eSafety policy

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e-SAFETY POLICY AND
PROCEDURE
Effective for applicants, employees, volunteers, governors, potential
students and students on or after 14 January 2013

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e-SAFETY POLICY AND PROCEDURE
SECTION PAGE
1. BACKGROUND 3
2. DEFINITIONS 3
3. SCOPE 3
4. INTENT 4
5. RESPONSIBILITIES 4
6. POLICY STATEMENTS 5
7. OTHER RELEVANT POLICIES 7
8. REVIEW 7
APPENDICES
Appendix 1 Flowchart of e-Safety incident 8
Appendix 2 The misuse of College systems 9

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e-SAFETY POLICY AND PROCEDURE
1. BACKGROUND
1.1 The internet, social and other online media, and the rise of mobile devices able
to access such media, are powerful tools, which provide opportunities for
everyone. However, the use of these can also put people at risk within and
outside the College, particularly young and vulnerable people. We aim to
practice and promote safe use of these technologies.
1.2 The risks young people may be exposed to may include, but are by no means
restricted to:
 Access to illegal, harmful or inappropriate images or other content
 Un-authorized access to, and use of, personal information
 The risk of being subject to grooming by strangers via social media sites.
 Inappropriate contact with others, including strangers
 The sharing of personal images without an individual's consent or knowledge
or understanding of the risks involved
 Digital information remaining accessible and / or shared even after an
individual believes it has been deleted, and the consequences of this. For
example, an inappropriate image of a young person being discovered 5 years
later by an employer to whom the young person has applied for a job
 Cyber-bullying
 An inability to evaluate the quality, accuracy and relevance of information on
the internet
 Plagiarism, copyright infringement, illegal downloading of music or video files
 The potential for excessive use which may impact on the social and emotional
development and learning of a young person.
2. DEFINITIONS
 Social media – online sites for social interaction such as Facebook and Twitter
 Mobile devices – smartphones, tablet computers and laptops
 Children and young people – those aged under 18 years
 Vulnerable adults – those aged over 18 who may be considered vulnerable to
abuse, for example those with learning difficulties or disability
3. SCOPE
3.1 The e-Safety Policy applies to all College staff, students and contracted staff,
whether they work or study in the main College campuses, outreach centres or
other designated areas, volunteers and governors.
3.2 The policy applies to students on work experience and work placement
programmes and those engaged in any College-organised off site activity.
3.3 The policy applies to working arrangements with other agencies to support the
College’s e-Safety Policy, including local education authorities, schools,
support agencies, sub-contractors and employers.

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4. INTENT
The intent of the e-Safety Policy is to ensure that:
4.1 The College’s own IT systems are sufficiently resilient to protect users from
others accessing their personal data, and to prevent them from accessing
inappropriate sexualised, violent or offensive material.
4.2 Staff are aware of the risks to young and vulnerable people posed by
technology
4.3 College students are supported to enable them to gain the benefits of
technology while protecting them from the risks involved.
4.4 The possibility of illegal online activity, including for example cyber-bullying,
the illegal downloading of copyright material, fraud, identity theft, is reduced.
5. RESPONSIBILITIES
5.1 e-Safety Lead (Head of Student Services)
 takes day to day responsibility for e-Safety issues and has a leading role in
establishing and reviewing the College e-Safety and Safeguarding policies.
 ensures that all staff are aware of the procedures that need to be followed in
the event of an e-Safety incident taking place
 ensures that training and advice are provided for staff, students, parents /
carers and others
 Represents the College and where necessary, the sector, and keeps
professionally up to date, through participation in LSCB and Somerset
Colleges Safeguarding Committee meetings
5.2 Designated Safeguarding Officers
 Support and advise students and staff in their area of the College on e-Safety
matters
 Deliver e-Safety Tutorials (for students) and training (for staff)
 Keep professionally aware and up to date on e-Safety matters through regular
in house and external training
5.2 The Head of IT Services ensures that:
 the College’s IT infrastructure is secure and is not open to misuse or malicious
attack
 the College has a filtering procedure which is updated on a regular basis and
misuse of systems can be detected and referred to the Head of Student
Services. The filtering procedure should be able to be lifted on request for
specific resources needed for genuine curriculum purposes, but only for the
period of study.
 IT staff are up to date with relevant technical information in order to ensure
network security and protection for users
5.3 Teaching and Support Staff are responsible for ensuring that:
 they have an up to date awareness of e-Safety matters and of current College
e-Safety policy and practices

