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Teachers warned on perils of social networking sites

11:39am Tuesday 7th August 2012 in News

GUIDANCE is being issued to East Lancashire teachers about the risks of using social networking sites.

Lancashire County Council has issued guidelines to staff to avoid forming 'on-line friendships' with pupils on sites such as Facebook , Bebo and MySpace.

It comes after more than 40 teachers nationally were referred to the General Teaching Council in 2011 for unprofessional conduct related to the inappropriate use of social media sites.

Lesley Ham, the NASUWT union's negotiating secretary for Blackburn with Darwen, said teachers were falling foul of the rules as they do not use the privacy settings available.

She said: It's been a problem for a few years. People are entitled to a private life but they need to use privacy settings on these sites.

It is unwise to engage in social media with pupils.

Staff have got into problems where they have been open on things like Facebook. They have been off ill and published pictures where they had been on a day out.

There could be a low level aggrievance where somebody has had a drink, lost their temper and published derogatory comments about a colleague.

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Teachers warned on perils of social networking sites