3.3 Acceptable Internet Use Policy

SCOPE OF THIS CHAPTER

This policy was newly introduced in August 2011 and should be read in conjunction with the Bryn Melyn Care E-Safety Policy - To Follow.

Introduction
Unacceptable Conduct
Monitoring
Sanctions
Agreement

1. Introduction

Social utility website's (such as Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, Flickr, MSN) have increasingly become a feature of 21st century life; however, due to the sensitive nature of our work, we need to protect employees, young people and the organisation from the dangers presented by social networking sites that have been profiled in the media.

Use of the internet by employees of Bryn Melyn Care is permitted and encouraged where such use supports the goals and objectives of the business. As professionals, your conduct and behaviour (even outside work) can be judged by the standards, values and ethics that one would expect in working with vulnerable young people.

Bryn Melyn Care has a policy for the use of the internet whereby employees must ensure that they:

Comply with current legislation;
Use the internet in an acceptable way;
Do not create unnecessary business risk to the company by their misuse of the internet;
Safeguard and protect children in their care.

2. Unacceptable Conduct

In particular the following is deemed unacceptable use or behaviour by employees:

Visiting internet sites that contain obscene, hateful, pornographic or otherwise illegal material.
Using the computer to perpetrate any form of fraud, or software, film or music piracy.
Using the internet to send offensive or harassing material to other users.
Downloading commercial software or any copyrighted materials belonging to third parties, unless this download is covered or permitted under a commercial agreement or other such licence.
Hacking into unauthorised areas.
Publishing defamatory and/or knowingly false material about Bryn Melyn Care, your colleagues and/or young people on social networking sites, ‘blogs’ (online journals), ‘wikis’ and any online publishing format.
Revealing confidential information about Bryn Melyn Care in a personal online posting, upload or transmission - including financial information and information relating to our young people, minutes of meetings, policies, staff and/or internal discussions.
Accessing personal ‘Hotmail’ or ‘Yahoo’ e-mail accounts from homes due to the high amount of pornographic and unsuitable ‘pop up’ windows associated with such sites.
Undertaking deliberate activities that waste staff effort or networked resources.
Introducing any form of malicious software into the corporate network.

3. Monitoring

Bryn Melyn Care accepts that the use of the internet is a valuable business tool; however, misuse of this facility can have a negative impact upon employee productivity and the reputation of the business.

In addition, all of the company's internet-related resources are provided for business purposes. Therefore, the company maintains the right to monitor the volume of internet and network traffic, together with the internet sites visited. The specific content of any transactions will not be monitored unless there is a suspicion of improper use. We also retain the right to carry out web and social-network-service searches to find online information about staff - background, interests, career experiences and self-presentation. All staff, especially new staff in training and induction will be advised to ensure that information available publicly about them is accurate and appropriate.

4. Sanctions

Where it is believed that an employee has failed to comply with this policy, they will face the company's disciplinary procedure. If the employee is found to have breached the policy, they will face a disciplinary penalty ranging from a verbal warning to dismissal. The actual penalty applied will depend on factors such as the seriousness of the breach and the employee's disciplinary record.

5. Agreement

All company employees, contractors or temporary staff who have been granted the right to use the company's internet access are required to sign this agreement confirming their understanding and acceptance of this policy.

Employees should not use any company computers to access any social utility sites.
Employees who use such sites in their ‘off duty’ life should not disclose any information relating to their place of employment. This includes entering the company’s name on your profile information. There should be no mention of any matters relating to their work, i.e., situations that have occurred, house names, staff names, young peoples’ names etc. on any employee’s home page. There should be no mention of work related issues whatsoever. To do otherwise will be in breach of confidentially and render the person concerned subject to a disciplinary process.
If information in the public domain is brought to our attention through the delivery of our services, and where this has a bearing on your role as an employee of the organisation or as a professional working with children, we have a legal and regulatory duty to respond.
If young people within our care have authorised access to social networking sites, security and parental controls must be set prior to usage. The registered care manager should carry out an Internet Usage Risk Assessment to safeguard young people. Young people must be signed in by a member of staff and the risk assessment must state that for use of the computer within the ‘signed in period’ a member of staff should stay within the vicinity of the computer to observe the content and internet usage. The registered care manager of the home should register with CEOP ‘Think U Know’ to access supporting information in relation to safer usage and safeguarding young people on the internet. Please refer to the BMC E-Safety Policy - To Follow.

See the following:

Or please contact your LSCB for further information.

Employees should never accept or instigate any contact from young people on any social networking sites. Nor should they accept emails from the young people within our care, either presently or historically. Any such attempts by young people to make contact with employees should be immediately reported to your line manager.
The company will make regular checks on all company computers to ensure that the above standards are being met relating to such sites usage.

End