New Zealand school asks students stop using social media

A school has asked parents to ban their children from using social media for two years in an effort to combat cyber bullying.

Kowhai Intermediate School in Auckland, New Zealand wants its students to stop using social media even when they are not at school.

A newsletter published on the school’s website outlines the social media ban.

‘We believe it would be highly beneficial for our students and indeed families to create and support a social media-free community for students outside of school hours during their two years at Kowhai,’ it reads.

The request to ban social media is part of the school’s ‘ICT contract’, and was brought about as a result of ‘incidents’ which affect students in 2017.

‘These incidents have occurred outside of school hours on private social media accounts that we have no rights or responsibility for,’ the newsletter reads.

‘When things do go wrong we often find that parents contact the school with the expectation that we can and will sort the problem out,

‘This is a legal and ethical minefield that would require full, unfettered access to all the social media accounts and devices involved to be fair and just in establishing a true and accurate record of what has occurred.’

The request to ban social media is part of the school’s ‘ICT contract’, and was brought about as a result of ‘incidents’ which affect students in 2017 (stock image)

The school said investigating the incidents would pull staff away from their ‘core job – teaching’.

The school said banning social media while student outside of school hours would help create a ‘safer school environment’.

‘Adolescence is a challenging time, let us give our children the opportunity to navigate it without the added pressure of social media.’