"Most educators working with middle and high school students are aware of the explosive involvement of youth on social networking sites. Few are prepared to deal with it (Willard, 2009)."

Photograph retrieved online from Creative Commons 

http://www.studentlegal.ucla.edu/images/Mission%20Statement%20Image.jpg

Long (January 2009) states "We’ve all read the horror stories about the naïve teachers who posted suggestive photographs, musings about drug use, and worse on their profiles for the whole world—students, parents, and administrators included—to see. But those are the unfortunate exceptions. The vast majority of educators use social networking discreetly and professionally to make connections that can enhance careers, not jeopardize them."

 “The emergence of digital social networks is creating legal issues for school districts that did not exist 10 years ago (Ahearn, September 2009)."

Furthermore, Ahearn (September 2009) suggests that school districts should prioritize establishing clear guidelines for all employees and students as to what is expected of them and how social networks should be used. 

In a CNN story by Simon (2008), she quotes Jim Keith, an education lawyer for several school boards in Missouri who gave talks to teachers.  Keith explains that most of the inappropriate student-teacher relationships start out on a friendship level.

Keith spoke of one instance where a parent thought her child was spending extra time with a teacher who was trying to help her child overcome shyness. At Keith's urging, they checked the child's phone bill and found 4,200 text messages between the teacher and student.

"As an educator, there is a line of demarcation between you and your student," Keith said. "It's a line that you cannot come close to, let alone step over. You've got to establish it from Day One and say, 'I'm not your buddy; I'm not your friend; I'm just your teacher.' "

Keith agrees that teachers sometimes need to communicate after school with students about educational matters, but he said that's why teachers in Missouri have their own class pages hosted by their school districts. Those pages eliminate the need for Facebook or MySpace, he says, and allow the schools to monitor all student-teacher communication.

(YouTube: harnessingtechnology, 2010)

Tammy Andrew (April 2010) provides these social networking tips to teachers:

Even with legal concerns about teachers posting too much personal information or inappropriate communication with students through social networking sites, it is possible for teachers to keep an online presence for personal use. There are five things teachers can keep in mind while using social networking sites or keeping a blog.

1. Do not use school equipment for posting information.
2. Keep personal pages private.
3. Ask “how much information is too much information?”
4. The poster is responsible for any content online, on the computer, and linked to the page even if the account is hacked.
5. Any morally or ethically inappropriate content may harm professional status or even the teacher's ability to function at their teaching position.

Information posted online can be viewed by students, parents, or other educators even if its location is not given directly to others. Any inappropriate images or text can be considered a violation of a teacher's contract even if the teacher did not directly post it. It is possible for teachers to use social media for personal use if they remember to be careful about what they post, from where it is posted, and to keep its location and, if possible, content private.

(YouTube: teachertubetutorials, 2009)

In the wikibooks.org page for Information security in education/legal issues (Anonymous, 2009):

The Children’s Internet Protection Act, known as CIPA is a federal law enacted by Congress. The law was enacted to address concerns about minors having access to and being exposed to offensive content over the Internet.

The Neighborhood Children’s Internet Protection Act (N–CIPA), Sec. 1732 of CIPA, imposes certain types of requirements on any K-12 school or library receiving funding from the E-rate program. Specifically, N-CIPA requires that any public school or library receiving E-rate discounts to develop and enforce an Internet Safety Policy (ISP). The policy must address harmful or inappropriate online activities. In particular, schools and libraries must have the following in place in order to receive discounts offered by the E-rate program:

• Technology protection measures to block or filter Internet access to pictures that are obscene, child pornography, or harmful to minors.
• An education program informing minors about appropriate online behavior. This must include information on cyber bullying as well as information about interacting with other individuals on social networking sites and in chat rooms.
• A policy in place to monitor online activities of minors.
• A policy that addresses the following: access by minors to inappropriate matter on the Internet; the safety and security of minors when using electronic mail, chat rooms, and other forms of direct electronic communications; unauthorized access, including so-called “hacking,” and other unlawful activities by minors online; unauthorized disclosure, use, and dissemination of personal information regarding minors; and restricting minors’ access to materials harmful to them. This policy is commonly referred to as an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).

Photograph retrieved online from Creative Commons 

http://thesituationist.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/istock-social-network.jpg

Further Reading

For more information, Tracy Mitrano's 2009 article, A Wider World: Youth, Privacy, and Social Networking Technologies, offers more insight into the legal history and aspects of social networks such as Facebook.

http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume41/AWiderWorldYouthPrivacyandSoci/158095

(YouTube: MSFTEducation, 2008)

References

Ahearn, K. A. (2009, September 27). Back to school: To learn all about social networking. The Times-

     Union(Albany, NY), Retrieved from http://www.allbusiness.com/legal/legal-services-litigation/13056460-1.html

Andrew, T. (2010, April 27). Teacher tips for maintaining personal social networking sites. 

     Suite101.com, Retrieved from 

     http://school-staff-issues.suite101.com/article.cfm/teacher-tips-for-maintaining-personal-social-networking-site

Anonymous. (2009). Information security in education/legal issues. Wikibooks. Retrieved (2010, May 12) from

     http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Information_Security_in_Education/Legal_Issues

Long, C. (2009, January). Online social networking for educators. NEA Today, Retrieved from

     http://www.nea.org/home/20746.htm#

Mitrano, T. (2006). A Wider world: youth, privacy, and social networking technologies. EDUCAUSE Review, 41(6),

     Retrieved from

http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume41/AWiderWorldYouthPrivacyandSoci/158095

Simon, M. (2008 August, August 13). Online student-teacher friendships can be tricky. CNN.com, Retrieved from

     http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/08/12/studentsteachers.online/index.html

Willard, N. (2009). Schools and online social networking. NEA Today, Retrieved from

     http://www.nea.org/home/9279.htm

YouTube: harnessingtechnology. (2010). E-safety: Safeguarding Learners Online.Becta.org. Retrieved

     (2010, May 12) from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ_BT_A6vtw

YouTube: MSFTEducation. (2008). Vision for technology in K-12 Education. www.microsoft.com/education.

     Retrieved (2010, May 12) from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhoOG5Kf1w4

YouTube: teachertubetutorials. (2009). Teach Students to Be Internet Responsible.www.teachertube.com.

     Retrieved (2010, May 12) from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyDh6Szi-iM