Risk Management

Risks associated with web publishing include:

Copyright / intellectual property infringements
Protection of students as outlined in Information Sharing under Child Protection Act 1999 Procedure

Note:The following links can only be accessed if you are connected to the school network

Compromise of privacy
Information for Students and their Parents on School Network Usage
Use of the Internet and Electronic Mail Policy and Principles Statement
Managing Consent to Use Student , Image, Recording or Name Policy and related Consent Form
Guidelines for Publication of personal information to school websites form

Schools should develop and implement web publishing procedures to minimise these risks, keeping in mind that the risks associated with publishing information on the Internet are greater than for a school Intranet which is a closed environment.

Schools should:

Develop and implement procedures and guidelines for web publishing at the school level
Skill staff to manage school-based web publishing
Guide and supervise students during the course of web publishing
Develop and implement policies and procedures for the removal or replacement of inappropriately published material

Privacy

Publication of private information or photographs

Schools should analyse risk associated with posting information on teachers, students or their family on the Internet and develop policies in consultation with their school community. In order to protect the student, considerations might include:

Reasons for the publication e.g. outstanding achievements
Student situation e.g. age, family situation
Identification of the students e.g. publishing first names only and/or publishing group rather than individual photographs
Ability of others to digitally enhance published medium
Ability of search engines to "crawl" the school's Internet pages and return results that identify students

School's policy should include:

Obtaining informed parental/guardian permission if details of students, including photographs, are to be published as per the policy for Publishing Student and Staff Information on School Web Sites by filling out the appropriate consent form
Publishing the first name or photographs only when approved by the parent or guardian
Involving students over a particular age in giving approval for having their details and/or photographs published

Provision of information over the Internet

Provision of financial information such as credit card numbers over the Internet could lead to fraudulent use of that information or exposure of the individual, family or school to financial risk.

Provision of personal information over the Internet could lead to increased risk of harm or exploitation of the individual about whom the information is provided, including stalking, invasion of privacy and junk mail i.e. spam .

Teacher and student web pages

When publishing information on personal web pages (as provided by the MIS (Managed Internet Service), teachers and students should also consider conflict of interest, breach of legal implications (copyright, intellectual property, privacy), ineffective resource usage, and/or breach of duty of care.

To protect against these, schools might restrict publishing of personal web pages to the school intranet.

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This page was last reviewed on 01 Aug 2012