Pinterest... again

[timbo343]

So another member of staff has come to me and said "is it possible for my 6thform group to use pinterest please?" I clearly outlined the security around pinterest and how this site is not moderated and users can search for basically anything.

 

What I'm wanting to know is, since this is 6thform we are talking about, are there any (life after year 11) colleges on here which wouldn't mind sharing their expressions on pinterest. Do colleges block these kind of sites? The reason why im asking this is because at the moment (im being told in a matter of words and im getting the feeling) we don't want to be blocking things in school that colleges are allowing :rollseyes: otherwise students will opt to go to college instead. I was asked do colleges allow these kind of sites, to that I replied, depends college to college.

[Arreks]

Most colleges I know of don't have things like tumblr and pinterest blocked purely because they are used in Art / Design A-Levels, I don't work in a college though so I can't offer anything further but that's what I've seen.

[Gaz]

I'd allow it, if they abuse then block it and then let them know they only have themselves to blame and if they want to then they can access it at home. I personally block it here because we specialise in Engineering so they have no reason to access it.

[Achandler]

If you have a device such as smoothwall, then do something such as soft block it. That is what I use to do when I worked where we had a 6th Form, it meant students could choose to bypass the filter and view the website, but they had to actively choose to bypass the filter and it was recorded that they had chosen to do it.

 

Doing the above meant there was no excuse to accidentally going to a website that would be blocked for most other year groups, as they would have been warned first. It was the best compromise we came up with.

[pcstru]

We have a 6th form. Pintrest is blocked for all. Since it is a site that generates revenue by mainly by using others content without permission, the content should generally be available from the original sites.

[kathabell]

We allow Pinterest on our staff iPads and BYOD network which is accessible for students (11-16), because the site is used for Art and Technology subjects. I wouldn't like to vouch for any moderation of Pinterest, but a search for "nude sex" for instance, produces very different (safer) results than in Google Students are asked to create an account for use in school which is not attached/linked to their Facebook (which is blocked on everything). Move forward with caution would be my suggestion.

[TronXP]

We have it unblocked on BYOD as art use it. It is much better then it was a few years ago for dodgy pictures.

[timbo343]

Thanks all for your input. I think ill unblock for just the students who are doing the relevant course as the teacher has requested it, otherwise it remains blocked.

[Gibson335]

Sorry for ressurecting this one, but the mind boggles really. A new Firewall and filter system had Pinterest blocked by default. Despite our provider and myself informing SLT that it could be used to find pornographic images, and it being passed to our efafety and protection officer, it was allowed. Done all I can, but really, the T&L dog wagging the child protection tail here.

[Steve21]

Sorry for ressurecting this one, but the mind boggles really. A new Firewall and filter system had Pinterest blocked by default. Despite our provider and myself informing SLT that it could be used to find pornographic images, and it being passed to our efafety and protection officer, it was allowed. Done all I can, but really, the T&L dog wagging the child protection tail here.

 

Give form to SLT requiring Governor authorisation for unfiltering x-rated material?

 

Steve

[Gibson335]

Give form to SLT requiring Governor authorisation for unfiltering x-rated material?

 

Steve

 

Unfortunately, they don't need to authorise so will be passed back to SLT. I have a mail trail, so not bothered about being blamed, I just find it hard to grasp.