Social Media Guidelines For Parents

In a world of increasing connectivity, the sharing of information in the College environment continues to develop. The College uses Facebook as a platform to share information to both our immediate and extended communities. A number of parents have also created year level and interest group pages to communicate with each other and disseminate information.

Using social media platforms, such as Facebook, to share information related to the College, students, parents and staff comes with a degree of legal and social responsibility. To help clarify and assist parents with what is acceptable to post or share on social media sites, the College has developed a Social Media Policy specifically for parents. This policy, in its entirety, can be accessed online through the Parent Lounge. The College encourages parents to set and maintain high ethical standards in their use of social networking. Your posts and comments should help build and support the College community and your online behaviour should reflect the same standards of honesty, respect, and consideration that you use face-to-face and be in accordance with the Christian ethos of the College.

Parent operated Facebook pages or groups play an important role in the changing landscape of modern communication. In developing the policy and guidelines, the College aims to assist our community to avoid any issues that could arise through sharing information on social media.    

Following is a summary of the policy’s key points:

• Parents need to be mindful of copyright, privacy, defamation, contempt of court, discrimination, harassment, other applicable laws and College policies. This includes not disclosing full names of children and other identifying information such as class lists.
• Parents should not disclose any confidential information, post or respond to material that is offensive, obscene, defamatory, threatening, harassing, bullying, discriminatory, hateful, racist, sexist, infringes copyright, constitutes a contempt of court, breaches a Court suppression order, or is otherwise unlawful.
• Under no circumstances should disrespectful or offensive comments be made about students, parents, staff or the College in general. Parents are requested not to comment on or forward unsupported information, e.g. rumours concerning the College, or comment or post material that might otherwise cause damage to the College’s reputation or bring it into disrepute.
• Be mindful that, by posting your comments and having online conversations on Social Media sites you are broadcasting to the world. Even with the strictest privacy settings be aware that comments expressed via social networking pages under the impression of a ‘private conversation’ may still end up being shared into a more public domain, even with privacy settings on maximum.
• The College’s anti-bullying and harassment policies apply to activities that are both online and in the physical workplace.
• Before posting photographs and/or videos, permission should be sought from the subject. This is especially the case where photographs and/or videos include parents of students and/or staff members of the College. No photographs of students of the College (with the exception of a parent/s own children and where approved by the relevant parent/s from time to time) are to be posted;
• Parents should never discuss sensitive College matters with staff or other parents using Facebook, blogs and other Social Media outlets. As noted above, when posting, even on the strictest privacy settings, parents should act on the assumption that all postings are in the public domain.

If you come across online remarks outside the spirit or intent of this policy, you are encouraged to pass these posts to the Principal, who will consider such comments on a case-by-case basis.

Should you have any questions or concerns regarding this issue, please contact the College on 5436 7300.