Cookies

How does ChildLine use cookies?

Our website sends the cookie and uses the cookie number to recognise you when you return to the site or go from page to page. Only the website that has sent a cookie can read it and use it. This cookie file is stored on your computer or phone.  All websites can send a cookie to your browser (for example Internet Explorer or Google Chrome) if your browser allow it. Lots of websites do this so they can see how popular their site is and how it is being used.

Cookies are either:

• Session or temporary cookies: these stop when you close your browser or when you’ve been on the site for a long time without doing anything.

Or

• Persistent or permanent cookies: these are usually stored on your hard disk (on your computer) and last for a period of time.

When you visit the ChildLine website the pages that you see are downloaded to your computer or phone. At the same time a cookie is downloaded. This happens on most websites because it lets the site know if you have visited before. The table below shows all the cookies that are used on the ChildLine website and what they do:

Cookie	Name	Purpose	Essential	More information
Google Analytics	__utma __utmb __utmc __utmv __utmz	These cookies let us see how the website is used. They collect information in an anonymous form. This means we don’t know who the information has come from. We use this information for reports so we can see how well the website works, how many people are using the website and what we need to improve. We can also see where users have come to the site from and the pages they visited before.These reports are provided by Google Analytics.	Yes	Find out about privacy at Google
Log in settings	Secure	This cookie stores your locker username when you come to the site. It also collects information on log on time and session ID (so we can see when your username is logged onto the site).	Yes	Find out more about how to create a locker so you can log in.
Wallpapers	NonSecure	This cookie stores your chosen wallpaper so it’s always there when you come to the site.	Yes	Go to the ChildLine homepage and click on the wallpaper in the top right-hand corner to see our wallpapers or select a wallpaper in your locker.
Votes and polls	PollsCookie	This cookie is used in polls and votes so you can only answer them once during your visit to the site.	Yes	Votes and polls appear throughout the ChildLine website.
Discussion board	Threads	This cookie is used in the message boards section. We use it to see how many threads users have visited so we can see which are the most popular.	Yes	View our message boards.
Chat room	Sound	Used by the 1-2-1 chat section of the site. This stores the sound that you have chosen when your chat is ready to start.	Yes	Go to our 1-2-1 chat page.
Flash games	Flash cookie per game	These are used by Flash games on the site so that they can remember any information you create when playing them- for example high scores.	Yes	Go to our games page.

Use of Adobe Flash cookies

ChildLine uses Adobe Flash Player to show videos on the site. To make videos easier to use and watch Flash cookies are used to provide features such as auto-resume (which remembers where you finished watching a video) and for saving your preferences. Flash cookies are stored on your computer or phone in much the same as cookies are, however, it's not as easy to use your browser to control how they are used.

Information from Flash games

ChildLine uses Flash to gather information (not your personal details) from some of our online games. This information is used to help us to better understand how our online games (including quizzes) are used. This is not used to link you to a game you have played and any IP address information (the number that your computer is given so it can be identified) is deleted when you stop playing.

How to stop Flash Cookies:

The Adobe website tells you how to delete or disable Flash cookies either for on a website or for all websites. However deleting or stopping Flash cookies will often mean you can't play games on our site.

Other websites

Our website has links to other web sites. Please be aware that ChildLine cannot be held responsible for the privacy practices of other web sites. We encourage everyone to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects personal information.

When you visit the ChildLine website you may also notice some cookies that are not related to the ChildLine or the companies we employ to work on the website. When you use content that appears on the site but is provided by another website, for example YouTube, you may receive cookies from these websites. ChildLine does not control the how these cookies are used.

 

How to control or delete cookies

If you do not want cookies to be stored on your computer it is possible to stop this with your browser without it affecting how you browse the site.
In Internet Explorer, click on Tools, click on Settings, click on the Privacy tab and then use the slider bar to choose the level of privacy you want.

In Firefox, click on Tools, click on Options, click on Privacy, click on the Cookies tab and choose your level of privacy.

For other browsers go to allaboutcookies.org

However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to use parts of our site. Unless you have changed your browser setting so that it will stop cookies, our website will give you cookies as soon as you visit our site.

Except for essential cookies, all cookies will expire after 30 days.