Dulwich College ICT Acceptable Use Policy Our Acceptable Use Policy is an extension to the College Rules. Dulwich College provides a computing network which allows a range of devices to be used. These devices include networked computers to support students' academic work. It includes guidelines for the safe and responsible use of the network and the internet and identifies those activities which constitute an abuse of our ICT facilities. For the purpose of this document electronic computing equipment will be referred to as devices and includes laptops, PCs, tablets, notepads, ipads, ipods, mobile phones, digital cameras etc. Section A - General Rules The general rules apply to pupils using devices provided by the College or devices which belong to boys and are brought onto the College campus. Pupils should not: a. access or attempt to access unauthorised areas of the College network or any other computer network. This includes logging on to another user's account; b. send or post electronic communications which are impolite, indecent, abusive, discriminatory, racist or in any way intended to make the recipient feel uncomfortable; c. Store or access inappropriate or illegal material; d. try to circumvent the College filtering systems; e. attempt to spread viruses; f. run any hacking, encryption and other system tools; g. engage in any form of activity that is prohibited under UK Law, including; h. the uploading or downloading of pirated software, music or video; i. breaching another person s copyright in any material or protected by trade secret; j. disclose to a third party the personal details of any other member of the College March 2013 Page 1 of 10
k. community; l. post on the Internet or Intranet (including on social networking sites, blogs, Twitter, Facebook etc) any material (e.g. text, pictures, videos) which may cause offence, be considered defamatory or bring the College into disrepute; m. attach any servers to the College network or share local drives, folders or files across the network. Section B - Use of College Devices In addition to the General Rules in Section A, pupils should not: a. physically tamper with College equipment e.g. disconnect them from the network, removing the mouse/keyboard/monitor etc. or attempt repair to the devices; b. upload, download, install or attempt to run any software that has not been approved by Computer Services; c. alter the settings of the College equipment or making other changes which render them unusable by others; d. purchase goods or services over the Internet. Section C - Use of pupils own devices In addition to the rules in section A, pupils, a. should only attach their own personal devices by using wireless networking or specially provided network ports e.g. the network points in the Boarding Houses; b. should ensure that their devices are properly protected from viruses; c. should not run file sharing devices (e.g. personal servers) on the College network; d. should not plug devices directly into any network switch, hub or router; e. should not detach from the network any equipment (e.g. computers, printers etc) to make way for a personal device; f. should not attach a device to the Dulwich College Domain unless it has been approved by March 2013 Page 2 of 10
the Computer Services Department; g. are responsible for the material that exists on or is accessed via their personal devices. The Computer Services Department are empowered to scrutinise, and if necessary retain for further investigation, any device which has been brought on College and which is suspected of being in breach of this policy; h. should abide by the rules governing use of the Internet as stated in section D; i. should ensure that they have a licence for all software installed on their devices; j. should not run software on a device during lessons which is not appropriate to that lesson. Boarders should read the Guidelines for Boarders (Appendix 1) Section D Use of computer areas in the College a. Pupils should conduct themselves in an orderly fashion, and must always show consideration for other users; b. No food or drink may be consumed; c. Any damage to computers, furniture or fitments or malfunctioning of computers or printers should be reported to a member of the Computer Services Department, the duty staff or duty Prefect without delay; d. Pupils using computers before school and during morning break, lunch break and private study periods must leave the computer rooms in time to arrive punctually for their next timetabled commitment; e. Only one pupil should be seated and working at a computer at any one time; f. Chairs should be placed tidily in the rooms before leaving; March 2013 Page 3 of 10
