King’s College London is committed to protecting the dignity of its students in their learning and participation in university life, and in their interactions with others. All students and staff have the right to expect good conduct and professional behaviour from others, and have a corresponding responsibility to behave professionally and with good conduct towards others. Online communications must in all ways meet the conditions of the university’s policies concerning communications, dignity, equality, diversity, inclusion, and respect.
Staying safe online at King’s
When participating in any discussion forum, live seminar, or other online meeting (e.g. with a personal tutor or student support services), please take account of the following in order to keep yourselves and others safe:
- Treat your facilitator and other students with respect. Comments or images that would be inappropriate in a face-to-face environment are also inappropriate online.
- Language must always be professional and appropriate, including other members of your household that may pass in the background.
- When using cameras, the background should be blurred or a template should be used. Be mindful of your surroundings and use an appropriate room for video calling. Video calls should not be carried out from a bedroom unless the background is concealed.
- When on a video call you must wear suitable clothing, as should anyone else in the household whilst the call is taking place.
- If a video call is to be recorded, all participants must be notified at the start of the session.
- Photographs or screenshots of a video call must only be taken with verbal consent.
- If screens are shared at any point, the individual must ensure that all extraneous tabs or browsers have been shut down.
- If your programme is conducted in English you should always post contributions in English to enable everyone to understand, unless specifically requested to do otherwise.
- Ensure you only post messages that are related to the discussion and avoid posting the same message multiple times (‘spam’).
- Be careful to only share content that you have a right to make available under any law.
- Messages sent in the course of the programme should only be shared with the permission from the sender, unless requested to by an administrator for site administration purposes.
- KEATS or other King’s College London online learning spaces should not be used to advertise products or services for profit or gain.
Staying safe when using social media and other online services
When using social media and other online services, you should think about how activity can impact on your life (and the lives of others) outside of the online world. We recommend taking the following steps:
Protect your reputation. Consider how future employers may perceive your content and comments and bear in mind the permanence of what your post. Language, nudity and activities considered or interpreted to be offensive or antisocial may impact on your employability.
Avoid criminal activity. Abusive behaviour, bullying and ‘trolling’ can be illegal in some instances and may lead to criminal charges. Behaviour that is perceived by individuals to be hostile or prejudiced towards themselves or others based on perceived or actual race, religion, gender, sexuality or disability could be considered a hate crime or hate incident [Metropolitan Police].
Think about what you post. Posting content obtained through deception or breaching the privacy of others (such as secretly-filmed video or content shared with you privately through apps) not only causes pain and embarrassment to others, but may also be considered illegal.
Keep your details private. Posting personal details such as your address, regular locations or student card can make you vulnerable to identity theft and other crimes. Always avoid putting your personal safety or that of others at risk. Security settings on social media can change, so review your privacy settings regularly.
Take reasonable measures to prevent the transmission of computer viruses, such as not opening email attachments received from unsolicited sources.
Maintain professional standards. Sharing social media content about your workplace and individuals while on placement, work experience or working in a healthcare setting may conflict with data protection legislation, non-disclosure agreements or impact on the position of a company or organisation in the marketplace. You should never assume that you have consent to share personal information on any social platform (including closed groups and messaging services).
Keep passwords secure. Make sure passwords are strong, and never share them with anyone else. Don’t leave your computer unlocked with your social media or other sensitive accounts logged in. If you log into social media accounts on your phone, make sure you have a passcode set up on it.
Be mindful of others. At King's we have The King's Community Charter: To achieve this ambition we want everyone in our community to flourish and to contribute to all aspects of university life. We all play a part in achieving this by creating a community where everyone feels a sense of belonging and safety. We want our community to be a place where everyone is treated fairly and with dignity and our differences are welcomed. Where inequality and discrimination are not tolerated and where we work to actively eliminate them.