Social media and the online world Top 10 questions This session - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Social media and the online world

Top 10 questions

This session

• Answer your top 10 questions
• Take more questions
• Expect you to join in!

• 1. How can I deal with parents offensive

comments on Facebook?

Parent’s comments on Facebook

• Ignore it
• Work with parents individually and collectively, if they are willing
• Defamation and libel – do you need/want legal advice and what

might this achieve?

• Contact Facebook?

• 2. Should I check if a young person is on

Facebook?

Checking if a young person is on Facebook

• Why are you checking?
• What are you hoping to see (or not see)?
• What are you trying to achieve and is there a better way of doing

it?

• 3. I know an underage child is on
• Facebook. What should I do?

Underage children and Facebook

• 13 years old is the entry point
• Talk to the young person
• Do you want to mention it to the parents?
• How well do you educate young people about online risks,

regardless of age and specific websites?

• 4. When do staff posts become a

disciplinary matter?

Staff posts and disciplinary steps

• What does your policy say?
• Do contracts and/or policy contain a general term re

standards and expectations

• Can you work with staff to educate them about social media?
• Think outside of social media – would it be a disciplinary
• ffence if it happened ‘in reality’?

• 5. Is it ok to ‘friend’ young people that

you have worked with in the past?

Friending young people you have worked with

• Need a clear policy on it
• What does yours say?
• My position: it’s ok – after all, they have left the

service/school and you have no control over them and no power to limit the contact staff have with the community

• 6. Should we allow staff to ‘friend’

extended family of the young people we work with?

Friending extended family of young people

• Clarity of policy
• Do you allow nieces/nephews/children?
• Or does your policy make a blanket rule?
• What works best for your service in your community?

• 7. Is it ok to for a member of staff to

store a young person’s mobile number in his phone?

Staff mobiles and children’s phone numbers

• Why would you have them?
• What are the risks?
• Pool mobiles, centrally managed, data erased

• 8. How do we get the balance right with

parents taking photos of all children?

Photos of children

• What does your policy say?
• Is it sensible, balanced and workable?
• Allow photos for private retention only and rely on parents

to abide by the policy

• What about protection orders?

Photos of children - protection orders

• Photographs of children subject to protective orders hard to

manage: – Sports days – School productions – Playground

• What can be controlled – to same extent - is the naming of

them

• 9. I suspect a pupil’s phone has an illegal

image on it. What should I do?

Checking a pupil’s electronic devices

• Power to examine electronic files where you have good

reason to do so

• Allows you to retain or dispose of the device
• Power to view, retain or erase any data or files where you

have good reason to do so

• What is a good reason?

Checking a pupil’s electronic devices

• “Good reason”

– Staff member must reasonably suspect that data or file has been, or could be, used to cause harm, to disrupt teaching or break school rules

• Wide power

Checking a pupil’s electronic devices

• What do you do with the image?
• Staff can dispose of a pornographic image unless its

possession is an offence (extreme or child pornography)

• Where it is, pass to the police
• Other images can be deleted

• 10. Should I keep records or tell parents

about data on electronic devices?

Records and informing parents

• Not required to inform parents of a search
• No legal requirement to keep a record of searches
• Recommended that parents advised where alcohol, illegal

drugs or harmful substances found – not a legal requirement

• What would you like to do?

Other questions/tweets?

Dai Durbridge | 0161 300 8037 | dai.durbridge@brownejacobson.com