Guidelines, Explanations and Advice Overview At the College we allow all pupils access to our computer network, enabling them to use standard applications (word processing, spreadsheet, database etc.) as well as online facilities such as the Internet and electronic mail. Every boy is issued with a username, password and an e-mail address at the start of his College career. Access to the computer network is a considerable privilege and it is the pupils responsibility to restrict themselves to usage which is ethical and appropriate. Failure to comply with the rules which govern the use of the network may result in either (a) punishment of the pupil, for example by means of a detention, or (b) in serious cases, referral to the pupil s Head of School. Parents will be informed when serious breaches of the Acceptable Use Policy have occurred. Further action will be carried out if deemed necessary. Pupils are encouraged to make use of ICT facilities in support of their studies in all subjects, including the writing up of coursework assignments and other projects. Recreational use of the network is also permitted, though within limits which are designed to give priority to pupils wishing to use the computers for academic and other College-related work. The College provides a network environment in which pupils can assume that their legitimate use of computers and the data that they store are secure against interference by other users. Pupils should not, however, assume that their activities are completely private. Authority has been delegated to Dulwich College Computer Services to determine appropriate use and to monitor user accounts and fileserver space as judged necessary. Hence, records of usage, files that have been stored, and e-mail messages that have been sent or received may be scrutinised by the members of staff responsible for management of the network either (a) during routine system maintenance, or (b) if there is reason to suspect misuse of the network. March 2013 Page 4 of 10
Use of the Network When logging on to the network, a pupil must always use his own user identification and password. Any attempt to impersonate another user will be treated as a serious offence, as will any attempt to interfere with data stored on the network by another user. These activities are in fact illegal under UK law. Never, under any circumstances, use another person s account or attempt to log on as a system administrator. Vandalism is defined as any malicious attempt to harm, modify, or destroy data of another user. The Dulwich network or other networks connected to the Internet must not be vandalised. This includes the uploading or creating of computer viruses. Harassment is defined as the persistent annoyance of another user, or interference with another user s work. Harassment must never occur; this includes, but is not limited to, the sending of unwanted email. If you feel you can identify a security problem on the Dulwich system you must notify Computer Services immediately. You must not demonstrate the problem to other users. Pupils must never divulge their passwords to other boys or to users of computers outside the College. Any pupil who suspects that this has happened accidentally should change his password without delay. Before leaving a computer, pupils must always log off the network and check that the logging out procedure is complete. Pupils must not attempt to gain access to the local drive of any machine or to create local accounts (administrative or otherwise). It is strictly forbidden to attempt to share drives, folders or files across the network. Only software that has been provided on the network may be run on the computers. Pupils are not permitted to import or download applications or games. In many cases it is illegal to do so. You are reminded that it is a breach of the College Plagiarism Policy (and of the rules of examination boards) to pass off another s work as your own. This prohibition extends to March 2013 Page 5 of 10
information accessed electronically as it does to that gained in other ways. Pupils must be aware of, and comply with, the restrictions placed on certain kinds of usage; notably the playing of games on particular machines and at particular times of the day, where others wish to do academic work. The College cannot accept responsibility for any damage, howsoever caused, to devices or their contents. Internet and E-mail The College s Internet access is via the Equinox (London Grid for Learning) service provided by Research Machines PLC, a company that has been involved with IT in education for many years. The advantage of IFL is that it seeks to deny access to web sites known to contain offensive or inappropriate material. The IFL filter is continually updated, though there can be no absolute guarantee that unsuitable material is never available to users. Pupils are given training in effective use of the Internet as a research tool at various stages throughout their College career. The College regards the use of the Internet to search for and use information related to a school subject or to a hobby as acceptable. Every pupil in the College has access to the Internet and has a College e-mail account. Personal Safety Pupils need to be aware that thoughtless use of e-mail, Twitter, social networking sites and the Internet may jeopardise their personal safety either at school or outside school. Pupils should therefore: Never arrange a meeting in person with anyone they have met or only communicated with by computer, without prior parental approval; Not respond to messages, tweets, social networking posts or bulletin board items that are indecent, suggestive, belligerent, discriminatory, threatening, or which make the student feel uncomfortable or unsafe in any way. If such a message is encountered the pupil should report it to his form tutor and parents; Be aware that any person they meet or communicate with online may pretend to be March 2013 Page 6 of 10
