Child Welfare
Planeterra and our community partners care about children and believe they should be protected from all potential harm in tourism.
Planeterra considers the following practices unacceptable and should not be offered by our community tourism partners:
- Engagement of child labor
- Tours of schools or orphanages that disrupts children’s education
- Tours of schools or orphanages that is not optional for the children
- Participation of children in tourism without the consent of the child and the parent/guardian
- Photography of children in tourism without the consent of the child and the parent/guardian
Where our community partners cannot avoid children being part of their tourism experiences as this contact occurs naturally (e.g. homestays, community visits, etc) they will work to ensure:
- Consent of both child and parent has been granted for every visit hosted, and there is a clear understanding that participation is optional (e.g. playing soccer with guests)
- Community hosts have a traveller code of conduct and have communicated that to the travellers
- Children have a clear understanding of their rights, and what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior from travellers
If your community offers tourism experiences to families, including children under the age of 18, your enterprise must evaluate the suitability of all staff connected with the tourism experience by using a country-wide criminal records bureau search or equivalent background check and ensure that the staff does not have any criminal convictions that would render them unsuitable to provide the services, including, but not limited to, sexual offences, violent offences, and offences against children or the vulnerable.