Code of Conduct for Computer Use

Students at Kortright Hills Public School use a variety of information sources including the library and computers with approved software and the Internet. The main purpose of these resources is to support and extend students' learning. In keeping with this purpose, the following guidelines have been developed to maintain a safe learning environment for students.

Personal safety rules

• Do not give out personal information (such as your full name, address, telephone number, age, physical description, or school information) without the permission of your parents and/or teachers.
• Do not give out personal information about someone else unless you have their permission and you know the information will not be used for harmful purposes.
• Do not share your password with anyone else.
• Do not send a picture of yourself, another person or a group without prior permission of all the individuals involved and your teacher.
• If you come across a message or request that bothers you or that suggests you meet, let a teacher know immediately. Never agree to meet, in person, with anyone you contact on the Internet.
• Do not open email unless you know the sender.
• Do not publish specific dates, times, and locations of field trips to people who are not directly involved or to public forums where people you don’t know might access the information.

Unacceptable sites and materials

• Due to the nature of the Internet, it is not always possible to control the content of available information. On occasion, you may find materials that teachers, parents and other students find offensive or inappropriate. It is your responsibility to report these immediately to a teacher.
• Visit only those sites decided upon by your teacher.
• Use of chat lines and personal e-mail accounts are not allowed at school.

Students at Kortright Hills will not deliberately access, download, store, display, or create any information or images that: 

• are illegal or that support illegal activities;
• are harassing, pornographic, threatening, obscene, racist, sexually explicit, hateful, or violent in nature;
• contain inappropriate religious or political messages.
• Students will not hide, disguise or misrepresent their identities. This includes logging in as another student.

Appropriate computer use

Students at Kortright Hills will not do any of the following: 

• copy, download, install or run viruses or other inappropriate materials such as games, scripts, fonts, or files from any source without prior teacher permission;
• damage any computer and/or equipment (ie. mouse, keyboard, connectors, disk drives);
• damage or erase files or information belonging to any person without authorization;
• cause any user to lose access to the system (ie. by changing passwords);
• open a computer case, move a computer, tamper with computer cables or connections without permission;
• take the ideas, writings or images of others and present them as their own.

Consequences

The use of computers and the Internet is a privilege, not a right, and inappropriate use will be dealt with and may result in cancellation of those privileges, and other school consequences as outlined in the school Code of Conduct.