Safeguarding in Schools in

the New Normal

Practical Guidance on Child Protection for Schools
Safeguarding in Schools in the New Normal
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every sector in the country. The Philippine education
sector has been affected in ways which necessitate a shift to non-traditional modes of
education delivery.

A shift to a multi-modal delivery of lessons comes into play with the move to prohibit face-to-face
classes until a vaccine will be available. It includes online learning, traditional media (TV and
Radio) and printed modular lessons or self-learning kits, as the modalities identified under the
DepEd’s Learning Continuity Plan (LCP).1

With the implementation of the LCP, child protection will continue to be a key issue that needs to
be addressed. Shifts to increased online learning will lead to children spending more time online,
meaning heightened risks to potential online abuse and exploitation. Even before the pandemic,
children in the Philippines have been experiencing cyber-violence, with a 43.8% prevalence rate
according to the National Baseline Study on Violence against Children (NBS-VACS).2

The use of non-contact media such as TV, Radio and even alternative delivery modes and
self-learning kits (modules) necessitates that schools think of ways to continuously safeguard
their learners in this new mode of education.

In order to support the Department of Education in its “Child Protection Plan under the New
Normal”, Stairway Foundation has come out with this guide for “Child Safeguarding in Schools
in the New Normal”. We hope schools will find this reference document useful, in order to create
a safer environment for their learners in this new setting.

Child Safeguarding
According to the NSCPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children), safe-
guarding is the action taken to promote the welfare of children and protect them from harm.
Safeguarding includes protecting children from abuse and maltreatment, preventing harm
to children’s health or development, ensuring children grow up with the provision of safe and
effective care, and taking action to enable all children and young people to have the best out-
comes. Child protection is part of the safeguarding process. It focuses on protecting individual
children identified as suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. This includes child protection
procedures which detail how to respond to concerns about a child.3

1. https://www.deped.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/DO_s2020_012.pdf
2. https://www.unicef.org/philippines/sites/unicef.org.philippines/files/2019-02/phl-nbsvac-resultssummary.pdf
3. https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/safeguarding-child-protection
Child Safeguarding Considerations
The Department of Education has continuously showed its commitment to protecting learners
also via its numerous child protection policy issuances, which include DO 40, series of 20124
(Child Protection Policy), DO 55, series of 20135 (Anti Bullying) and DO 18, series of 2015 (Children
at Risk and Children in Conflict with the Law).6

As much as these policies set up robust guidelines on safeguarding learners, they were elaborated
in the context of face-to-face interactions in the traditional school setting. With DepEd’s Learning
CP and the temporary stoppage of face-to-face, school-based classroom sessions, there is a need
to look at how to continue child safeguarding in the context of the new normal.

The new normal in education includes:

1. Learners learning from home guided by their parents
2. Online interaction with teachers for education delivery and communication purposes
3. Education delivery via:
• Online synchronous education
• Online asynchronous education
• Digital asynchronous education (not online)
• Printed modular lessons (guided and self-learning kits).
•
With these considerations in mind, child safeguarding under the new normal must look at
the following aspects:
1. Online Safeguarding or Social Media Policies (including behavioral guidelines)
2. Child Safeguarding in Education Delivery
3. Education Prevention Interventions
4. The Child Protection Committee under the changed circumstances.

Child Safeguarding in schools in the new normal entails that we take into account:
1. Technology as education delivery components
2. Social Media as a communication tool
3. School Child Protection as something not limited to the physical presence of learners in schools
4. Tapping into community Child Protection structures.

4. https://www.deped.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/DO_s2012_40.pdf
5. https://www.deped.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/DO_s2013_55.pdf
6. https://www.deped.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/DO_s2015_18.pdf
Online Safeguarding/School Social Media Policies
Although Social Media is not officially included in the DepEd LCP, the reality is that for the
majority of schools they are a means of pushing information to learners and partner-stakeholders,
as well as a direct communication medium between teachers and learners/parents.

With the shift to non-face-to-face learning delivery, the probability of social media usage as a
means of communication - whether it be via official school social media pages or via teachers’
personal accounts - will exponentially increase.

