MELBOURNE Girls Grammar is warning students about the danger of living their lives online.
The school last night launched a social media safety policy, which will be workshopped with students and can be viewed by parents, details the importance of being vigilant online and remaining safe.
School principal Catherine Misson said the policy was aimed at educating students about the potential pitfalls of online behaviour, and how they can quickly translate into real world problems.
“We are a school that embraces the reality that our girls’ lives are being lived online,” Ms Misson said.
“Their favourite medium for that is usually a social networking site like Facebook.
We also recognise that because more of their life is being lived online, they’re taking behaviours online that are at times confronting, challenging and can cause conflict.”
Cyber-safety expert Susan McLean said other schools, including Kew’s Trinity Grammar, had developed similar policies - but not to the same extent as Melbourne Girls Grammar.
Ms Misson said the school had aimed to be proactive by developing a policy that suited the lives its students are living.
“We see this policy as the right evolution of the broader based anti-harassment or cyber bullying policies,” she said.
“It states that we have both rights and responsibilities. We acknowledge that social media can be a very positive factor in our lives.
“Our girls do use Facebook but for lots of really good outcomes. It we’re not wise online though, and don’t realise there is a real person on the end of what we say online, it has real outcomes.”
The school running has been running workshops with students this year to ensure they understand the risks involved with sexting and antisocial online behaviour.
“For us, what we’re seeing is more behaviour online. A year ago we might have sat here and said it is a unique profile to have a bullying case with an online element,” she said.
“Now, we would assume there will be an online factor, and the time has come to respond to that.”
Ms Misson said parents also needed to be educated to avoid becoming part of online arguments.
“Parents are staring to join their daughters online to live out the relationship,” she said.
“The good thing about our policy is that the policy is for all of us, not just the girls.”
No comments:
Post a Comment