The junior athletics organiser wants me to message a thirteen-year-old directly. Can I insist on a parent channel?
Sports"His dad never reads the group. Just WhatsApp the boy," the organiser said, handing me a number. I'm a new volunteer helping with attendance at a UK junior athletics club. The message was only about Saturday's meeting time, but I wasn't comfortable moving it into a private conversation on my personal phone.
I asked which channel the club had approved and whether a parent could be included. The organiser said I was making an ordinary reminder complicated. I haven't sent it.
[NSPCC Sport's online-safety guidance](https://sport.nspcc.org.uk/help-and-advice/topics/online-safety-and-social-media/) advises communication through parents or appropriate public groups, and says staff should not privately message young people through these apps. I'd like the club's welfare officer to clarify our arrangement rather than treating this as a judgement about anybody's intentions.
How should I get the reminder delivered through an approved route while making clear that I won't use a private one-to-one chat? I don't want the young athlete to miss an event because the adults haven't sorted out communication.