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 they have read, understood and accept the College IT User Code of Practice
when they log on to the network
 they report any suspected misuse or problem to a Safeguarding Officer or
Head of Student Services.
 all communications with students are carried out at a professional level – for
example, they do not make ‘friends’ with students on personal social
networking sites.
 e-Safety issues are embedded in all aspects of the curriculum and other
College activities
 students are supported to develop research skills and avoid plagiarism and
uphold copyright regulations.
6 Policy statements
6.1 Staff guidelines for dealing with an e-Safety incident
When it becomes apparent that a young or vulnerable person has been the victim of
bullying or harm through online activity and technology, the following steps should be
taken:
 Ensure the young or vulnerable person is safe and no longer at risk of harm
 Check that others are not at immediate risk of harm from the same e-Safety
issue
 Contact the Safeguarding Officer for your Area of the College
 Cooperate with the Safeguarding Officer, IT Services or Police investigation as
required.
 Talk to your line manager if you feel in need of support following exposure to
the incident.
 Consider what you and other staff can learn from the experience to reduce
such incidents in future.
6.2 Education and training
Students
e-Safety education will be provided in the following ways:
 e-Safety awareness training will be offered via the Tutorial programme. This
should aim to help students to understand and adopt safe and appropriate use
of IT, the internet and mobile devices both within and outside College
 Students will be encouraged to be critically aware of content they access on-
line and be helped to validate the accuracy of information
 Students should be taught to acknowledge the source of information used and
to respect copyright when using material accessed on the internet
 Rules for use of IT systems will be accessible to students, for example on login
screens
Parents / carers
Many parents and carers have a limited understanding of e-Safety risks and issues,
despite the amount of time that young people spend online. The College will therefore
seek to provide information and enhance awareness for parents, for example by
offering drop in sessions on e-Safety at Parents’ Evenings.
Staff

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e-Safety training will be offered:
 As a planned programme of formal e-Safety training.
 As part of the initial safeguarding training undertaken by all staff
 In addition other opportunities should be sought to enhance staff awareness of
e-safety, for example via newsletters and meetings
Governors
Opportunities should be sought to brief Governors on e-safety.
6.3 Social Networking
The College’s policy on the use of social media sites is that:
 The College accepts that students will wish to access social media sites and
appropriate access will, where possible, be provided in College. However the
College will reserve the right to limit access where this prevents others from
using IT facilities for study purposes.
 Students will be warned of the dangers implicit in the use of social media, such
as making ‘friends’ with strangers and the risks of grooming.
 Staff will be supported in understanding the privacy settings on Social
Networking sites and using these to help avoid potential allegations.
 Staff will be told explicitly that they must not make ‘friends’ with students on
personal social media sites. Where contact is made via a social media site for
marketing, curriculum, alumni or other non-personal reasons, a corporate,
rather than personal, social media site must be created and used for such
purposes.
6.4 E-mail and text messages
 Email services for staff and students will be made as safe and secure as
possible, and the security of these services monitored regularly.
 Users must immediately report, to the nominated person and in accordance
with the College policy, the receipt of any email or text that makes them feel
uncomfortable, is offensive, threatening or bullying in nature and must not
respond to any such email.
 Any digital communication between staff and students or parents/carers must
be professional in tone and content. Personal email addresses or mobile
numbers must not be used for email and text communication with students.
 Opportunities will be sought to teach students about email safety issues, such
as the risks attached to the use of personal details. They should also be taught
strategies to deal with inappropriate emails and be reminded of the need to
write emails clearly and correctly and not include any unsuitable or abusive
material.
6.5 Use of digital images and video
Staff and students need to be aware of the risks associated with sharing images and
with posting digital images on the internet. Those images may remain available on the
internet forever and may cause harm or embarrassment to individuals in the short or
longer term.
 When using digital images, opportunities should be sought to educate students
about the risks associated with the taking, use, sharing, publication and
distribution of images, in particular via social networking sites.

