Web Safety Guidelines -
Email:
This refers to sending and receiving electronic messages over the Internet. Let us start as always with what is good, and in this case we're spoilt for choice. Keep in touch with family, friends, past pupils etc. all over the world. Purposeful writing activities. Receive online newsletters Subscribe to mailing lists from which staff and pupils alike can learn. Easing alienation of teachers in small schools Source of advice for teachers from their peers. Insights for pupils into world cultures Make world-wide pen pals Creation of harmony between states and an end to war. OK, so I was getting a bit carried away toward the end there but there can be little doubt that e-mail is an exciting tool for school use. In many ways it has more to offer than the much-hyped World Wide Web. So what are the dangers this time around? On the 'net no-one knows your gender. Strangers, at times pretending to be someone else, can communicate with children so it is important that children realise that 11 year-old Cindy in Rhode Island may actually be 41 year-old Cecil in Ballybrack. This kind of problem is more common in "chat" situations but still needs to be mentioned here. Children should, of course, be clear that they should never arrange a secret meeting with someone they have "Met" on the Internet. As soon as an e-mail is used for any purpose it becomes open to "spam". This is unsolicited email, usually about sites with sexually explicit material, products for sale, or moneymaking schemes. This is more an irritating nuisance than a major danger but the teacher must keep an eye out for it. Your e-mail software may have a facility to send messages coming from certain sources or with certain words in the subject line straight to the trash. Some Internet Service Providers can also help to block such material if you are having a problem. "Watch out for the Cling-ons!" An e-mail message can have an attachment. It may be a picture, a sound file, a document in the format of a particular word processor, or it may contain a computer virus. There can be a lot of hysteria about the dangers of viruses on the Internet and in most cases attachments are very useful but it is as well to be aware of the danger. Unless you are very sure of the source of an e-mail it is safer to leave attachments unopened. Nasty messages. We all know that there are people out there who are not very nice and there's no point in denying that many of them have internet access. Once your e-mail address is publicised (as it will need to be in order to make full use) then there is a risk of unpleasantness from a number of sources. It may be someone who sees an innocent message from your children asking for information on endangered species and he sends a detailed description of the clubbing to death of a baby seal, or it may be a past pupil with a grudge aiming to settle an old score with a member of staff. These things are rare but they do happen. The final advice is that while, of course, children should have a chance of writing their own e-mails it is good policy to require that all e-mails whether outgoing or incoming be read by a teacher. Many teachers will have qualms about this as they consider how they would feel about reading a child's personal mail but when a school e-mail account is involved then the teacher must recognise a different set of responsibilities.