Students are responsible for appropriate behaviour on the school’s computer network and for their actions when accessing and utilising computer resources. The expectation is that the computer system will be used appropriately and a student’s rights will be revoked if the system is abused.

Educational Purposes

The computer network and access to the Internet can only be used for educational purposes and not any commercial purposes (e.g. purchasing of products or services, etc).

Internet Access

Students are expected to act responsibly and only access appropriate sites. That is, the Internet is not to be used to access pornographic, obscene, violent, illegal or offensive content.

Personal Safety

Students are not to reveal personal contact information about themselves or other people (e.g. names, addresses, telephone numbers, credit card details, etc).

Illegal Activities

Students are not to attempt to gain unauthorised access, disrupt or destroy data on the school’s computer network, to any other computer system or go beyond their authorised access (e.g. using another student’s account, spreading viruses, hacking, trespassing in another person’s folder or files, etc.)

System Security

Students are responsible for their individual account and should take care to prevent others from being able to use their account. Furthermore, students will inform their teacher if they identify a possible security problem.

Inappropriate Language

Students are to be courteous and use appropriate language to communicate. That is, the students will not use obscene, harassing, abusive, threatening, discriminatory or defamatory language and will report any cases of such usage against them to their teacher or Student Services staff.

Storage Capacity

Students are expected to remain within their allocated storage space and delete material that takes up excessive space.

Respecting Resource Limits

Students are not to use bandwidth playing non-educational games and downloading files unless absolutely necessary. Furthermore, students are not to waste resources in unnecessary printing.

Plagiarism and Copyright Infringements

Students are not to plagiarise others work and are to respect the rights of copyright owners. That is, students will not download software, games, music, graphics, videos or text materials that are copyrighted and they must correctly acknowledge other people’s published work in a reference list/bibliography.

Monitoring

School staff regularly monitor student files and internet activity to maintain system integrity and ensure that users are acting responsibly. All Internet activities are subject to electronic and other types of monitoring. The content of electronic communications may be monitored at any time and the usage of electronic communication systems will be monitored to support operational, maintenance, auditing, security and investigative activities.

Consequences

Depending on the circumstances, the consequences for breaches of this policy include:

  • Temporary loss of computing privileges within a particular learning area or across the whole school
  • Permanent loss of computing privileges within a particular learning area or across the whole school
  • Subject withdrawal
  • Referral to Student Services for suspension or other penalty
  • Ineligibility for future courses involving use of computers
  • Restitution of costs associated with repairs to computer equipment