Opinion: Editor's view - social networking

Has your setting established a clear policy about staff's use of social networking sites in terms of confidentiality about your nursery, parents and children, and about the inadvisability of becoming 'friends' with parents?

With millions of UK members of Facebook, the most popular site, this is an issue that cannot be avoided.

The problem for the early years sector is that, on the whole, it is the more senior staff who are likely to steer clear of social networking sites and therefore to be uncertain about the potential difficulties that can arise. They may have got to grips with e-mail and using websites to access information, but social networking can remain territory into which they do not wish to venture!

For most younger members of staff, of course, Facebook is now an integral part of the fabric of their lives. Privacy is seen in a very different light, and users can seem blithely unaware, or at least unconcerned, about the ramifications of sharing information and opinions with 'friends' with whom they may have only the most tenuous of connections in the real world.

To help you establish policies and boundaries, Jennie Lindon has written a three-page guide to internet communication in this week's magazine ('A Fine Line', pages 18-20).

For the uninitiated, she explains the basics of Facebook et al, and discusses the issues of keeping personal and work life separate, and maintaining confidentiality about the nursery's operations and the children and their families who attend. She also gives suggestions of how you can update your nursery policies.

The problems raised in the article are not new ones, but they are amplified and multiplied by new forms of communication and require a fitting response.