CBBC Office: Our Pledge To You

CBBC loves to hear from you and it seems that by the amount of letters, emails, phone calls, competition entries and texts that arrive every day, you love to get in touch with CBBC.
Have you ever wondered what happens after you've sent them? Do you want tips on how to get the most out of what you send? Take a look around this handy guide to find out more.

Competitions: CBBC usually offers a number of competitions but you may have heard in the news that we have decided to stop doing them whilst we check that they're being run correctly.

We are stopping all current competitions when they reach their closing dates. It's really important to us that everything is fair and that you know exactly how these competitions are run if we launch new competitions in the future. So we're checking all our rules and guidelines and will report back here we have more news. Watch this space.

Information Requests: There are often different ways to contact different programmes or websites. There could be a postal address, an email address, a message board, web form, or sometimes text or landline phone numbers.

If you ask for information we will try to find the answer for you as soon as we can. However, we get many requests so it isn't always possible to do this straight away.

BBC Children's takes complaints very seriously. If you write to us by email or letter, we aim to send an answer within 10 weekdays. If you phone us with a complaint we try to resolve it directly.
If you would like to complain about a BBC Children's service that has affected you please click here.

Some CBBC programmes or websites hold votes from time to time. The exact way you vote can vary but will usually be via a website, phone lines or by sending a text message.
There is sometimes a limit on the number of votes you can make from a particular computer or phone. This is to prevent a single person voting too many times which can lead to an unfair result.

Tips for Voting:

• Make sure you check when voting lines open and close. If you vote outside these times then it won't count.
• Check you have the correct details, such as the phone line or number to send your text message vote.
• Make sure that you are aware of exactly how many votes you can make.

When a message is posted on the message boards it goes into a queuing system, waiting to be checked by our trained moderators. Due to the number of messages that we get sent it can take anywhere from 1 hour to 24 hours for your message to show, at peak times it can be even longer. If your message is passed it goes live and your message will appear at the top of the board (until the next message comes up and your message will move one space down).

Rejected posts: If your message is rejected, it will not show on the boards - instead a message will show saying 'Oops this message broke the house rules'. To find out why your message was rejected click on the link 'Your discussions'. This will show you all your messages that have been passed with links to find them. There is also another link: Messages from the Mods. Clicking on this will show you any messages we have rejected, plus the reason why.

What messages do we reject?: If your message is of very low quality: "Wanna Chat?" then it might be rejected. Similarly nasty messages meant to hurt other users or offend them will not be allowed. No personal details are allowed, other than your first name, your age and your general location. If a town has less than 125,000 people living in it we don't let you say you are from there. Messages asking for dates or boyfriends and girlfriends are not allowed. We also don't let any discussion of 15 or 18 films and computer games, grown up books or other inappropriate content. We don't allow any discussion of any websites other than BBC Children's sites as we cannot be sure of the safety of other sites. Off-topic messages are also rejected, so make sure you post in the correct area.

Are messages ever edited?: Yes, if most of your message is great but you accidentally put in some personal information (a teachers name for example) or include a bit too much personal information, then we may remove some parts or your message rather than reject it.

Help on the boards: The message boards can be a great place to ask others for help and advice about a whole range of issues, from bullying to revision. If we think you need some help or advice we might post a help message. These have been compiled by specialists to give you the help you need. If we are very worried by a message or you seem to be in some danger then we may pass your message and other details on to people who can help, like the NSPCC. Since we do not collect email addresses we will pass on the time, date, and IP address of the message.

Celebrity webchats: After certain shows we get celebrities on the message boards to chat with our users. To do this we open two threads. One where the users can post questions and one when the hosts pick the best questions and ask these to the celebrity who then answers them. Due to time constraints we cannot ask every question we receive so we pick the best that we receive. Interesting and unusual questions are usually picked.