding. Do not disrupt the normal flow of dialogue or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other users’ ability to engage in exchanges.
- Differences in opinion may occur, and thus participants are expected to exhibit open-mindedness, patience, and understanding. Posting, sharing, or commenting inappropriate material that are deemed abusive, hateful, discriminatory, unsafe, sexually inappropriate, offensive, or involve harassment will not be tolerated. Do not post, share, transmit or otherwise make available any content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, racially, ethnically, sexually or otherwise objectionable.
- The online community counts on every Participant to foster genuine interactions and maintain a supportive environment for all. Do not post, share, transmit or otherwise make available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, junk or bulk e-mail (also known as “spam”), or any other form of solicitation. Posting off-topic, unrelated, or spam content are disruptive to discussions and detract from the goal of the community. Any post, link, or shared content that contains disinformation, hoax, or fraudulent information will be removed from the discussion.
- Respect the rights of others. Do not collect personal data about the users of this site or use their information for the purpose of transmitting or facilitating transmission of spam. Don’t identify users or other individuals by tagging or captioning them in photos or videos without their consent.
- AFS online community platforms provide valuable access to knowledge sharing, tools, ideas, and resources from experts, AFS partner organizations, and fellow community members. As such, all participants must follow copyright laws, principles of academic honesty, and cite reputable sources when sharing content with others. Any shared content that involves plagiarism or does not respect intellectual property or copyright laws will be removed. Do not post, share, transmit or otherwise make available any content that you do not have a right to make available, such as content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary right of any party. Do not forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any content transmitted through the site.
- Participants may have the ability to connect privately with fellow Participants as well as experts from various organizations across many industries and sectors within the online community. With this access comes the responsibility to interact with each individual with professionalism, respect, appropriateness, and integrity.
- All Participants are required to be honest, truthful, and accurate when submitting information about themselves through their applications/registration forms, profiles, and photos. Information collected through AFS’s website and forms follow privacy laws and are subject to the AFS Privacy Policy. Do not impersonate any person or entity, including any employee, volunteer, student, parent of a student, host parent, or representative of AFS.
- Participants are responsible to protect their personal information, including their password to gain access to the content platform. Sharing of passwords, national identity, social security number, bank or payment information, and other personal and sensitive information within the platform is strictly prohibited.
- Participants are required to use the virtual platforms provided within acceptable use as detailed in this Participant Code of Conduct and applicable Terms of Use . Do not post, share, transmit or otherwise make available any content that contains software viruses or any other computer files or programs that are intended to disrupt, damage or limit the functioning of the site or of any software, hardware or telecommunications equipment, or to obtain unauthorized access to any data or other information of any third party.
- Participants are encouraged to report other participants who fail to follow the guidelines set above or engage in unsafe online behavior on AFS platforms by contacting us using the contact methods provided by AFS. Similarly, they should flag inappropriate comments or behaviors on the virtual platforms by emailing [email protected].
- AFS reserves the right to terminate access from any Participant who is reported for disruptive or inappropriate behavior. No refunds will be issued for such terminated Participant.
The information contained in this Code of Conduct does not remove any terms, conditions, obligations, covenants or requirements set forth in each AFS site Terms of Use. In the event of any inconsistency between the applicable Terms of Use and this Code of Conduct, the provisions of the Terms of Use shall govern.
AFS reserves the right to modify this policy at any time with or without notice.
Last Updated: March 4, 2025