flyinghaggis Posted March 24, 2015 Posted March 24, 2015 We've had a couple of instances recently of pupils creating fake Facebook/Twitter accounts for staff at our school. We've reported the accounts and had them closed down but obviously we'd like to apprehend those responsible and prevent it re-occurring if possible. I realise it's fairy easy for pupils to do this and remain anonymous plus I suspect social media companies wouldn't disclose information regarding who created the account. Also, even if they did the details and emails provided could be inaccurate and fake themselves. What do others on here do in instances like this? Is there anything else we can do other than report the fake accounts to the relevant social media site and request them to be taken down? Has anyone ever gotten the police/lawyers involved in situations like this? The staff involved and the school itself are quite concerned as the culprits seem to be going to some lengths to use photos of staff, images/photos from our school website and even news stories relating to the school to make the accounts appear genuine.
Arreks Posted March 24, 2015 Posted March 24, 2015 Pretend you're the government or a company with a lot of money and they'll give you all the information you need! Do you block Facebook in school? I'd imagine getting the police involved wouldn't change anything however you can certainly inform all the students that the police will be investigating to scare them off
flyinghaggis Posted March 24, 2015 Author Posted March 24, 2015 (edited) Yeah, we block social media sites in school but I suspect pretty much every pupil has a mobile phone with internet connectivity so it doesn't really stop them! Plus there's nothing stopping them doing it from home. I suspect that, in reality, there's very little we can do but I thought I'd ask as I'm sure other schools must have encountered the same problem..... Edited March 24, 2015 by flyinghaggis
ticker Posted March 25, 2015 Posted March 25, 2015 We had this quite recently with Twitter, they way we nailed the students who had done it was to see who the followers where or who they had followed. That's how we tracked it back and one of the students eventually talked.
Arreks Posted March 25, 2015 Posted March 25, 2015 We had this quite recently with Twitter, they way we nailed the students who had done it was to see who the followers where or who they had followed. That's how we tracked it back and one of the students eventually talked. We did that same thing when one of the kids left an offensive Google+ review, they had changed their Google+ name etc but we used the friends who hadn't changed their names to track the student down! definitely not a good solution though.
flyinghaggis Posted March 25, 2015 Author Posted March 25, 2015 (edited) Yeah, We've a good idea of who it was from the followers/following accounts but it's tricky to prove if nobody owns up. Edited March 25, 2015 by flyinghaggis
DaveMurphy Posted March 25, 2015 Posted March 25, 2015 Unblock social media during lunch time in school or on the wifi (if students can access it) and see if someone slips up and logs into the account.
flyinghaggis Posted March 26, 2015 Author Posted March 26, 2015 Unblock social media during lunch time in school or on the wifi (if students can access it) and see if someone slips up and logs into the account. That's a good idea but we block it generally so I doubt pupils would try it except maybe on their ipads which could connect automatically if the app is installed. They're on a transparent proxy so it's only going to show us who visited the site which doesn't prove much really.
IrritableTech Posted March 26, 2015 Posted March 26, 2015 Parody accounts are allowed on twitter, but if the actions become defamatory it can cross into a legal issue. Education is always key - you can play cat and mouse all you like but that might be the most fun part for the students. A timely eSafety assembly (which Oftsed like in reaction to eSafety issues, but don't like as the only eSafety training) highlighting how issues like this have got people in very deep trouble with the authorities might be enough to nip it in the bud. If your community support officers or school police liaison officer is able to run this, that might help too.
Oaktech Posted March 26, 2015 Posted March 26, 2015 This happened at my last place. One of the pastoral team is an ex copper and he called up some of his mates and we got a whole riot van full of police turn up and do an assembly, basically on penalties associated with the misuse of computers act. The accounts disappeared while the assembly was in progress and nothing further happened while I was there! 1
flyinghaggis Posted March 26, 2015 Author Posted March 26, 2015 Thanks for the advice. I think that warning the pupils of the implications of what could happen, and the serious nature of the offence, if any of them attempt to do it in future is probably the best plan as there isn't really a technical solution to the problem.
Garacesh Posted March 26, 2015 Posted March 26, 2015 This happened at my last place. One of the pastoral team is an ex copper and he called up some of his mates and we got a whole riot van full of police turn up and do an assembly, basically on penalties associated with the misuse of computers act. I have "SWAT gear" at home for Airsoft.. D'ya reckon I could get away with doing that?
AJWhite1970 Posted March 26, 2015 Posted March 26, 2015 I've thought about warning students in assembly before but my concern with that is that while it will discourage the few who have created a fake account, it seeds the minds of 1000 others who haven't thought of it yet... We've had a few fake accounts here but as others have said, quite easy to track down who it was and get a confession. We have had one instance of a nasty and inflammatory account but twitter shut it down for us in under 48 hours after we filled in the forms. With 50 official twitter accounts here it's something we are constantly monitoring but as I get the notification emails from all of them into one account, spotting fakes following official accounts is quite easy. Andrew
Jawloms Posted March 26, 2015 Posted March 26, 2015 We had a fake teacher account once and the teacher came in to the ICT office and said "Someone, probably a student, has set up a Twitter account in my name. Can you delete it please?". She genuinely couldn't grasp that we couldn't and went off in a huff.
Oaktech Posted March 26, 2015 Posted March 26, 2015 I've thought about warning students in assembly before but my concern with that is that while it will discourage the few who have created a fake account, it seeds the minds of 1000 others who haven't thought of it yet... That was the original plan, however upping the ante with the addition of 8 real police personnel in body armour seemed to work a treat!
flyinghaggis Posted March 26, 2015 Author Posted March 26, 2015 (edited) We had a fake teacher account once and the teacher came in to the ICT office and said "Someone, probably a student, has set up a Twitter account in my name. Can you delete it please?". She genuinely couldn't grasp that we couldn't and went off in a huff. Worryingly that's actually quite a common response. I think some people don't quite realise how social media works and assume there's some kind of special 'IT login' for each website which gives us more access than a regular person! Edited March 26, 2015 by flyinghaggis
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