Last updated: 19 June 2026

1. About These Terms

These terms govern your use of the BCS and Computing at School (CAS) online community forums (together, “Forums”), operated by BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT (“BCS”, “we”, “us”, “our”).

By accessing or using our Forums, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use our Forums.

2. Who Can Use our Forums

  • You must be at least 18 years old to create an account.

  • You must register using your BCS or CAS account credentials and keep your contact details up to date.

3. Our Community Standards

Our Forums are a shared space for respectful professional discussion. We ask everyone to:

  • Be respectful. No name-calling, personal attacks, or harassment.

  • Be constructive. Contribute thoughtfully and aim to add value to discussions. Criticism should be fair, helpful, and relevant.

  • Be honest. Do not impersonate others or falsely imply you are affiliated with or endorsed by BCS or CAS.

  • Stay on topic. Post in the right category, avoid cross-posting, and don’t derail existing discussions.

  • Keep it clean. No obscene, sexually explicit, or offensive content.

These are not exhaustive rules - we expect users to apply good judgment consistent with a professional environment.

4. Online Safety and Illegal Content

In accordance with the Online Safety Act 2023, BCS operates our Forums as a user-to-user service and takes its safety duties seriously. You must not post content that:

  • Is illegal. This includes content that encourages or facilitates violence, terrorism, child sexual abuse, fraud, hate crime, or harassment.

  • Targets or endangers children or any other vulnerable group.

  • Amounts to cyberbullying, stalking, or threatening behaviour.

  • Constitutes mis- or disinformation intended to cause harm.

  • Exposes others’ private information (doxxing) without consent.

  • Facilitates or promotes self-harm or suicide in a harmful way.

BCS has a legal duty to assess risks of harm, take proportionate steps to mitigate them, and report certain illegal content to the relevant authorities, including the National Crime Agency where required. We cooperate fully with law enforcement.

If you encounter content you believe is illegal or seriously harmful, please flag it immediately using the in-forum reporting tools or contact us at moderation@bcs.uk.

For urgent safeguarding concerns or illegal content, please also contact the relevant authority - in the UK, this includes the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) or National Crime Agency (NCA).

5. Acceptable Use

You must not use our Forums to:

  • Break any applicable law or regulation.

  • Post spam, advertisements, chain letters, or unsolicited commercial messages.

  • Collect personal data from other users for commercial purposes.

  • Automate access to our Forums (e.g. scraping, crawling) without prior written permission - except where you operate a publicly available search engine.

  • Circumvent any security, access controls, or technical restrictions.

  • Place unreasonable load on Forum infrastructure.

  • Use iframe to embed or display any part of our Forums on other websites.

  • Post content containing malware, viruses, or other malicious code.

  • Infringe the intellectual property rights of BCS, other users, or any third party.

6. Your Content

You retain ownership of content you post to our Forums. By posting, you grant BCS a non-exclusive licence to host, publish, copy, and analyse that content for the purpose of operating our Forums.

This licence ends when content is fully removed from our systems, including backups. Other licences you apply to your content (e.g. Creative Commons) may persist independently.

You are solely responsible for what you post. You must not post content you do not have the right to share, including others’ confidential or personal information.

BCS does not endorse or take responsibility for user-generated content.

7. Moderation and Enforcement

BCS moderators help keep our Forums safe and constructive. They may, at their discretion:

  • Edit, hide, or permanently remove content that breaches these terms.

  • Warn, restrict, suspend, or permanently close user accounts.

  • Report content or users to law enforcement where there is a legal obligation or serious risk of harm.

Moderation decisions can be appealed by emailing moderation@bcs.uk.

We will acknowledge appeals within 5 working days.

You can help: use the in-forum flagging tools to report problematic content. Please do not engage with or reply to bad behaviour - simply flag it.

8. Third-Party Links and Services

Our Forums may link to or integrate with third-party websites and services. BCS is not responsible for the content, availability, or terms of those services. Use them at your own risk.

BCS may from time to time publish or make available job listings submitted by third parties; however, it does not verify, endorse, recommend, or approve any employer, recruiter, vacancy, or candidate, nor does it warrant the accuracy, completeness, legality, or suitability of any job listing or related information, and the inclusion of any listing does not constitute an endorsement.

9. Disclaimers

Our Forums is provided “as is”, without warranties of any kind, to the fullest extent permitted by law. BCS does not guarantee uninterrupted access or that all content posted by users is accurate or appropriate.

Full details are set out in the BCS Disclaimer of Liability.

10. Disputes

Disputes will be handled in accordance with the BCS Code of Conduct and Complaints Policy, as applicable.

11. General

  • These terms represent the entire agreement between you and BCS regarding use of our Forums and replace any previous terms.

  • If any provision is found unenforceable, it will be modified to the minimum extent necessary, or removed, without affecting the rest.

  • BCS may assign these terms to any affiliate or successor organisation. You may not assign your rights.

  • BCS reserves the right to update these terms. Continued use of our Forums after notice constitutes acceptance.

These terms should be read alongside the BCS Legal and Privacy Notices.