There is currently no law in the UK prohibiting mobile phone usage in schools – the Department for Education (DfE), NEU and NAHT have all stated that mobile phone usage is a decision for individual schools. Policies across the UK reflect individual schools’ decisions, ranging from complete bans in some schools to the inclusion of phones, as part of lessons, in others.
Steps school leaders can take to manage social media effectively
It’s always best to start with a policy that’s part of a school’s portfolio of safeguarding policies overseen by the school’s designated safeguarding lead (DSL) and senior leadership team (SLT).
The purpose of such a policy is to safeguard and promote the welfare of all members of the school’s community when using mobile devices or social media. In particular, it is to protect all learners and staff from potential harm, both on and off-site.
Finally, the policy and school’s practices should set out clear procedures for the following:
- Monitoring and reviewing the policy
- Raising relevant concerns
- Implementing the policy.
Staff, should
- Make sure they understand the school’s social media policy
- Not leave computers or other devices logged-in when unattended
- Password-protect their mobile phones or similar devices in case they are lost or stolen
- Be familiar with the privacy and security settings of social media apps, and keep them up to date (the UK Safer Internet Centre’s website has more information on professional reputation)
- Be aware that their reputations can be harmed by what others share about them online – for example, someone tagging you in inappropriate posts, videos or photographs
- Consider their conduct online – some behaviour could breach the employment behaviour policy or code of conduct
- Discuss issues with colleagues, close family and friends to ensure they have appropriate privacy and security settings
- Not accept friend requests from past or present pupils
- Not give out personal contact details
- Ask for a school mobile phone to be issued on school trips rather than using a personal phone
- Keep their school email address for school business and their personal email address for private communications.
Parents and carers
Parents and carers are not immune from policies that apply across the school community, and you should include them in any information relating to mobile phone use or request to comply with the school’s policies.
NAHT recommends the Think You Know website. This may be the best ‘first port of call’ because it enables a school to choose resources and approaches best suited to its context.
Pupils
You should teach pupils about the safe and appropriate use of social media and mobile phones, boundaries and consequences of straying beyond the limits. You should apply the relevant school policy and liaise with the DSL if you have concerns about pupils’ use of social media.
How to deal with social media ‘incidents’
It’s occasionally the case that social media activity and content are used against school leaders by a) staff, b) parents/carers and c) pupils – this, more often than not, takes the form of an online petition, unpleasant allegations or a less than flattering Facebook posting.
A breach of the ‘social media use’ policy predisposes that there is a standard (often discretionary) below which an ‘incident’ has happened. In short, the standard must make it clear that all members of the school community must not post or share content that is threatening, hurtful or abusive.
You must contact the police and inform the LADO if you believe a member of staff has committed a criminal offence using a personal device or mobile phone.
If you are aware of malicious online activity, you must take several sequential steps:
- Report malicious activity and seek support from an appropriate lead or manager
- Take screenshots of the offending content or web pages, and record the time and date
- Mediation or disciplinary procedures can be applied if the offender is a pupil or colleague
- If the offender is an adult, they should be invited to a meeting with a senior member of staff to address the concerns
- If those responsible for offensive or inappropriate online content are known, the school should ensure they understand why the material is unacceptable and request that they remove it
- If the person refuses to remove the material, either report the matter to the social networking site or seek advice from the local authority’s or relevant body’s legal team. Other agencies such as the UK Safer Internet Centre can also provide advice
- Online harassment may amount to criminal conduct. If the material is of a sexual nature, sexist, threatening, abusive or constitutes a hate crime, you should consider contacting the police
- You could obtain screenshots of offensive material for your records; however, be cautious about using this material, especially if you intend to present the screenshots to parents as evidence. You mustn’t do anything unlawful with the material; you must handle it privately and consult with any third party involved before using it
- Employers have a duty of care to staff, and no-one should feel victimised in the workplace; the senior management team, HR and union representatives, if appropriate, can all provide support
- The UK Safer Internet Centre offers a free service for those working with children and young people. Its Professional Online Safety Helpline provides advice, mediation and signposting to resolve e-safety issues with the safety and policy teams at Rate My Teacher, Ask.FM, Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr and others
- Facebook has launched the Bullying Prevention Hub and produced a support sheet specifically for teachers called ‘empower educators’.
TikTok – the weaponisation of social media
The specific advice from TikTok is that:
- TikTok works with the Professional Online Safety Helpline (POSH, 0344 381 4772 or helpline@saferinternet.org.uk), which is a free and independent helpline for teachers and others working with children in the UK. If you are aware of content that you do not think should be on TikTok, then your best route is to call or email the POSH helpline. The POSH helpline team will then report the content directly to our team working on this issue, who can then take action.
- The UK Safer Internet Centre, which runs the helpline, is part of TikTok’s dedicated Community Partner Channel. This channel handles escalations on TikTok’s behalf of the education community, so contacting POSH is the shortest route to getting content taken down.
There’s a great resource – the TikTok Checklist – which is available too.
- What should I do if a member of my school is the victim of an abusive post?
POSH states that you should do the following:
- Report the content to TikTok using this form
- Copy the link of the offending social media account (name or URL) and paste it into an email to POSH
- Ask staff members who have been the victims of abuse to communicate through the school – POSH would want to deal with one person only about the issue
- The email address and phone number for POSH can be found here
- What proactive measures can we take?
As a way of alerting parents to the issues connected to TikTok, the organisation National Online Safety has produced a free guide. You could send this to parents, or you might choose to use it for inspiration for a more bespoke communication that outlines your concerns.
About NAHT
NAHT is the leading union for school leaders’ and as a member you get access to legal support and advice, discounts and deals on your daily purchases, access to a mentoring scheme and savings on our highly-rated CPD courses and conferences. To join us, visit out membership page.