Y Pornographic images or obscene text on Internet web sites
Y Language that is abusive, profane, inflammatory, coercive, defamatory, blasphemous or otherwise offensive on web sites or in e-mail messages
Y Racist, exploitative or illegal material or messages on web sites or in e-mail
Y E-mail messages from unknown or unverified parties who seek to establish a child's identity and/or to communicate with the child for advertising or potentially criminal purpose
Y Deliberate searching for and access to undesirable materials
Y Creating & transmitting e-mail messages that contain unacceptable language or content
Y Creating & publishing Internet materials that contain unacceptable language & content
Y School teaching staff
Y Non-teaching school staff
Y Governors
Y Parents
Y Visitors
It is the School's policy that every reasonable step should be taken to prevent exposure of children to undesirable materials on the Internet. It is recognised that this can happen not only through deliberate searching for such materials but also unintentionally when a justifiable Internet search yields unexpected results.
To prevent such occurrences the School has adopted the following position:-
(a) The use of an Internet Provider who offers protection by:
i) the filtering of sites by a grading process
ii) the filtering of sites by language content with prohibition of sites with unacceptable vocabulary
b) In-School protection by:
i) adult supervision of pupils' Internet activity with no searching of the Internet allowed without a suitable adult present
ii) the application of language filtering by appropriate software (e.g. Net Nanny)
N.B. Filtering software is not foolproof and should be updated regularly
In the event of children being unintentionally exposed to undesirable materials the following steps will be taken.
1. Pupils should notify a teacher immediately
2. The Headteacher should be notified by the teacher
3. The incident should be recorded in a central log by which the school may reliably report the frequency and nature of incidents to any appropriate party
4. The child's parents and/or the School Governors should be notified at the discretion of the Head according to the degree of seriousness of the incident.
Children must never intentionally seek offensive material on the Internet. Any transgression should be reported and recorded as outlined above. Any incident will be treated as a disciplinary matter and the parents of the children or children will normally be informed
Deliberate access to undesirable materials by adults is unacceptable and will be treated as a disciplinary issue. If abuse is found to be repeated, flagrant or habitual the matter will be treated as a very serious disciplinary issue. the Governors will be advised and the LEA consulted.
It is recognised that e-mail messages received or transmitted by children can contain language or content that is unacceptable. It is also recognised that some people may try to use e-mail to identify and contact children for unacceptable reasons.
To avoid these problems the School has adopted the following practices:
a) using an Internet children's e-mail service that guarantees the bona-fide nature of school e-mail communicants and that vets children's e-mail for undesirable content
b) allowing pupils to read e-mail messages only when an adult is present or when the messages have been previewed by the teacher
c) taking steps to verify the identity of any school or child seeking to establish regular e-mail communications with this school
d) allowing pupils to send e-mail messages only when the contents have been approved by the teacher
e) avoiding the personal identification of pupils either by never revealing the child's surname, address or other information which might identify his/her whereabouts or by using 'internet aliases' for each child
If staff believe that children have been targeted with e-mail messages by parties with criminal intent the messages will be retained, the incident recorded and the Governors and child's parents informed. Advice will also be taken regarding further steps.
It is recognised that staff and children may at some time produce and publish materials on an Internet web site associated with the School or the City Council.
No materials will be published on the Internet which contain any unacceptable images, language or content. Infringement of this rule will be taken as a serious disciplinary issue
No materials will be published on the Internet which will reveal the identity of any child.
Members of school staff will take responsibility for the actions of any adult guests or visitors to whom they allow use of the school Internet facilities. The essential 'dos and don'ts' will be explained to such visitors and guests prior to their use of the Internet.
Unacceptable use will lead to the immediate withdrawal of permission to use the school Internet facility
It is recognised that all materials on the Internet are copyright unless copyright is specifically waived. It is the school's policy that the copyright of Internet materials will be respected. Where materials are published on the Internet as part of the teachers professional duties copyright will remain with the City Council. Internet materials will contain due copyright acknowledgements for any third party materials contained within them.
Photographs of children and materials produced by children will not be published on the Internet without parental approval
This policy will be reviewed regularly.
Managing Internet Access in the Classroom
Notes for Teachers
1. The Internet should be seen as an extension of the school library which facilitates resource sharing, communication and innovation.
2. The issues of responsibility that arise from use of the Internet should be addressed before access is given.
3. All users should be aware of and adhere to an agreed code of practice.
4. Pupil access should always be supervised and monitors placed where the screen can be viewed from a distance
5. Teachers should consider checking pupils' Internet searches and using history pages to monitor access
6. Teachers should consider selecting web sites as part of their lesson planning in order to guide children's searches
7. Contributions to web pages should be original work and should be checked for accuracy before being submitted
Guidelines for Students and Staff
1. Make sure you have permission to use the computer.
2. Use your own log in and password.
3. Save your work regularly.
4. Ask an adult to help you if there is a problem with the computer.
5. Close all programmes when you have finished and leave he computer ready for someone else to use.
6. Use the computers with care. They are there for everyone to use.
1. Type e-mail and Internet messages 'off line' to save on phone bills.
2. Narrow down Internet searches as much as possible before you start.
3. Use 'Bookmarks' and 'Favourites' to save interesting sites.
4. Ask before you print anything and note the source.
5. Do not give personal information about yourself (e g name, address or location) to anyone.
6. Tell an adult if you come across anything that makes you feel uncomfortable.