{"id":484,"date":"2014-10-12T10:45:55","date_gmt":"2014-10-12T10:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marcushowarth.com\/?p=484"},"modified":"2022-01-07T10:10:31","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T10:10:31","slug":"primary-school-advises-on-how-pupils-should-use-facebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcus.howarth.eu\/?p=484","title":{"rendered":"Primary school advises on how pupils should use Facebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

See updates at end…<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

This week’s newsletter from our new school was headlined Online Safety<\/strong>. (see PDF<\/a>)<\/p>\n

What do children do online and through social networking?
\nChildren and young people go online to connect with friends, and make new ones, to browse the internet for information, chat with others and play games. They may:<\/p>\n

\u2022 use social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Primary school children under the age of 11 are presumed to be signing up to Facebook?! I was surprised this was advice given in the newsletter so checked under School Information & Policies<\/a>  on the school website (see PDF<\/a>), and again found advice about Facebook settings.<\/p>\n

I have asked my child to set their profile settings to private<\/strong> \u2013 Social networking sites, such as Facebook, are used by children to share information, photos and just about everything they do! Encourage your child to set their privacy settings to private.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How could a school endorse children illegally signing up to sites that explicitly state a minimum age of 13? Checking if this was normal of other primary schools I went to google and found the first two results here<\/a> and here<\/a> giving advice along the lines I would expect, respectfully:<\/p>\n

We will ban and report anyone who breaks the terms of service of the relevant social media platform. For example, Facebook\u2019s Terms of Service do not permit people under the age of 13 to open an account.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and<\/p>\n

Facebook is targeted at older teenagers and adults. They have a no under 13 registration policy and recommend parental guidance for 13 to 16 year olds.
\nThe following are extracts from Facebook privacy policy:
\n\u201cIf you are under age 13, please do not attempt to register for Facebook or provide any personal information about yourself to us. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 13….<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Obviously North Downs Primary school<\/a> had overlooked something so I wrote to the Headteacher Angela Ewing:<\/p>\n

Subject: Internet safety
\nFrom: Marcus Howarth <me@marcushowarth.com>
\nTo: Angela Ewing <head@northdowns.surrey.sch.uk>
\nCc: Katy Minett <katy.minett@northdowns.surrey.sch.uk><\/p>\n

Hi Angela, and CC. Katy<\/p>\n

with regard to internet safety I feel you should be aware that children of primary school age are not old enough to use Facebook or Twitter<\/p>\n

The minimum age for both sites is 13<\/p>\n

https:\/\/en-gb.facebook.com\/help\/210644045634222<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.co.uk\/2013\/06\/does-twitter-have-minimum-age.html<\/a><\/p>\n

in your guideline you state privacy settings should be set to private
\nhttp:\/\/www.northdowns.surrey.sch.uk\/documents\/Policies\/internet_safety.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

I appreciate you are setting good advice for the future, but by doing so you are giving the impression that they can have accounts with FB & twitter which they can not.<\/p>\n

I checked the site you referenced and under social networking for 8-10yrs it did not name any sites by name.
\nhttp:\/\/www.thinkuknow.co.uk\/8_10\/control\/social\/<\/a><\/p>\n

I haven’t checked T&C’s for Instgram, Pinterest and Vine which you also mention in newsletter but I’m sure you understand my point.<\/p>\n

hope this helps<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I thought I might get some thanks for pointing this out, what I wasn’t expecting was<\/p>\n

From: Angela Ewing <head@northdowns.surrey.sch.uk>
\nTo: Marcus Howarth <me@marcushowarth.com>
\nCC: Katy Minett <katy.minett@northdowns.surrey.sch.uk>, Rebecca Winslade <rebecca.winslade@northdowns.surrey.sch.uk>
\nSubject: Re: Internet safety<\/p>\n

Dear Mr Howarth,<\/p>\n

We are fully aware of the conditions regarding children’s access to sites such as Facebook. Parents and children are frequently reminded of this but sadly children are often signed up to these sites by older siblings. The school’s system is set up in such a way that no-one can access Facebook or U tube etc etc and this includes all members of staff.<\/p>\n

If you wish to discuss this further please contact MS Winslade our Computing subject leader.<\/p>\n

Angela<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Has Angela missed the point? Being signed up by older siblings is no excuse anyway but the point was nowhere in the newsletter or on the school website does it mention the conditions or age limits.<\/p>\n

Subject: Re: Internet safety
\nFrom: Marcus Howarth <me@marcushowarth.com>
\nTo: Angela Ewing <head@northdowns.surrey.sch.uk>
\nCc: Katy Minett <katy.minett@northdowns.surrey.sch.uk>, Rebecca Winslade <rebecca.winslade@northdowns.surrey.sch.uk><\/p>\n