Key risk areas to be taken into account include:

• Potential grooming between school personnel and students via messaging apps
• Inappropriate or unsafe interaction during online delivery
• Role modeling concerns for teacher and personnel
• Learner’s online conduct
• Mismanagement of official school social media presence leading to child protection concerns.

Schools should consider the following aspects in crafting online safeguarding/social media policies:

1. Defining Social Media Communication Channels

a The goal is to identify how to safely use the platform as a school communication medium
between teachers and learners, rather than outright banning it, which is not realistic
since school personnel and learners will use social media as a communications platform
because of its accessibility.
b. Instant messaging or chat applications should be discouraged/prohibited as these create
“private instances of communication” between individuals, something which is prone to
potential abuse especially in the context of adult to child communication. A safer way
would be to use moderated group features (e.g. Facebook groups) as these have stricter
moderation features and are done utilised in a group setting. Group rules should be
elaborated to ensure that both school personnel and learners follow certain codes of
conducts within the group interaction.
c. Teachers also have to take note that social media platforms have terms of services with
regards to the minimum age usage (usually 13 years old). Thus, for Grades 6 and below,
it is recommended that group communication is done through the parents instead of
setting up social media communications groups for the young learners.
d. Communication via social media should not be treated as the only means of communi-
cation, as not all children and families have the means to access this medium. It should
be treated as a supplemental channel only, and schools should ensure that learners with
no access to such technologies shall still be reached by their teachers through other
means, ensuring inclusivity.
2. Elaborating Behavioral Protocols for Online Interaction
a. Clearly define how school personnel, especially teachers, should interact with learners,
whether it be for communications purposes or education delivery.
b. Violent, threatening or sexual online interactions between school personnel and learners
should be prohibited. Sexual innuendos, grooming behavior or any other inappropriate
behaviors should also be prohibited. The use of foul language (e.g. swearing) even if not
directed towards any particular learner, should also be prohibited.
c. Private messages between school personnel and learners are risky, as the proper safe-
guards are not in place in such instances. A safe protocol is to prohibit such practices,
thus also protecting the privacy of both personnel and learners.
d. Define guidance on social media “friending”* between school personnel and learners.
A safe example is to prohibit such practices, although there are certain socio-cultural
considerations that must be taken into account. Even if school personnel and learners
are not friends via social media, they can still continue communication via the established
social media group platforms for schools.
e. It is important to define online behavioral expectations for learners, whether towards
their co-learners, or towards school personnel.

3. Guidance for School Personnel as Online Role Models

a. The policy and social expectations for school personnel’s behavior offline should also
extend to the online sphere. What is inappropriate behavior offline, should also be seen
as inappropriate behavior online.
b. Since we have different parameters of what is appropriate or inappropriate, the school
management should help define these exact parameters via the social media or online
child safeguarding policy.
c. There should be a balance between the freedom of expression and the adult’s
responsibility as a role model.
d. However, certain non-negotiables should be defined - e.g. sharing of sexual/sexualized
or violent content, fake news/false information, the use of foul language or sharing any
content which might lead to real world harm must be prohibited.
e. There should also be policy guidance to help school personnel protect their online
privacy. A public social media post can be seen by anyone, even learners who are not
in our social media friends list.
f. School personnel should protect learner’s confidentiality. Clear guidelines on when or
when not to share images of learners online via school personnel social media account
should be elaborated. As a general guidance, learners’ images should not be shared in
the school personnel personal social media account without considering consent and
the child safety aspects of the images being shared.

* The act of adding another person as friends via social media

4. Official School Social Media Presence Management
a. Creating policy guidelines on official school social media presence ensures that schools
protect their online presence as institutions. By protecting the official school social
media presence, schools are ensuring that learners and other stakeholders continue to
access the needed information from schools.
b. Schools should ensure that the terms of service of social media platforms are followed as
organizations. In general, organizations such as schools should create pages, instead of
individual accounts (in the case of Facebook).
c. There should be an officially assigned school social media manager, with an additional
1 or 2 school personnel who shall also be given admin tasks to ensure proper check
and balances.
d Elaborate clear protocols on:
i. What content can/can’t be shared in the official page
ii. The approval process for content posting
iii. Moderation guidelines (e.g. how to answer posts and messages)
e. There should be protocols on how to handle child protection reports to the page,
ensuring that such reports are communicated to the school child protection committee
in a timely manner.
Child Safeguarding in Education Delivery
The multi-modal learning environment presents complications in terms of child safeguarding.
As face-to-face engagements in schools have been put on indefinite hold pending the availability
of a vaccine, child protection is still a continuing duty that schools should keep on implementing.
Below are outlined several strategies that can be considered in the context of multi-modal
education delivery.

