Student E-mail and external/personal accounts

[Mako]

I can't seem to find an answer to what I'm looking for, so I will ask it here. Will preface by saying I am already aware of using mail flow rules to block external mail, however older students are permitted to use external e-mail for various reasons. I'm also aware of the breaking of the AUP in these cases and that sanctions can be put in place.

 

That said, here's my query.

 

I don't spend all my time monitoring e-mail traffic as that's quite pervasive, but I do spot checks and it has come to my attention that a couple of older students have used their e-mail address to sign up for Fortnite and other social/gaming sites, and some have even paid money into their gaming accounts. Naturally I can bring in these students and have them disciplined according to the AUP (such as restricting e-mail access or removing it entirely), but given that the school owns the e-mail address, who owns the account? The individual or the institution? Do I have a right to take ownership and/or force the students to change their school e-mail to a personal one?

 

I have put additional mail rules in place to stop a majority of popular sites from sending their "complete your registration" e-mails, but for those who have already got away with it, do I just let it slide? Am I getting too grumpy as I get older?

[nadeem]

What do your computing regulations say?

 

Why is signing up for Fortnite against your AUP?

 

These answers will probably help you answer your questions

[Mako]

As mentioned in my first paragraph it's already against the AUP. The AUP states that using school e-mail addresses for non-school related activities is not allowed. Obvious network restrictions mean that they can't do any gaming at school, they're doing this at home. The point is that they've signed up to a site, doesn't matter the context (gaming, social media, whatever), their school address. Naturally I can never stop this from happening, but now that I'm aware of it what I want to know is what, if anything, to do about it. Especially given that one or more of these gaming sites have allowed them to spend money for whatever reason. That debit transaction is linked to an account using a school e-mail address.

 

When they leave school the accounts become inactive, however that could be a number of years away. On reflection I could tackle it on a case-by-case basis and have each student reminded that if they don't alter their account details, we will revoke their e-mail access. Seems like a better option.

[Mako]

Also I would still like a bit of clarity in the grey area of who "owns" the gaming/social media account etc if a school e-mail address has been used. The individual or the institution?

[nadeem]

The person who owns the social media etc account, is the person who created it, i.e the individual not the institution - the account will have other personal details within it, just with "your" email address