New policy will help Renfrewshire schools tackle cyber bullying

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Children in Renfrewshire will have further protection from cyber bullying thanks to new guidelines being brought in on the use of internet in schools.

Renfrewshire Council has updated its internet access policy in schools and educational facilities in response to increasing opportunities to use the internet for learning and teaching.

The move also follows on from the update last year of the council's Tackling Bullying policy. This was carried out in 2009 to bring in new guidance on dealing with cyber bullying and bullying based on issues such as race, gender, religion, nationality, disability and sexual orientation.

Councillor Lorraine Cameron, Convener of Renfrewshire Council's Education Policy Board, said: "The internet is a fantastic educational facility which has enormous benefits for learning and teaching, if it is used in the right way. However, the growth of the internet has also given rise to the emergence of things like cyber bullying where the internet might be used to post messages or images which are intended to hurt or harass another person. We also need to be aware of the potential of using the internet for illegal or other inappropriate purposes."

"Renfrewshire was one of the first local authority areas in Scotland to adopt the use of GLOW, Scotland's school intranet which has introduced new ways of using the internet in the classroom. The council has also made excellent progress in recent years in providing IT equipment in schools to support learning and teaching."

"Our existing policies and guidelines on internet access and bullying were drafted a few years ago so they needed to be updated to keep up with this progress. This means everyone involved is clear on the potential risks and on how to avoid or respond to these so that our pupils and staff can get the most from these facilities."

The purpose of the policy is to protect users from inappropriate or illegal aspects of the internet and to provide a framework of acceptable 'do's and don'ts' for pupils, parents and teachers.

The updated guidance on internet access in schools prohibits the use of internet:

• to harass, offend or bully
• for any illegal purpose
• for transmission or reception of threatening or obscene material
• for transmission or reception of material from any criminal organisation
• for transmission or reception of viruses or unlicensed software
• for non-educational or commercial purpose or for profit, and
• for spam or chain mail.

The update of Renfrewshire Council's Tackling Bullying policy also included new guidelines on how schools and the council will monitor incidents of bullying, in particular monitoring the nature of the bullying eg cyber bullying.

Councillor Cameron added: "The most recent figures show that the number of overall incidents of bullying in Renfrewshire's schools has fallen every year since 2005/2006. However, bullying does still take place and we must not be complacent. Making sure our guidelines on bullying, and internet access, are robust and up to date shows Renfrewshire Council's commitment to seeing those numbers continue to fall."

Press release: Friday 22 January 2010