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 Students must not take, use, share, publish or distribute images of others
without their permission.
 Photographs and videos of students published on the College website, or in
printed media, or taken for assessment purposes or as record of performance,
will be selected carefully and will comply with good practice guidance on the
use of such images. Where practicable written permission from students will
be sought, and from parents or carers when photographs of students under 18
are published. Care should be taken when taking images that students are
appropriately dressed and are not participating in activities that might bring the
risk of harm to individuals or bring the College into disrepute
6.6 Data Protection
Personal data will be handled according to the Data Protection Act 1998 which states
that personal data must be:
 Fairly and lawfully processed
 Processed for limited purposes
 Adequate, relevant and not excessive
 Accurate
 Not kept longer than necessary
 Processed in accordance with the data subject's rights
 Secure
 Nor transferred to others without adequate protection
At all times, care has to be taken to ensure the safe keeping of personal data,
minimising the risk of its loss or misuse. Personal data should only be used on secure
password protected computers and other devices, ensuring that staff are properly
logged out at the end of any session in which they are using personal data. Data
should only be transferred using encryption and/or secure password protected
devices.
7 Other relevant policies
This policy should not be read in isolation but should be cross-referenced to other
relevant College employment and student policies and procedures, including:
 Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy and Procedure
 IT Users Code of Conduct
 Mobile Device Policy and Procedure
 CRB, ISA and Rehabilitation of Offenders Policy
 Staff and Student Disciplinary Policies and Procedures
 Data Protection Policy and Procedure
8 Review
This policy will be reviewed every three years, or earlier where new technological
developments suggest revision is necessary.

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Appendix 1
What to do in the event of discovering an e-Safety incident (see Section 6.1)
College staff suspect
e-Safety issue/problem
Report to Safeguarding
Officer
Illegal activity
Head of IT Services
report and liaison
Breach of College rules
on E-Safety
Report to Police Disciplinary

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Appendix 2 The misuse of College systems
Inappropriate online activities
Users of College IT systems should not engage in the online activities below, but this
list is not exhaustive:
 Any online activities that would be considered illegal
 Viewing or uploading of pornography or adult material
 Promotion of any kind of discrimination
 Threatening behavior including promotion of physical violence or mental harm
 any other information which may be offensive to colleagues, breaches the
integrity of the ethos of the College, or brings the College into disrepute
 Use of College systems to run a private business
 Use of mechanisms that bypass the filtering or other safeguards employed by
the college
 Downloading or installation of commercial software or copyrighted material
without the necessary licensing permissions
 Revealing or publicising confidential or proprietary information (e.g. financial /
personal information, databases, computer / network access codes and
passwords)
 Creating or propagating computer viruses or other harmful files
 Carrying out sustained or instantaneous high volume network traffic that
causes network congestion and hinders others in their use of the internet.
 On-line gaming and gambling
 File sharing
Action in the event of misuse of ICT
All members of the College community are expected to be responsible users of ICT
who follow the requirements of this policy. However, there may be times when
infringements of the policy could take place through careless or deliberate misuse.
Students discovered to be engaged in activities such as those listed above are subject
to the Student Disciplinary Procedure. Staff will be subject to the Staff Disciplinary
Procedure. The Head of IT Services should be alerted to the nature of the activity to
ensure that changes to the system can be restored and any unauthorised activity or
software can be removed.