As the use of technology in the classroom and on school grounds has increased, schools are challenged to maintain rules and standards that manage issues such as social media. In order to address this challenge, the Herald Sun reports that some Victorian primary schools have put in place a ban on posting images of students, teachers or school buildings online in order to ensure student safety.

This move is one example of strategies schools can develop and implement to try and control the misuse of technology by students. But the problem is that schools cannot always control the use of technology on a practical level. Given that most students and staff use a combination of school-owned and personal devices on a daily basis, regulating the use of technology is an extremely difficulty task. This is especially the case as the devices get smaller and communication apps get better as technology improves.

Using technology in schools

Technology has become integrated within the operation of many schools in a number of ways:

• official school photography;
• use of laptops or tablets in classrooms;
• online resources for students and parents such as public school websites and private intranets; and
• parent-teacher communication using apps.

This technology generally aims to enhance the educational experience of students, and schools should have clear policies and procedures relating to the appropriate use of this technology. Such policies should address:

• the use of technology by staff;
• the use of technology by students;
• what use is personal use and what use is in a professional capacity; and
• using school-owned equipment.

Examples of the content of these policies may include restrictions of the type of programs or websites available on the laptops or requiring parental consent forms when students are to be photographed. This ensures that all parties are aware of their rights and obligations relating to the use of technology, and are aware of the consequences if they breach a school policy.

The difficulties schools face with regulating technology have been demonstrated by evidence suggesting that students are more adept at using these devices for personal use rather than educational purposes. A Sydney private school principal, speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, said that students often lacked the maturity to use the devices for the intended purpose, and could instead be distracted by uses such as games or social media.

Social media

The misuse of social media can trigger legal consequences under different laws. For example, making offensive public posts about a person could constitute defamation and/or online bullying. Accordingly, it is important for schools to create comprehensive yet easily accessible policies for a range of stakeholders including students, teachers and parents to ensure the school community understands the school’s position on the use of social media and the consequences where it is used in breach of a policy.

In order to assist schools and the broader community, the Federal Government has created the Office of the eSafety Commissioner, which offers resources on technology and online safety.

Recent examples of the possible negative impacts of technology on members of the school community include:

• the suspension of 50 students from Toronto over a cyber-bullying incident (reported in the Sydney Morning Herald);
• online abuse from parents targeted towards teachers (reported in the Herald Sun);
• Victorian sexting laws that can apply to students (see our earlier article);
• ‘an epidemic of students using social media to bully teachers?’ (see our earlier article);
• ‘defamed teacher awarded $350,000′ (see our earlier article); and
• ‘professional boundaries important as staff misconduct allegations dramatically increase’ (see our earlier article).

The variety of the situations listed above and the different members of the school community involved in the behaviour demonstrate how significant the issue of the misuse of social media can be and the important role a school has to regulate it.

What can schools do?

The response of some Victorian primary schools has been to ban social media posts of photos taken at the school. These schools have also introduced rules stating that a student must give their consent before another student is allowed to photograph or film them. Although this policy has been applauded by cyber security experts, a spokesperson for the Victorian government has stated that schools were best placed to design a solution that addressed the needs of their own school. In other words, this solution may be too extreme and impractical for some schools.

One of the reasons why the new rules were introduced by the school was because students lacked the maturity to understand the consequences of their actions, especially relating to social media. To a lesser extent, many parents and teachers still struggle to understand the extent to which a social media post can impact on their relationship with the school. Even though privacy settings can be managed by the user, it is also possible to take a screenshot of a poorly-judged comment, photo or video and show this to third parties who may not otherwise have access.

There are resources that schools can send to students and parents to help them to understand their rights and obligations. We have written before on the role of the eSafety Commissioner: 40 cases of online bullying resolved by eSafety Commissioner in first three months. As the Commission can play an important role in resolving incidents of online bullying, schools should educate the community about the procedures and resources offered by the eSafety Commission.

Schools should have clear policies in relation to social media for students, teachers and parents. The rights of these parties in relation to using social media or making complaints should be clearly outlined, as should the consequences of breaching these responsibilities. If the school makes its expectations clear, technology can be used for its intended purpose: to enhance communication and learning.

Examples of policies that schools should consider developing include:

• cyber security;
• use of mobile phones (separate policies for students and teachers);
• information and communication technology;
• software;
• email and internet usage; and
• bring your own device (BYOD).