1. Ensuring learning resources are child safe, regardless of education delivery modality
a. Use of age appropriate visuals, which is consistent to children’s developmental stages
and evolving capacity.
b. Use language that is non-abusive, non-discriminatory, non-violent and non-sexualized.
c. Concepts and examples should be gender fair and sensitive.
d. Concepts and examples should be non-discriminatory, whether in the context of physical
appearance, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity, regional or language
groups, amongst others.
e. Delivery modalities should take into account children with special needs and their right
to access.

2. Safeguarding during Synchronous sessions

a. The behavioral protocols defined in the social media/online child safeguarding policy
should also be applied during these synchronous sessions. These must be communicated
clearly before the start of any synchronous learning session.
b. Because teachers shall be within their home environment during such sessions, they
must ensure that what learners will see from their webcam feeds is safe and appropriate.

3. Safeguarding during Asynchronous sessions, whether offline digital or offline

modular, including with para-teachers
a. Para-teachers (such as parents) should be provided clear guidance on how to run the
home-based sessions, especially in the context of employing positive discipline, and the
importance of its practice even when the learning is happening at home.
b. Provide concrete guidance to parents on positive discipline approaches in the context of
how to manage the behavior of their own learners at home. This entails also mentoring
parents on the positive discipline approach.

4. Regular safety checks with learners

a. Check on students during consultation sessions, not only about their academic progress,
but also on any safety/protection concerns they might have. Device ways wherein
students can communicate with you their safety concerns in a confidential manner.
These safety concerns reporting channels should be agreed and setup by the school
child protection committee.
Education Prevention Interventions
With the need to further strengthen child protection education in the context of the new normal,
integration of child protection into DepEd’s “Most Essential Learning Competencies” (MELCS)
must be considered by schools. Stairway Foundation has several learning resources on child
protection, which can be either used directly or adapted, in the context of DepEd’s Learning
Continuity Plan.

1. CyberSafe materials
a. Videos - There are currently 5 CyberSafe videos developed via a collaboration between
Stairway Foundation and the Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines.
1. Friends for Keeps videos – an awareness video focusing on online grooming and
engaging with potential offenders online.
2. Dalir-eskwela videos - a series of educational videos on cybersafety with topics on
• Online Gaming
• Cyberbullying
• Online Chats
• Pornography (self-generated)
b. Lesson Plans - 2 sets of CyberSafe Modules spanning over various topics on Cybersafety.
There is a module for Grades 5-6 and for Junior High School. Although these were designed
in the context of face-to-face learning, the modules themselves can serve as reference
materials for elaborating exemplars in the context of the Learning Continuity Plan.

All of these resources are available for free via the CyberSafe website at www.cybersafe.asia.

2. Stairway CyberSafe e-learning Courses

a. The first of its kind, Stairway’s e-learning courses are interactive online learning
courses on child protection. Currently there are courses designed both for adults
(parents, teachers, social workers, etc.) and for children.
b. These e-learning courses can be used as online asynchronous learning.
c. The e-learning courses can be accessed via www.elearning.stairwayfoundation.org
while the children’s CyberSafe e-learning courses can be accessed via
bit.ly/StairwayCyberSafeELearning or via the DepEd Commons under the “spotlight section”.

3. Stairway Self Learning Kits on CSAP and CyberSafe

a. Stairway is about to release a set of Self Learning Kits (Home based modular lessons) on
Child Sexual Abuse Prevention (CSAP) and CyberSafety.
b. The modules follow the Alternative Delivery Mode format, and shall be soon available on
Stairway’s e-learning portal (www.elearning.stairwayfoundation.org).
The Child Protection Committee in the New Normal
Even with the implementation of the LCP, there is the basic assumption that vital school-
based structures such as the Child Protection Committee (CPC) should continue its operations.
However, even before the pandemic, convening the school child protection committee as
stipulated in DO 40, Series of 2012 (DepEd CPP), has always been a challenge. The pandemic
makes it exponentially difficult to do so, with resources and focus shifting to preparing for the
new normal in education delivery.

