Online background checks

October 27, 2023

Schools have a duty of care to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people. As part of the recruitment process employers may undertake online searches. This is is mentioned in statutory documents such as *Keeping children safe in education KCSIE . The specific section relating to online searches is quoted below.

221. In addition, as part of the shortlisting process schools and colleges should consider carrying out an online search as part of their due diligence on the shortlisted candidates. This may help identify any incidents or issues that have happened, and are publicly available online, which the school or college might want to explore with the applicant at interview. See Part two – Legislation and the Law for information on data protection and UK GDPR.

However as a potential employee, you should do back ground checks on your potential employers to see if there are any concerns:

Checks go BOTH WAYS

If you start with the schools, academy trusts, or even agencies use of social media, you may want to see if they STILL use X (formerly known as Twitter). Accountable tech, sent me the following on 27/10/2023

In just one year, Musk's influence on Twitter has been nothing short of disastrous:

Mass Layoffs: He laid off a staggering 80% of Twitter's workforce, including crucial trust and safety personnel. [2]
Abolished Verification: The blue check mark featured on accounts, once a symbol of trust, is now obsolete. It’s been replaced by paid verification that has significantly eroded the ability to distinguish between trustworthy sources and fake accounts on the platform. [3]
Reinstating Extremists: Musk has reinstated Nazi and white supremacists accounts with open arms. [4]
Endangering Trans People: Musk rolled back safety standards and rules against deadnaming transgender folks. [5]
Authoritarian Compliance: Musk catered to requests from authoritarian governments including turning over information that was used to sentence a school teacher in Saudi Arabia to death. [6]
Election Team Disbanded: The election team was dissolved ahead of a pivotal year with over 50 countries having elections in 2024. [7]
Headlines Removed: Musk removed headlines from posts, leading to even greater confusion and lack of relevant context on the platform. [8]

So some very serious concerns here, so if the school is actually committed to safeguarding why would it remain on X. There is very little be on there. A few things to also consider.

Bullet point 2: From what I have read on Mastodon, you can very probably add CSAM to that too. Not removal of moderators makes it HARDER to identify and report this material (common sense statement really eh) Bullet point 3: Could relate to the PREVENT strategy

For the record: I quit Twitter very soon after Musk took over, and started sacking people en masse. not just sacking people but the manner that this happened disgusted me along with others. I am not on there as I am COMMITTED TO SAFEGUARDING.

What has happened over the past year is clearly very worrying and should be of concern for those who claiming to be COMMITTED TO SAFEGUARDING.

References

The following was also sent as part of the e-mail – reference list regarding the above points. Note: This links are from the e-mail and appear to use TRACKERS. Use at own risk OR use duckduckgo to lookup headlines.

To end, just adding a link to the Stop Toxic Twitter Campaign