Digital Technologies – Responsible Use

Policy

This policy outlines requirements for schools to engage with digital technologies in a safe and responsible manner, ensuring cybersafety and supporting student learning.

Summary

Schools are expected to take reasonable steps to ensure digital technologies are used in a safe and responsible manner by staff and students. To achieve this, schools must:

• not use age-restricted social media platforms with students, unless it is in a logged-out state and used for content delivery purposes only
• appropriately manage access to communication with individuals outside the school in online environments, including blocking access for Years F to 6 or age equivalent students, and limiting access for Years 7 to 12 or age-equivalent students
• supervise students when engaged in digital learning in the classroom
• obtain parent/carer consent for any digital technology use which is visible to the public, including the publication of student work
• ensure any use of digital technologies (including software, administration systems, infrastructure and platforms) has an appropriate educational or administrative purpose, mitigates privacy and child safety risks, and is consistent with community expectations and staff professional conduct requirements (Refer to the Code of Conduct policy and the Victorian Teaching Profession’s Code of Conduct (PDF) for further information).

Details

Schools must ensure digital technologies are used safely and responsibly. Schools must ensure student use of digital technologies is for appropriate educational purposes and balanced with offline learning opportunities.

The Child Safe Standards, in particular Standard 9: Physical and online environments, require schools to provide physical and online environments that promote safety and wellbeing while minimising the opportunity for young people to be harmed. Schools are responsible for helping to protect students from risks in online environments, in an age-appropriate way.

For information about developing and implementing Acceptable Use Agreements (AUA) for student use, refer to the Digital Learning policy.

Social media use for student learning

On 10 December 2025 the Commonwealth Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024 comes into effect. This Act established age restrictions for certain social media platforms and requires that providers of such platforms take reasonable steps to prevent children under 16 years old from having accounts.

Schools must not use age-restricted social media platforms with students unless it is in a logged-out state and used for content delivery purposes only (for example, showing video content).

Where there is a genuine curriculum-aligned purpose for using content housed on an age-restricted platform, teachers are encouraged to either display the content directly to students or embed the content within a non-age-restricted collaboration or learning platform, rather than directing students to access the age-restricted platform individually.

Social media platforms may only be used for student learning if it serves an educational purpose directly aligned with a Victorian Curriculum framework, and if it provides unique learning benefits not possible in face-to-face contexts or by using other technologies. Examples of appropriate social media use can be found in the Guidance tab.

Schools are encouraged to prioritise non-age-restricted social media platforms that allow accounts to be made using department or school profiles (department credentialing) and that restrict public access to student content to mitigate privacy and safety risks. Department-provided online tools are strongly recommended over personal accounts. Additionally, use of digital tools, including social media platforms, must comply with any terms set out by the provider of the tool. For use with students, this may include a minimum age requirement set by the platform for sign up.

Protocols for appropriate use must be communicated with students when a platform/application is used for the first time. Schools can embed protocols for students, staff and parents within their Student wellbeing and engagement policy (staff login required) and Acceptable Use Agreements. Schools are encouraged to involve students when developing these protocols.

Staff use of social media

Staff use of social media must align with professional conduct expectations. Personal social media accounts must not be used for interactions with students unless objectively appropriate, for example, where the student is also a family member of the staff member. The principal is responsible for determining what is appropriate in such circumstances and may seek advice from Conduct and Integrity Division.

If a staff member becomes aware that a student is ‘following’ them on a personal social media account or gaming account (where ‘following’ an account does not require permission from the account holder), the staff member must ask the student to ‘unfollow’ them and notify the school and/or parent/carer if the student does not do so.

It is recommended that at least 2 staff members have administrative rights to any school social media page, with individual logins preferred. School staff are encouraged to manage school social media pages directly, rather than delegate this function to parents or others.

Schools must ensure school-affiliated social media accounts do not encourage or promote student use of age-restricted social media platforms.

Managing external access in online environments

Schools must implement safety measures to appropriately manage access to communication with individuals outside their school (external access) in online environments. This includes managing the use of digital tools with online collaborative features, such as:

• sending or receiving emails
• document sharing
• using chat functions
• live streaming audio or video.

Students in primary years (Prep to Year 6 or age equivalent ungraded) must not have any access to communicate with individuals outside their school in online environments. For secondary students (Years 7 to 12 or age equivalent ungraded students), schools must limit online external access to the essential needs of learning programs, with additional protection in place for vulnerable students or students with disability. For more details, refer to the Guidance tab.

Students continue to have access to external websites, with in-built content filtering to limit access to harmful content. School staff must not use websites and online tools that are blocked on the department’s network for work purposes (for example, when working outside of the department’s network). For more information about content filtering refer to the Technologies and ICT Services policy.