someone else; Remember that anything they read online may not be accurate; Ignore offers that involve either financial transactions or personal meetings; Not disclose any personal details, such as their home address or telephone number, across the Internet; Personal Devices Pupils bring devices such as mobile phones, MP3 players, ipods etc. into the College at their own risk. These should not be used in lessons without approval of the teacher. Boarding Houses See Appendix 1 College ICT commitments Where possible the school will block access to inappropriate web-sites from school equipment. The school will monitor ICT communications on school equipment. The school will endeavour to ensure that all images of staff and pupils are secure. The school will train its staff to respond to reports of cyber-bullying or harassment and have systems in place to respond to it. Cyber-bullying The term cyber-bullying means: Bullying by texts or messages or calls on mobile phones; Use of mobile phone cameras to cause distress, fear or humiliation; Posting threatening, abusive, defamatory, or humiliating material on websites; Hi-jacking email accounts (using someone else s identity); Making threatening, abusive, defamatory or humiliating remarks in chatrooms; Posting threatening, abusive, defamatory or humiliating material on reunion or networking sites. March 2013 Page 7 of 10
Advice to Pupils with regard to Cyber-bullying All the essential anti-bullying messages apply e.g. tell someone in addition; Do not answer abusive messages but log them and report them; Do not give out personal details; Never reply to abusive emails; Never reply to someone you do not know; Stay in the public areas of chat rooms. Advice to parents It is essential that parents make their children aware of the serious nature of cyberbullying and discuss with them the advice given above about how to respond if they experience cyber-bullying. Parents should be proactive in monitoring their son s use of ICT and in particular their use of the internet, MSN and social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, YouTube or Bebo. March 2013 Page 8 of 10
Appendix 1 Guidelines for the use of personal laptops and mobile equipment in the Senior Boarding Houses In the boarding houses we take seriously the importance of responsible use of technology. Each study room has an Ethernet connection and boys are allowed laptops in their rooms. Boys can also access a public wireless network in the common rooms. Printing facilities are also made accessible to the boys. We do expect boys to adhere to the following guidelines with respect to use of electronic equipment: 1. The College s ICT Acceptable Use Policy (enclosed) will be observed, in particular Section C Mobile Devices; 2. All software installed will be legally licensed for use on that machine; 3. No offensive or unsuitable material will be stored on the machine(s) or on removable media of any kind (eg data sticks) brought into School; 4. The College cannot accept any responsibility for the security of the equipment and parents must ensure that they have made satisfactory insurance arrangements; 5. Maintenance or repairs are entirely the responsibility of the parents and adequate provision for technical support should be made; 6. Personal laptops and other mobile computing devices should only be connected to the internet via the College s public wireless network and LAN connections in study rooms; to do so they should have up to date anti-virus software; 7. Permission is given to the College to ensure that these conditions are being met. This includes permission to carry out physical inspection of the equipment and examination of the contents of the hard disk and other storage media; 8. The College s internet connection is filtered, and access to inappropriate sites will be denied. Between 5pm and midnight access to approved recreational sites is permitted, March 2013 Page 9 of 10
and requests for particular sites to be made available should be directed in the first instance to housemasters; 9. Boys are expected to stop using all forms of electronic equipment when it is time for lights-out ; 10. Colour printing facilities are available within the House. Excess use of the colour printer may result in an additional cost being added to the School bill. We encourage boys to use laptops responsibly and aim to do so through a policy of education. Using machines for non-academic purposes must not interfere with the routine of the House, most importantly lights out. The College internet access is disabled between midnight and 6am. Housemasters are conscious of their duty of care towards the boys with regard to adequate sleep, and excessive use of laptops can be a cause for concern. Housemasters will exercise their duty of care when necessary in this regard. March 2013 Page 10 of 10