In this article, I would like to clarify the role of home and school to encourage students to make themselves safe online.

With the never-ending pressures of social media and online influencers, children will no doubt start to become curious as to how they can be part of this online world.

A world, we know as adults, has become increasingly open to public scrutiny and in some cases negative commenting and inappropriate sharing of images and or information.

So, where do the responsibilities lie when it comes to students actions and behaviours online? Where does the role of the school stop and the home take place?

AT SCHOOL

Within the school environment, we have restrictions in place so students cannot view or log into sites such as Youtube, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook.

There are 2 main reasons for this. One, they are a distraction and not appropriate during the school day and two, students have to be 13 years or older to have personal accounts within these applications.

From 2019 any student or school-owned Chromebook is managed under our Google Management Console between the hours or 8:30 am and 3 pm, Monday to Friday. After 3 pm students are able to log into their school account or personal account on your own wifi network at home. 

While at school, students can only log into their school account. They cannot login as a "Guest" or with their personal account. This enables us to monitor all online activity within our school network. While at school, they cannot add apps or extensions that may take the focus away from their learning.

We have filters in place at school eg safe search and linewize which can block things like pop up ads, hate or violent sites, gambling sites and VPNs. This is just a small example of the restrictions we put in place at school.

The ability to manage devices is one of the key reasons we have moved to Chromebook only devices from this year.

We as a school have the responsibility to educate students around being Cyber smart, discussing things like digital footprints, private vs public information, being aware of possible dangers and what information is okay to share and what isn't. We also teach our students about using their device and how to care for their device. 

As part of our processes, we will continue to monitor and review our practice around online activity and device usage.

Should you have any queries or concerns please, in the first instance contact Paul Tyson at tyson@marshland.school.nz for queries relating to devices and learning or Wayne Joyner at joyner@marshland.school.nz for technical queries, login issues or more information on how we manage devices.

AT HOME

As a parent, it is up to you to manage what your child does on their device and on your home network. If you would like more information on how you can monitor and control online activity at home, please refer below. This is just one option out there on the market.

https://www.linewize.com/parents

It is up to you if you allow your child to have a personal social media account under the recommended age of 13 yrs. Students are meant to have parent permission, but we are aware that simply by lying about their age, students can create accounts without their parent's knowledge. Obviously, we discourage this behaviour and I would question why they actually need one at a younger age.

This is the same for a Google account. The school account that students can access at home is more than sufficient and allows them to complete school-related work and go online. 

Some other tips:

• Never let your child on their device unsupervised eg bedroom with the door closed.
• Know their passwords
• If they happen to have a social media account, with your permission, you should be on their friends/ connection list
• Put in place filters
• Restrict how long they spend on a device

More tips can be found at https://www.netsafe.org.nz/online-safety-for-parents/

This article is not telling you what to do, it is simply making you aware that we, both home and school need to be proactive and know what our children are doing on a device. The aim is to keep everyone safe and to make them aware of the possible dangers or consequences that can come about through inappropriate usage.

Perhaps this is a timely reminder for you to have a chat with your child around your expectations with online usage and behaviours and to ask whether they might have signed up to other applications.

Thanks for your support

Paul Tyson

Deputy Principal

Learning with Digital Technologies