teachers advised NOT to have Facebook ( or similar) accounts

[NoahFence]

we were told today
what do you think..

Absolutley no one should have a FB account.

Employers now routinely trawl FB and other social networking sights to check CVs, look for adverse behaviour, admissions of drug taking, etc.

Things written years before as University students can suddenly emerge as an adult and have ruined careers.

Never reveal your identity in the internet to anyone without very careful thought. Me and DW lost our privacy a while ago and through no fault of our own - much of our life story is now on Google for ever. Every new friend we make eventually reads it.

But if you make your page only accessible to friends how can they see it?

Thing is, it's not just about privacy and what other people can see but who you have as friends and what you post online, without thinking about who is actually reading it.

Most people don't lock down their photos in terms of all their friends seeing them, lots of people have hundreds and hundreds of friends, to the extent that they forget who can actually read what they are posting.

It's not just about having students on facebook, but what about having parents on there? I'm sure there are teachers out there who are friends with parents of students at the school where they teach, it only takes one indiscrete comment to get out to a parent...

Same goes for other professions.

The reality is that people view the internet as anonomous when actually it isn't. Just look at how open people are on here and now it has come back to bite them in the form of the daily mail. Do you honestly think that people are going to be more discrete on facebook where they can choose who reads it when most wouldn't be that discrete on an open forum?

"Most people don't lock down their photos in terms of all their friends seeing them, lots of people have hundreds and hundreds of friends, to the extent that they forget who can actually read what they are posting. "

Most of my friends who are teachers, do actually! And they also (like me) tend to only have around 30-40 friends on there.

I know not all people who are teachers / professionals will, but in my experience (and being a teacher, I have a lot of teacher friends!) 12/43 friends on my list are teachers and I've yet to read anything even remotely gossip worthy. Most are actually very cautious of what they put up and never put up anything contentious at all. Most never discuss work at all, and given the fact that most of my friends are now married mums in their 30s, don't put up anything salacious either. But maybe that is a generational thing? Maybe its the younger generation who have the wilder lifestyles who tend to put these things up - cause I'd love to see some gossip on there! The most I ever get is 'Johnny started school today' or 'Mummy is very proud of Annabel's first school certificate'. I like to read them (because I know the children), but its hardly exciting stuff!

We have all been told to be very, very careful. A student pretended to be another teacher and was excepted as a friend by a very young colleague. All the students had a good giggle at drunken pics. It was all a bit embarrassing.

If I was a teacher I'd steer clear of it. Or at least lock down the privacy settings. Does raise the question about what you should do if a pupil asks to be your 'friend'. Hmmm...

Friend of mine's daughter asked her today if she could have a fb account. She's 12.

Thank god I'm not at that stage with my little one yet! Not sure I'd like my 12 year old daughter on fb.

I have thought about this a little more (not much more). The advice to stay away from Facebook accounts etc. is in the long run a bad one.

It puts the onus on the (potential) victims to prevent a crime thereby limiting what is in effect a freedom of expression issue. We have the right to have a FB acct if we so wish and the possible behaviour of others should not even be contemplated in restricting that freedom. However, I would say that, excluding family ties, under no circumstances should a teacher have a student as a FB friend if the student has not left year 11. Just to much possibility for confusion.

When the students harassed me over the phone the advice from BT and the Police was to change my number. It was easier for them to ask the victim to change the way they behave than to follow up what was in effect a petty crime.

If OTOH teens were made more aware that violating other people's privacy and freedom of expression would bring them in touch with the police they would be far less likely to do this sort of harassment.

foxytocin - can see (and agree) that victim should not be obliged to change anything about their life.

Given that bullying / harassment has moved into the cyber world, perhaps the 'technical' solution (change your number) will be replaced with an investigation, and gathering of supportive evidence to catch the miscreant, and deal with them so they are taught a lesson.

When it comes to 'freedom of expression' then I guess the 'degree of freedom' might be the area for one to examine and err on the side of caution.

Simple commonsense ought to be enough, something perhaps lacking after a drunken night out (perhaps greater among the under-30s) which may lead to indiscrete photos going online 'for fun' with scant regard for risk to career.

aye webdude that is why i refused to cange my number and let the police go after the little feckers. this way it made the grapevine of the school and their neighbourhood that it happened to somebody.

We moved to Kidderminster from London 7 years ago and are very happy here. We also have 4 young children. Property is very reasonably priced and we bought a 5 bed detached opposite an excellent school a year ago for £249,000. Kiddy is a large town with lots of shops and businesses, but is surrounded by beautiful countryside and lovely villages. There's tons to do for kids; ball pools, leisure centres, play groups, children's centres, loads of parks, forests and country walks. Its just 40 mins into central b'ham on the train, about 30 mins driving depending on traffic. Our kids went to St Ambrose Catholic School just on the B'ham Road which is lovely and they go on to an excellent Catholic High in Hagley. There's a big Catholic community and busy church if you want to get involved there. Good luck!!

"Does raise the question about what you should do if a pupil asks to be your 'friend'. Hmmm... "

Say, " sorry I don't add pupils on facebook because I am your teacher".

I am on msn with a student [sixth form ] right now... We are arrranging what to clean the pianos with when he comes in for work experience tomoorw...

i would share that request with his/her head of year.

... in addition to what mumble said.

i haveall my privacy settings very tight
i am not searchable

i am deliberately not friends on fb froma nmumin ds1'sschool as i have also taught her older daughter. her friends arealso parents of pupils i havetaught

i haveall my privacy settings very tight
i am not searchable

i am deliberately not friends on fb froma nmumin ds1'sschool as i have also taught her older daughter. her friends arealso parents of pupils i havetaught