Supervising students using digital technologies

Schools must ensure students are adequately supervised when using digital technologies in the classroom, and when they are engaged in online learning, consistent with their duty of care. Supervision measures may include:

• regularly moving around the room to monitor screens
• putting in place technical alerts or barriers for inappropriate behaviour, such as blocking inappropriate websites or automatic flagging of inappropriate language
• actively teaching and reinforcing learning and behavioural expectations throughout the online activities.

Schools must also ensure appropriate supervision of students participating in flexible and remote learning environments while on site. Parents are responsible for the appropriate supervision of students accessing virtual classrooms from home, however, schools will monitor student attendance, safety and wellbeing.

Responding to online incidents

Schools must respond to any online incident, including cyberbullying, in accordance with the department’s policy on Managing and Reporting School Incidents (Including Emergencies), as well as any other department or local school policy relevant to the type of incident, such as:

• the school’s Student Wellbeing and Engagement policy (staff login required)
• the school’s Bullying Prevention policy (staff login required)
• the department's Privacy and Information Sharing policy.

For a department-developed step-by-step guide, which provides practical action to respond to online incidents of concern, refer to the Resources tab.

Obtaining parent/carer consent when using digital technologies

Schools are encouraged to use digital technologies in ways that limit or avoid student activities or work from being visible to the public online.

Schools must obtain parent/carer consent before using digital technologies where student work, personally identifiable information, or student activities will be visible to the public online.

Schools must comply with their obligations under the Schools' Privacy Policy when using digital technologies that capture, use or share personal information. This includes ensuring that software is appropriately assessed before being implemented, and that appropriate consent is obtained for the use of the platform. Refer to Privacy and Information Sharing: Guidance for more information.

Further information on seeking parent/carer consent can be found in the Privacy and Information Sharing policy and the Sample notice – single online service in our school (DOCX) (staff login required).

Definitions

Administration systems
Administration systems refer to digital technology-based systems and processes for collecting, maintaining and using records (including for students, staff, parents and others) – refer to Software and Administration Systems.

Age-restricted social media platform
An age-restricted social media platform is an electronic service whose sole or significant purpose is to:

• enable online social interaction between 2 or more users
• allow users to link to, or interact with, some or all of the other users and
• allow users to post material on the service.

It does not include messaging services, online games, and services that significantly function to support the health and education of users. A full definition is set out by the Commonwealth Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024. It includes most major social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), Reddit and YouTube.

Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying is direct or indirect bullying behaviours using digital technologies. This includes harassment via a mobile phone, setting up a defamatory personal website or deliberately excluding someone from social networking spaces. For more information, refer to Cyberbullying.

Digital technologies
Digital hardware, software and resources used to develop and communicate learning, ideas and information. Note, not to be confused with ‘Digital Technologies’ which is a discipline within the Technologies learning area.

External access
External access is any communication in an online environment with individuals or parties outside the school.

Non-restricted social media platform
A non-restricted social media platform is an electronic service not covered by the Commonwealth Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024. A full definition is set out by the Online Safety (Age‑Restricted Social Media Platforms) Rules 2025. It includes services that have the sole or primary purpose of:

• supporting education or health of end users
• enabling end‑users to communicate by means of messaging, email, voice calling or video calling
• enabling end-users to engage in professional networking or professional development and services
• facilitating communication between educational institutions and students or students’ families.

Personal information
Personal information is information about an individual who is identified or could be identifiable. This includes not just names but also photographs, contact information, academic results, health and wellbeing information and biometrics. Contact the Privacy team privacy@education.vic.gov.au if you have any questions about the handling of personal information.

Software
The digital applications that support teaching, learning and other functions in a school, and which complement administration systems and technologies and ICT services including:

• locally installed applications
• web-based applications
• websites
• web browser extensions
• collaboration platform add-ons.

Refer to Software and Administration Systems.

Technologies and ICT services
Technologies and ICT services refer to infrastructure and platforms that enable core school functions including: hardware, internet, network, cloud services, identity management, operating systems and collaboration platforms. Refer to Technologies and ICT Services.

Related policies

• Acceptable Use Policy for ICT Resources
• Bullying Prevention and Response
• Child Safe Standards
• Code of Conduct
• Digital Learning
• Duty of Care
• Generative Artificial Intelligence
• Information Security
• Intellectual Property and Copyright
• Managing and Reporting School Incidents (Including Emergencies)
• Photographing, Filming and Recording Students
• Privacy and Information Sharing
• Software and Administration Systems
• Supervision of Students
• Teaching and Learning Resources – Selecting Appropriate Materials
• Technologies and ICT Services
• Work-Related Violence in Schools

Relevant legislation

• Education and Training Reform Act 2006 (Vic)
• Health Records Act 2001 (Vic)
• Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic)