Over the past few years, social media has changed from something that you used to keep in touch with family or post pictures of your meal to a huge platform where you can make money and in some cases even call it your job.
The rise of the influencer has been colossal. So much so that if you ask children what they want to be when they are older, you might not hear the old classics like “footballer” or “singer”. Instead, you’ll probably hear “YouTuber” or “TikToker”.
Education has not been immune to this cultural phenomenon, either. There is a growing trend of “ed-fluencers” who have taken to social media to showcase their lives inside the classroom and beyond, with some accounts managing to rack up millions of views and followers.
A quick browse on TikTok will bring up thousands of videos of educators talking us through their daily routines, how they fill in their planners, what they have for breakfast, their trip to the photocopier and so on.
There are, however, a growing number of videos that are filmed inside the classroom - and that can pose problems for teachers, students and schools.
The dangers of teacher TikTok
The vast majority of teachers making these videos make sure to not film student’s faces, often propping the phone up on their desk and pointing it towards themselves as they are standing at the board or talking to the class.
In most cases, though, the voices of the students can be heard. And while the name of the school isn’t always clear, there is still a potential for the student to be identified, through things such as uniforms and logos. In some cases, faces of students are also displayed in the videos - and this can be a big safeguarding risk.
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One of the biggest questions here is around consent.
Schools will often ask families for permission to take pictures of students and to potentially use those images on social media or in promotional material. But even where a parent has agreed to this, that doesn’t cover staff posting students’ images or voices on their own personal social media accounts.
This can leave staff in an incredibly vulnerable position.
Blurred lines on social media
And the safeguarding problems don’t stop there. I have seen, on a number of accounts, students engaging with their teacher in the comments section. We know that engaging with students on social media is a huge no-no, yet the rise of TikTok ed-fluencers seems to have potentially blurred the lines of what is acceptable.
This is something that is relatively new in the grand scheme of things and something that schools may need to consider when it comes to policy.
Unfortunately, there is currently very little guidance around phone use in schools. The government’s “Working together to safeguard children” guidance mentions that school policy should cover the use of personal mobile phones and cameras, but only in reference to early years settings.
“Keeping children safe in education” (KCSIE), meanwhile, references taking photographs of children on mobile phones under low-level concerns, but with a caveat of making sure that this is not done “contrary to school policy”.
What should school policy around staff phone use be?
School policy around this should be clear, but it is often a grey area outside of EYFS settings.
Schools don’t have a lot of resources, so will ask staff to take pictures of events, clubs, sports teams and so on, to upload to the school social media accounts.
Leaders need to ask themselves: does school policy cover what should happen with the images after they have been uploaded to an official channel? Does it mandate when those images should be deleted?
Moreover, is filming in class for a TikTok video something that has never even been considered, so isn’t reflected explicitly in policy?
For those in charge of safeguarding policy, this may be worth reviewing. There is a very good chance that nobody in your school is a budding TikTok star, but that doesn’t mean we should wait before acting.
It seems strange to me that we spend a lot of time telling students about the dangers that can be found online - that they shouldn’t post personal information or anything that alludes to their routine, their school or their address.
“Once things are online they are there forever, so be careful,” we say.
However, there are thousands of videos on social media of teachers not being careful at all.
Golden rules for teacher TikTok
So, what’s my advice for teachers who do want to create and share teaching-related content on their personal channels?
Do this, by all means, but it’s best not to include students in any way - even if your boisterous Year 10 group are a gold mine of content.
Once students are involved, you are getting yourself into incredibly murky waters, particularly if it reaches a point where your account is making money through paid promotions.
Your class may say they are happy to be involved now, but how will they feel in a few years’ time? Or, if the video goes viral and they start to feel self-conscious about it?
Dance during your free period, show us the reprographics room, tell us what you have for lunch if you’re lucky enough to find time to eat one.
But my advice: keep the phone out of your classroom and the students away from your social media.
