Page 5 - Professsional Advisory: Maintaining Professionalism - Use of Electronic Communication and Social Media

and a student is forever changed when the two become “friends” in an online environment.
Ontario’s certified teachers should never share information with students in any environment that they would not willingly and appropriately share in a school or school-related setting or in the community.
Online identities and actions are visible to the public and can result in serious repercussions or embarrassment. As the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Ontario notes, users may intend to share their online existence solely within their own network, but in theory anyone can access the users’ musings, photos and information. Further, the words can be altered, forwarded and misquoted.
Criminal and Civil Law Implications
Inappropriate use of electronic communication and social media can also result in a member being criminally charged and convicted, or facing civil action. Examples of actions and resulting charges are:
• posting harmful images or videos, or making slanderous comments, leading to civil actions such as defamation
• disclosing personal or confidential infor- mation about the school, students or colleagues, thus breaching workplace privacy policies and provisions in the Education Act
• posting the work of others without proper attribution, raising copyright violation issues
• breaching a court-ordered publication ban
• inciting hatred against an identifiable
group
• disclosing information about a minor, contrary to the Youth Criminal Justice Act
• using technology to harass a student, colleague or others, contrary to the Criminal Code
• using a computer to lure a child or for juvenile prostitution under the Criminal Code
• exchanging or forwarding compromising photos, videos, or audio recordings of students leading to charges of possession or distribution of child pornography.
Electronic communication and social media can be used as evidence in criminal and civil proceedings.
Disciplinary Implications
The College’s disciplinary process is based on the presumption of innocence and the right
to a fair hearing. However, intentional or inadvertent misuse of social media and elec- tronic communication could have serious disci- plinary consequences professionally.
Inappropriate online, email and telephone conversations between teachers and others, including students, colleagues, parents, employers, family and friends, expose teachers to the possibility of disciplinary action. Cell phone use, for example, is one of the largest entry-level gateways to the distribution of child pornography. Even one-time errors in judgment involving the exchange of photos, videos,
audio recordings or comments of an intimate or personal nature may lead to a complaint of professional misconduct.
Inappropriate emails, texts and other forms of electronic communication have been used as evidence in disciplinary cases and cited in findings of professional misconduct.
PROFESSIONAL ADVISORY: USE OF ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION AND SOCIAL MEDIA 3