This article is one of a series written by Data Protection Education in collaboration with Litus Digital, a social media management company.  The articles came about from questions asked by Data Protection Education's customers, our own experience of working in education,  as school governors, parents and data protection professionals.  The articles raise questions about how social media can be used as safely as possible in a school environment,  security considerations, the law and protecting children.  It is not possible to cover every aspect of social media, but the articles aim to provide guidance, raise privacy questions and provide some support for safe posting.

The eleventh article in this series is about staff and their social media accounts. Staff should be aware that pupils may try to ‘friend’ or communicate with members of staff at their school/organisation.  Having a slightly different or anonymous name may help prevent this.  Several social media channels allow for private accounts that are not directly searchable.  Set all privacy settings to high.  It may be advisable to use a pseudonym for creating a profile to make it harder for pupils to find teachers for example.

Personal social media use should also be covered in the organisation’s   document Social Media Policy (50 KB) and   pdf Acceptable Use policy (62 KB) .

Consider if you own/manage personal pages that might be appropriate to school life and whether it fits into the social media policy as this may not be allowed in your employment contract.

Care should also be taken when posting into local groups on social media as parents or pupils could also be members.  When posting, it is important to be clear that it is your own personal view and not that of the organisation.

Guardians of Privacy: Social Media Articles