5 Essential Child Safeguarding Lessons Every Travel Business Should Know
Yesterday’s member session on child safeguarding in tourism tackled a conversation our industry doesn’t have nearly enough. It’s easy to miss how deeply tourism touches children’s lives in the communities we visit, and harder still to acknowledge that even with the best of intentions, we can sometimes cause harm.
To dive deeper into this complex issue, we were joined by a powerful panel of experts who generously shared their experiences, learnings, and challenges from implementing safeguarding practices on the ground:
Torie McElwain, ChildSafe International Coordinator at Friends-International
Natalie Lyall-Grant, Head of Positive Impact at Jacada Travel
Aye Mya Mya Soe, General Manager, Cambodia at Intrepid Travel
Maria Eugenia de Aliaga, Commercial Manager at Tropic DMC
Dilanke Panagoda, Head of Product and Marketing at The Fabulous Getaway
Chetha Dharmawansa, Project Manager at Impact, The Fabulous Getaway Foundation
Michaela Connor, Global People and Culture Leader at Discova
Here are five key takeaways we believe every travel business should know, not shared to call out individuals or organisations, but to provide clear, practical steps toward safer, more ethical travel practices.
1. We Often Harm Children Without Realising It
This was one of the session’s hardest truths. Even small, well-meant actions such as giving a coin to a child on the street or buying a trinket from a young vendor, can lead to long-term harm. These interactions can reinforce poverty, encourage school dropouts, and blur the lines of safety for children who learn to engage with strangers.
Torie offered a simple mirror test that stayed with us: Would you be comfortable with a group of strangers showing up at your child’s school to watch them, hand out gifts, and take photos? If not, why would it be acceptable anywhere else?
2. Volunteering with Children Is (Almost) Never Appropriate
It might feel like a meaningful experience, but volunteering with children, particularly in short-term or unqualified roles, is rarely safe or beneficial. It creates harmful dependencies, removes jobs from local people, and disrupts children’s routines and development.
The standard is clear. If you are not trained to work with children in your home country, you should not do it abroad.
Even when qualified, the most respectful and appropriate way to give back is often behind the scenes, such as supporting local teachers to build skills, working on environmental or infrastructure projects or backing community-led initiatives financially.
3. Photography and Storytelling Carry Serious Risks
We spoke about the power of stories, and the responsibility that comes with telling them. Taking photos of children without consent removes their privacy and dignity. More worryingly, geo-tagged images shared online can expose them to real-world risks, including trafficking. These images can also unintentionally reinforce stereotypes and portray poverty as spectacle.
A simple rule of thumb? If you would not want the same image shared of your child all over the internet without your permission, it’s worth rethinking.
4. Training Is Not Optional, It Is Foundational
Safeguarding only works when everyone in the business understands the risks, boundaries, and protocols. Sales teams need the tools to handle questions like “Can we visit a school?”. Guides need to feel confident setting boundaries with guests. Marketing teams must know how to choose and share images responsibly. Every person plays a part.
Several members have already begun rolling out ChildSafe’s online training across their teams. It is accessible, self-paced, and soon to be available in multiple languages.
5. Good Intentions Need Strong Systems Behind Them
Intentions matter, but they are not enough on their own. What truly protects children is structure: safeguarding policies, clear partner vetting, regular check-ins and risk reviews, and well-communicated response protocols. If your local partners, even if they are an NGO, do not have child protection protocols in place, that is worth addressing.
It is not about getting everything perfect. It is about putting tools in place that help us do better, catch issues early, and respond quickly and appropriately when needed.
Taking Action Together
The full session recording is now available in the member portal for anyone who would like to revisit or share it with their teams.
We have also created a useful guide to tackling child safeguarding policies in your business available in our resource library.
If you are not yet a member of The Conscious Travel Foundation but feel called to these conversations, we would love to hear from you. You can apply via our website or get in touch to find out more.
