I live in the UAE. The laws may not be so strict in the western world as they are in the Middle East, but your Facebook activities can still land you in trouble.
As a teacher, you are responsible for the welfare of your neighbours’ sons and daughters. Showing yourself in a bad light can have serious consequences.
Let's start by mentioning cases that have already happened. Like the teacher who took a photo of her pupils with duct tape on their mouths.
“Finally found a way to get them to be quiet!!!" read the caption.
The teacher was fired from her school in Ohio, USA.
Then there was another US teacher who received complaints from parents about a photo she posted during her holiday. A wine in one hand and a beer in the other was enough to force this teacher to resign.
It is never wise to insult a special needs student. Even though they may keep you at school for a few extra hours. One case, where students were multiple exams in the final day of term; a special needs student will get extra time for each exam. Therefore, that means a late night for the teacher.
Venting the mood on Facebook was not clever. When she returned after the holiday, she was told to leave.
Another bad idea is to reply to students’ post about religion, particularly if you tell them that God does not exist. Further still, if you're doing this and you're the religion teacher, there's only one way this is going. This happened in the UK.
A few other tips.
- Don't insult parents after a meeting
- Don't take videos and pictures of school trips and post them without permission
- Make sure your post settings are for friends
- Don't be friends with students or parents
- Don't post anything that you wouldn't put on the staff room wall
- Remember, the students will search your name in Google
- Consider using a different name
- Remember, there may be someone working at your school who checks online habits of the teachers
- Mind your language
- Once it is out there, it is out there.
I hope this helps. Remember, if you work in the Middle East, you have to be aware of the laws of that country. I have copied part 1 below.
I have been living in Sharjah, near Dubai, for 2 and half years.
First of all, if you live in a country like the UAE, you should be aware that the law is different here then it is in western countries.
A classic example is the case of an Australian woman. She was unhappy about the parking habits of her neighbour. She had decided to take a picture of the car, post it on Facebook and write an unsuitable caption to accompany the picture. She did blackout the vehicle registration number. However, she was reported by the owner of the car. She was deported.
She broke 3 laws. Taking a picture of the car in the first place, posting it without permission from the owner and writing an unsuitable comment.
It is illegal to take a picture of anyone without their permission. It is also not allowed, that any picture or video is uploaded without consent.
Other things to be careful of is taking pictures at the scene of an accident and then posting it online. It needs to be certain that no one is hurt, and people should not find out on Social Media.
Taking selfies in front of a burning building. It does not look good and you are likely to be in trouble with the law.
Insult any religion is also a crime as is defamation of the UAE.
You should not insult anyone at all. If you don’t have anything nice day say, probably best not say it.
Laws will change, the country is evolving, but getting caught doing any of the above things could see you being deported, but worse still, could land you in prison.