Even so, it is important for schools to strategize how to fulfill their mandates under the DepEd
Child Protection Policy to operate school-based child protection structures such as the CPC in
order to ensure the protection of their learners, in whatever context. Outlined below are some
recommendations on how schools can make their CPCs functional in the new operational
context.

1. Ensure CPCs continue to meet

a. Despite the difficulties, schools should facilitate regular meetings of the CPC in order for
the committee to talk about child protection concerns of learners in the new normal.
b. Face-to-face meetings observing minimum health standards, or even virtual meetings
can be done in order to sustain the CPC as a school structure.

2. Fulfill the Prevention mandates of the CPC

a. One of the mandates of the CPC is to address the prevention of child protection
concerns of learners.
b. A concrete intervention for the CPC is to craft a school-based social media or online
child safeguarding policy.
c. Another prevention strategy is to ensure that child protection education is mainstreamed
in the school-based learning continuity plan.

3. Fulfill the Response mandates of the CPC

a. As a school-based structure, one important mandate of the CPC is to address violations
of the child protection policy. This is done via clearly laid out case management systems
and protocols on handling child abuse concerns in schools.
b. However, with the new normal, two factors make this difficult to fulfill for this school
year: most of the school personnel is working from home, and learners staying at home.
The questions that have to be answered regard how to make reporting to the CPC
accessible, and how to respond if the child protection concern happens at home.
Strategies to consider include:
1. Identifying adjustments on how to receive child protection reports from learners and other stake-
holders, even if learners are at home. The CPC can set up online reporting portals, or integrate safety
checks with learners in the conduct of lessons in the LCP, regardless of the modality.
2 Work with the Barangay Council for the Protection of Children (BCPC) to ensure the presence of school
representatives in the BCPC, so that via the BCPC, the CPC can identify ways of reaching to guardians
and learners to assess and address their safety needs and concerns. As a community-based structure,
the BCPC is mandated to address child protection concerns, and it is the most accessible community-
based child protection structure.
Moving ahead in the New Normal
Schools have been put into the difficult position of having to adapt rapidly to the new normal.
There are many challenges outside of child protection, however, it is important not to put this
aside. Children who enjoy their rights to protection also get to maximize their rights to develop-
ment, which includes education.

In order to further support schools in this transition, Stairway Foundation is including a Social
Media/Online Child Safeguarding Policy Template which can be used as a starting basis for
schools to elaborate such a policy.

This template was adopted from the draft social media/online child safeguarding policy of
the DepEd National Capital Region, which has undergone several consultation sessions with
stake-holders such as school heads, teachers, non-teaching personnel, DepEd school personnel
associations, parents, and more importantly, learners.

The template outlines basic provisions under a sample social media/safeguarding policy, and
thus, needs to be further elaborated to suit the context of the school. By providing this policy
template we hope schools can create a safer environment for everyone, especially their learners.
 Social Media/Online Child Safeguarding Policy Template for Schools

THE SOCIAL MEDIA AND ONLINE CHILD SAFEGUARDING GUIDELINES OF (INSERT

SCHOOL NAME)

I. Rationale

1. Pursuant to the 1987 Constitution, the State shall defend the right of children to
assistance, including proper care and nutrition, and special protection from all forms of
neglect, abuse, cruelty, exploitation, and other conditions prejudicial to their
development (Article XV, Section 3 [2]).

2. Upholding the right of the child to special protection and reiterating its policy of zero
tolerance for any act of abuse and violence against the child, the Department issued
DepEd Order No. 40, s. 2012 DepEd Child Protection Policy.

