Staff Social Media
At St Joseph's School we are committed to creating a safe online environment for our staff and community. When staff use social media in their professional role, they work to preserve confidentiality and maintain professional standards. Staff operate under the assumption that all information published on social media may become public, regardless of privacy settings. We encourage staff to also consider privacy issues in their personal use of social media.
Staff are vigilant about safe and appropriate out-of-school contact with students, including through social media, texting, and emails. The following guidelines promote the positive use of social media by staff.
Staff with concerns about how to use social media can discuss this with the principal. Complaints or concerns relating to staff use of social media are dealt with through the Concerns and Complaints Policy and/or Responding to Digital Incidents guidelines, as appropriate.
Staff use of social media in professional roles
Staff may use school approved social media platforms as part of their role to communicate with the school community, for example, in classroom blogs, the school website, and school social media sites. Appropriate use of social media encourages students to use technology confidently and understand the issues involved.
Our school only uses online tools, platforms, and apps after we have considered and approved their terms and conditions, privacy settings, data collection, and content ownership agreements.
Social media administrators are considered 
online content hosts under the Harmful Digital Communications Act and may be legally responsible for social media posts. Staff follow Digital Technology and Online Safety and any use agreements.
Online content host means "the person who has control over the part of the electronic retrieval system, such as a website or an online application, on which the communication is posted and accessible by the user".
Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015, s 4
At St Joseph's School staff using social media:
- inform parents/caregivers and whānau about why and how we are using social media in our teaching
- represent the school community in a respectful and positive way, and in accordance with our Privacy policy and Public Sharing of Personal Information policy
- ensure the content of all posts, texts, direct messages, and emails are accurate and appropriate, including all content on sites or resources we link to
- acknowledge all sources, and abide by any copyright restrictions
- follow the safe harbour process when dealing with any complaints about content (see Responding to Digital Incidents).
Online content hosts that allow other users to post any form of digital message (e.g. comments or videos), may be legally responsible for the content posted.
Sections 23–25 in the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015 outline the safe harbour provision and complaints.
Schools that follow the safe harbour process are protected from legal responsibility and the possibility of prosecution for the content on their site.
The Ministry of Justice outlines seven specific steps that must be followed for safe harbour, and notes that you can only claim safe harbour if you follow these steps and make it easy for people to contact you with complaints about content posted by another person – it must be easy for people to find your contact details on your digital platform and easy for them to make a complaint that contains the information outlined in the Act.
Ministry of Justice: Safe harbour provisions 
Staff should not comment publicly on a serious incident or crisis situation within the school. Any media enquiries should be redirected to the appointed spokesperson.
Staff use of personal social media
St Joseph's School encourages staff to consider how they use social media in their personal life. Personal use of social media should also be governed by confidentiality and professional standards. We recommend staff keep privacy settings appropriate, and understand the terms of service for their personal social media platforms, particularly how their content may be accessed, re-used, or republished.
Staff must meet any legislative requirements, including not sharing personal information collected as part of the operation of the school.
We also expect staff to maintain professional boundaries. They should:
- consider whether it is appropriate to extend or accept friend or connection requests with parents, students, or others involved with the school
- consider how personal content posted by them, or about them, may reflect on the profession and the school
- consider how liking, sharing, or following social media content may imply support for a point of view
- understand there is no obligation to respond if students or school whānau make contact through personal social media
- use a non-school email address for personal social media interactions
- not use personal social media during school hours/time
- report any inappropriate communication from a student to the principal as soon as possible.
Related policies
Legislation
- Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015
- Privacy Act 2020
Resources
- Ministry of Education | Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga: Digital Technology: Safe and responsible use in schools
: Term 4 2022, Term 4 2020, Term 2 2020
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