17 Nov Social Media – Is It A Covered Exposure?
If you asked your personal lines clients (or maybe even try it with your employees) whether issues relating to the use of social media are covered by their liability policy, what do you think their response would be? Probably a majority would tell you they have no idea and never thought about it. So, if one of your client’s kids did a “stupid thing” on social media (not that doing stupid things are unique only to kids) and your client was then sued, would there be coverage?
Let’s take a look. While a homeowners policy provides liability coverage, some issues relating to social media fall into the personal injury bucket. This includes exposures such as libel and slander. These are both categorized as defamatory statements that are designed to damage / destroy the reputation of another person. Libel is written; slander is spoken. These types of attacks on a person’s character or reputation are not covered under a typical homeowners policy.
For many years, one of the leading issues in schools (K-12) involves bullying of kids whether that is onsite or is via cyber bullying. Unfortunately, there are many stories where some of these kids being bullied are severely impacted by this bullying.
For protection against this type of risk, a personal injury endorsement is needed. These endorsements could certainly vary by carrier, so specific endorsements should be reviewed for the exact coverage they provide.
As I am sure you would probably agree, the one time you probably don’t want to tell your client that they have no coverage is after they are facing a claim. Without coverage, some clients could face losing everything if hit with a claim – so educating them ahead of time is certainly suggested. These issues are unfortunately very real and very common.
Just as your clients could get themselves in hot water through improper use of social media, so can your agency. What if one of your employees made an inappropriate or defamatory comment involving a specific person or specific organization. Without question, this action could be extremely damaging to your agency’s reputation. In addition, incorrect advice or incorrect statements on how coverage applies should be avoided at all costs. After all, you are what you publish.
To ensure your agency has the proper procedures/controls in place, consider including references to social media with comments and advice on what employees cannot do in your personnel manual. You certainly want to ensure they can’t and don’t reveal secrets or speak ill of the competition. Plus, make sure they realize they cannot post private consumer information on the social web. Strongly communicate this to all employees and monitor it to the greatest degree possible. Customers should be advised not to make any policy change requests or provide key information via social media as this information could be very sensitive and extremely private.
Social media is here to say and addressing these issues internally and with your clients should help everyone avoid some legal headaches.