Disclaimer

Comment Policy for New Media Platforms

We encourage and look forward to an active exchange of ideas. To maintain a respectful dialogue, we ask that everyone follow these guidelines:

  • Be respectful. Personal attacks, profanity, and aggressive behavior are prohibited.
  • Stay focused. All viewpoints are welcome, but comments should remain relevant to the conversation at hand.
  • Tell the truth. Intentionally spreading false or misleading information is prohibited.
  • Do not post:
    • Solicitations, advertisements, or commercial endorsements
    • Defamatory or fraudulent information
    • Spam (includes repeated posts, comments, and links to other sites)
    • Copyrighted or trademarked images or graphics
    • Documents of any kind
    • Comments or images that suggest illegal activity or that contain illegal content
    • Partisan political views
    • Discriminatory, racist, offensive, obscene, inflammatory, unlawful or otherwise objectionable statements, language, or content
  • Participate at your own risk. You should take personal responsibility for your comments, your username, and any information provided.

Comments are welcome at any time; however, NICHD will only moderate and post comments during regular business hours.

NICHD retains the right to remove comments that violate its comment policy at any time. Repeated violation of this comment policy could result in the offending user being blocked from access to the NICHD-managed forum.

This comment policy is valid for all discussions on all NICHD-managed forums, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others. We encourage your participation in our discussion(s) and look forward to an active exchange of ideas.

Reporters should not post questions or requests on any new media platform; instead, those questions and inquiries should be sent to the NICHD Office of Communications.

Text

Most text appearing on the NICHD website has been either prepared by employees of the U.S. government as part of their official duties or prepared under contracts for NICHD. In both instances, the text is in the public domain and not subject to copyright. The same is true of most publications available for downloading from this website. You may freely copy that material and credit NICHD with the following notation: "Courtesy: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development."

Occasionally, the NICHD site may contain documents or links to documents, such as full-text journal articles, that are copyright-protected. Web users may view and print these documents but should contact the copyright owner for any other uses.

Images

With the exception of logos (see below), permission to use NICHD graphics is granted on a case-by-case basis. Some are public domain, some are created by NICHD contractors, some are copyrighted, and some are used by NICHD with specific permission granted by the owner. Therefore, the logos, photos, and illustrations found on the NICHD website should not be reused without permission.

To request permission to reuse a particular graphic on the NICHD website, contact the NICHD Information Resource Center.

Granting the right to use a graphic from the NICHD website does not explicitly or implicitly convey endorsement of the site where it is used. If an NICHD-owned image includes an identifiable person, using the image may infringe on that person's right of privacy, and permission should be obtained from the person.

If you receive confirmation from NICHD to use an image from the NICHD Safe to Sleep® campaign, you may use the following citation: "Photos courtesy of the NICHD Safe to Sleep® campaign."

If you receive confirmation from NICHD to use an image that is not part of the Safe to Sleep® campaign, you may use the following citation: "Courtesy: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development."

Use of the NICHD Logo

NICHD-funded researchers may credit NICHD on their websites. However, the NICHD logo should not be used without explicit permission from NICHD. For questions on the reproduction or use of the NICHD logo or any graphics, contact the NICHD Information Resource Center.

The NICHD logo should not be combined with other design elements to create a new logo for any office or program.

Use of the NICHD Safe to Sleep® Logo

The Safe to Sleep® name and logo are registered trademarks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Use of the campaign name must always include the registered trademark indicator (®). The logo cannot be used or reproduced without express written authorization. To request to use the Safe to Sleep® logo, complete the Safe to Sleep® Logo Request Form (PDF 75 KB) and send it to the NICHD Information Resource Center.

Additional Information

For more information, see U.S. Department of Health and Human Services guidelines on the use of logos, seals, symbols.

Endorsement Disclaimer - Links to Other Sites 

Our web site has links to many other federal agencies, and in a few cases we link to private organizations. You are subject to that site's privacy policy when you leave our site. We are not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private Web sites.

Reference in this web site to any specific commercial products, process, service, manufacturer, or company does not constitute its endorsement or recommendation by the U.S. Government or HHS. HHS is not responsible for the contents of any "off-site" web page referenced from this server.

New Media Information Disclaimer

Information (including text, visuals, audio, and user comments) shared through new media platforms does not necessarily represent the views of NICHD, NIH, or HHS. Official NICHD information is available through NICHD's website.

NICHD may provide users with health information for educational purposes only. Consult with a qualified health care provider for diagnoses and for answers to your personal medical questions.

Unauthorized Intrusion Policy

For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this government computer system uses software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage.

Unauthorized attempts to upload or change information on this service are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act.

Website Information Disclaimer

The information and resources on the NICHD website are for educational and informational purposes only. They are not intended as a substitute for professional medical care. Consult with your health care provider(s) to answer specific questions about your personal health. Information on this website also is not intended to take the place of written law or regulations.

NICHD staff cannot provide medical diagnoses or personalized medical advice to people outside of a clinical research environment. Instead, NICHD offers resources and information to help people better understand their health. Staff also are prohibited from rating, making referrals to, or endorsing a specific person, health care provider, service, organization, or facility.

Webmaster

If you have any questions or comments about the information presented here, contact the NICHD webmaster.

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) is committed to making its information technologies accessible to individuals with disabilities by meeting or exceeding the requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. 794d), as amended in 1998. Section 508 is a federal law that requires agencies to provide individuals with disabilities equal access to electronic information and data comparable to those who do not have disabilities, unless an undue burden would be imposed on the agency. The Section 508 standards are the technical requirements and criteria used to measure conformance within this law. More information on Section 508 and the technical standards can be found at https://www.section508.gov/.

If you have feedback, comments, or concerns related to the accessibility of any content on this website or about the NICHD Section 508 program, contact the NICHD webmaster. If applicable, provide relevant URL(s) and the specific problems you have encountered.

Document Viewers

  1. Adobe Reader (link is external) external link
  2. Microsoft Word Viewer (link is external) external link
  3. Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer (link is external) external link
  4. Microsoft Excel Viewer (link is external) external link

Social Media

NICHD uses multiple social media platforms to communicate its messages about health , disabilities, diseases, research, and more. The NICHD website offers the ability to share content using these platforms.

Social media platforms are "external" websites—ones that are not maintained by NICHD or the federal government. NICHD cannot verify the accuracy of other material posted there.

The links to these platforms are provided only for your convenience. Linking to these external sites is not an endorsement from NICHD, NIH, or HHS.

Note that when you go to an external website, you will be subject to that site's privacy and other policies. In addition, the external site may not address Section 508 (accessibility) requirements in the same way as NICHD does.

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