While technologies provide positive platforms for sharing ideas, they also have the potential to cause harm to individuals, groups or whole communities. It is important to remember that negative comments posted about the school community have a greater impact than expected. Reputations of students, staff, the school and even parents can be permanently damaged — and in some cases, serious instances of inappropriate online behaviour are dealt with by police and the court system.
Appropriate use of Social Media - Strategies:
- Before you post something online, ask yourself if the community or individual really need to know. Is it relevant, positive and helpful?
- Remember that what you post online, it is a direct reflection of who you are. People will potentially form lasting opinions of you based on what you post online.
- Be a good role model. If things become “heated" online, log out and take a few moments to think. Hasty, emotive responses could inflame situations unnecessarily.
- Be mindful when commenting, try to keep general and avoid posting anything that could identify individuals.
- With the use of social media, online discussions between you and your close friends can very quickly be shared with a much wider audience, potentially far larger than intended.
- Taking a few moments to think about the content you are about to post could save embarrassment and possible legal action.
- As a parent you have a role in supervising and regulating your child's online activities at home and its impact on the reputation and privacy of others. Parents are their child's first teachers — so they will learn online behaviours from you.
Is it appropriate to comment or post about schools, staff or students?
Parental and community feedback is important. If you have a compliment, complaint or enquiry about an issue at school, please speak directly to the school about the matter, rather than discussing it in a public forum due to privacy considerations. If you encounter negative or derogatory content online which involves the school, hinders a child's learning and/or affects the school community at large, contact the school Principal.
Possible civil or criminal ramifications of online commentary
A serious instance of inappropriate online behaviour may constitute a criminal offence and become a police matter. School staff may contact their union or obtain personal legal advice if they feel that online content seriously impacts their reputation. Defamatory online content may give rise to litigation under the Defamation Act 2005 (Qld).
What about other people's privacy?
If you upload photos of your children, be mindful of who might be in the background. You might be happy to share your child's successes with your friends and family via social media, but some parents are not. If you are tagging or naming students, consider that other parents may not want their child's name attached to images online.
What if I encounter problem content?
- Refrain from responding
- Take a screenshot or print a copy of the concerning online content
- If you consider the problem content to be explicit, pornographic or exploitative of minors, you should keep a record of the URL of the page containing that content but NOT print or share it. The URL can be provided to the school principal, or police, as needed for escalation of serious concerns
- Block the offending user
- Report the content to the social media provider
- If required, report the content to the school