Angela,<\/p>\n

I do not see anything about<\/p>\n

>>Parents and children are frequently reminded of this<\/p>\n

in this week’s newsletter or your guidelines, in fact they present it as perfectly normal. From your top tips:<\/p>\n

>> I have asked my child to set their profile settings to private<\/strong> \u2013 Social networking sites, such as Facebook,<\/span><\/strong> are used by children to share information, photos and just about everything they do!
\nEncourage your child to set their privacy settings to private. They need to think about the information they post online as it could be copied and pasted anywhere, without their permission.
\nIf it got into the wrong hands, somebody may wish to use it against them or worst of all try to locate them in the real world.<\/p>\n

my point is you present FB & twitter as normal not only by omitting this but then you mention them by name.<\/p>\n

I’m more than happy to discuss further with whomever, but I think it’s obvious you could simply add something about the conditions and that they shouldn’t be using the sites to the school’s communications.<\/p>\n

kind regards<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well that’s fair enough, I think point made, and as this is copied to Rebecca Winslade the “Computing subject leader” (who may or may not dictate school policy on such matters) maybe this will be considered and I will get some thanks for taking time to point this out?<\/p>\n

From: Angela Ewing <head@northdowns.surrey.sch.uk>
\nTo: Marcus Howarth <me@marcushowarth.com>
\nCC: Rebecca Winslade <rebecca.winslade@northdowns.surrey.sch.uk>
\nSubject: Re: Internet safety<\/p>\n

Mr Howarth<\/p>\n

As you are new to the school you will not have attended parent workshops regarding internet safety neither will you have seen parent mails and newsletters containing regular reminders, There will be a parent workshop at some point this year that you would be welcome to attend.<\/p>\n

Angela Ewing<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well I didn’t see that coming! I note we’ve gone from “Angela” back to “Angela Ewing” and the class teacher has been removed from the address list. It would seem by her tone this woman doesn’t take suggestion well. But seriously, what difference does it make if only a subset of the parents have spoken about it previously? Surely that’s the point?<\/p>\n

Considering I’m stuck<\/a> with my daughter being at North Downs<\/a> for the next four years I end this with:<\/p>\n

Subject: Re: Internet safety
\nFrom: Marcus Howarth <me@marcushowarth.com>
\nTo: Angela Ewing <head@northdowns.surrey.sch.uk>
\nCc: Rebecca Winslade <rebecca.winslade@northdowns.surrey.sch.uk><\/p>\n

Hi Angela,<\/p>\n

Sounds good, let me know when you add it, I’ll keep an eye on it appearing in the calendar on newsletters.
\nI realise I haven’t read all the previous newsletters on your site, my comment and suggestion was based on today’s, and still stands. I trust it has your consideration, and as you say you have included this point in the past, so there’s no reason why it wouldn’t be included again in the future. So thank you for clarifying.<\/p>\n

See you at 3.15pm if you are on the gate
\nkind regards<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A couple of hours later my daughter and I spoke to Angela outside the school, she did not mention this email at all.<\/p>\n

Update: I did get a response to separate email about a month later from Rebecca, however the school policy<\/a> is still not updated and still mentions Facebook at time of writing despite their website getting a new look (Feb 2015)<\/strong><\/p>\n

On 19 November 2014 at 14:47, Rebecca Winslade <rebecca.winslade@northdowns.surrey.sch.uk<\/a>><\/span> wrote:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Dear Mr Howarth,<\/p>\n

Thank you for your email and your research\/pointers, they are most helpful.<\/p>\n

As Mrs Ewing had mentioned in her previous emails all teachers are given up to date information on how to teach internet safety, passed on from myself and my colleague Mrs Blumire after we attend the Surrey training on a regular basis. However, after taking your comments on board I can see that it may not be clear enough in our policy wording and this has been changed. Unfortunately our website providers have been undergoing changes which have prevented us from updating any documents online for quite sometime.<\/p>\n

You can be assured that as soon as we can do so this will be rectified.<\/p>\n

Thank you again for your concern<\/p>\n

Rebecca Winslade<\/p>\n

Computing Curriculum Coordinator<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Update 12th June 2015: 9 months later, the school has revised policies <\/em> E-safety pupil rules<\/a> (pdf 108kB)<\/p>\n

\n

Update 13th Oct 2015: a year on, this now appears in the parents e-safety consent form:<\/em>
\n\"e-safety-northdowns\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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See updates at end… This week’s newsletter from our new school was headlined Online Safety. (see PDF) What do children do online and through social networking? Children and young people go online to connect with friends, and make new ones, to browse the internet for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcus.howarth.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcus.howarth.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcus.howarth.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcus.howarth.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcus.howarth.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=484"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/marcus.howarth.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":760,"href":"https:\/\/marcus.howarth.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484\/revisions\/760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcus.howarth.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcus.howarth.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcus.howarth.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}