Monday 18 October 2010

Social Networks in the press

Waking up this morning with a coffee in hand I turned on The Wright Stuff to listen to the last part of a debate going on. "Should a teacher who posted bikini shots of herself on a social networking sites loose her job? What if I told you she worked for a Christian School?" A female teacher is being investigated by a Christian school after pupils claimed to have seen pictures of her on a website while she also boasts about boozy nights out on Twitter. A perfect example of just how careful we should be!! She really should have known better than to upload these pictures of herself to a place where anyone can access it especially working in that profession.
On a more positive note today on social networking sites, The Daily Star and The Daily Mail reported of a Toddler who was saved by Facebook! A nurse, observing a photograph of the girl noticed that she had a red eye and something looked wrong. She contacted the mother who took her daughter to the doctors where she was diagnosed with a rare Cancer that only affects young children. They said if left that the cancer could have been fatal. The mother said it was all down to the nurse for observing this that it has been caught and treated. Some positive press on the good facebook can have!

The Social Network Movie movie is now out in cinemas telling the story of brains behind Facebook. An interesting review to read is on geeks.co.uk

2 comments:

  1. Hi Laura,
    I have also heard about this story and to be honest i am in two minds if she should loose her job or not. I am currently working in a secondary school and so know how much it is drilled into you about being very vigilant who you befriend and the privacy setting on your social networking sites. As a teacher you can be prosecuted and loose your job for befriending pupils that you have taught in the last two years, for these very reasons. Of course i believe that everybody is allowed to have a life outside of work but it sounds to me like this teacher has either been careless with her privacy setting or has befriended pupils thus allowing them to view her photos which in itself is wrong.

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  2. I don't think she should lose her. I think the whole thing is ridiculous and the fact that it's a Christian school has nothing to do with it. Are Christians not allowed to wear bikinis and drink? It is nothing more than any child would see on the beach. If she has befriended pupils then she's clearly made a serious error but if it's just a case of children deliberately looking for her photos then she's guilty of nothing more than carelessness. It annoys me that we have to be so careful with these technologies because innocent actions are deliberately misinterpreted. Sorry to rant :)

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