3. Early studies indicate that children in the Philippines were already facing several child
online protection issues. Based on the study done by Stairway Foundation in 2012, it
was found that 5 out of 10 in the 10-17 year old age range has been exposed to online
pornography, 3 out of 10 were asked to be naked online, and 2 out of 10 had tried
meeting someone personally even if they only knew the person online.8

4. Based on the 2015 National Baseline Study on Violence Against Children conducted by
the Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC), about 43.8% of the respondents aged 13-
18 years old have experienced cyber violence. One-third of the types of cyber violence
were in the form of verbal abuse over the internet or cellphone and one-fourth were sent
sexual messages.

5. The UNICEF research on “Perils and Possibilities: Growing up online” indicates that
“eight out of 10 Filipino children are at risk of being victims of sexual abuse or bullying
online”9

6. Based on the 2020 IJM OSEC Research, the estimated number/prevalence rate of IP
addresses used for CSE each year more than tripled between 2014 and 2017, from
around 23,333 in 2014 to 81,723 in 2017. 10

7. Online interaction, use of ICT in learning, ensure protection of stakeholders, provide

mechanism to address these concerns, prevent the occurrence of abuse

8. The issuance of this policy shall ensure that the Department of Education remain
responsive to its commitment to protect the safety of learner amidst the fast changing
landscape of children’s environment, which includes the online world.

II. Scope

1. This policy lays down the behavioral and procedural protocols to ensure that school
personnel and learners create a safe environment whether offline or online.
2. The policy covers all school personnel, learners and other stakeholders involved in the
school learning continuity plan.

8Online Risks Filipino Children Face Today

9 https://technology.inquirer.net/48286/8-in-10-filipino-children-at-risk-of-online-sexual-abuse-unicef
10
https://www.ijm.org/documents/Final_OSEC-Public-Summary_05_20_2020.pdf
III. Definition of Terms

9. For these guidelines, the following terms are defined and understood as follows:

a. Child Protection refers to programs, services, procedures, and structures that are
intended to prevent and respond to abuse, neglect, exploitation, discrimination, and
violence

b. Child Safeguarding is the action that is taken to promote the welfare of children and
protect them from harm.

Safeguarding includes:

● protecting children from abuse and maltreatment

● preventing harm to children’s health or development
● ensuring children grow up with the provision of safe and effective care
● taking action to enable all children and young people to have the best outcomes.

Child protection is part of the safeguarding process. It focuses on protecting

individual children identified as suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. This
includes child protection procedures which detail how to respond to concerns about
a child.11

c. Child Online Protection (COP) refers to creating a safe and empowering online
experience for children.12

d. Cyberbullying refers to any bullying done through the use of technology or any
electronic means

e. Online Child Safeguarding is employing child safeguarding measures in the online

environment.

f. Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children (OSAEC) – is the sexual abuse
and exploitation of children facilitated through technology and/or the internet.

g. Social media refers to forms of electronic communication through which users

create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other
content (Merriam Webster online dictionary)

IV. Policy Statement

10. The Department reiterates its zero tolerance policy for any act of child abuse,
exploitation, violence, discrimination, bullying, and other forms of abuse. Consistent
with this policy, this Online Child Safeguarding Guidelines is hereby promulgated to
ensure that the Department, in all governance levels, upholds these principles.

11 https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/safeguarding-child-protection
12
https://www.itu.int/en/cop/Pages/about_cop.aspx
V. Online Child Safeguarding Protocols

A. ICT and Social Media Child Safeguarding Guidelines

This section provides safeguarding guidelines on the usage of social media as a

platform of communication with learners and as means of dissemination of
information.

1) Employee to learner interaction through social media

i. To mutually protect learners and school personnel from any potential abuse,
school personnel are prohibited from directly communicating with learners
through phone call, SMS, e-mail, and social media accounts like Facebook,
Twitter or similar forms, except when the learner is already of legal age and
no longer a student of the teacher. If there is a need to communicate with
learners in confidentiality, then this should be done in person following the
prescribed protocols under DepEd order no. 40, series of 2012, or via online
communication employing the proper safeguards of ensuring the presence of
a member of the school CPC, preferably, the school guidance counselor.

ii. Learners are expected to respect school personnel’s online privacy by avoiding
direct online communication unless this is a matter of personal safety.

iii. All announcements or information relating to school activities, class

suspension, and other public information concerning learners should be
coursed through the parents or guardians to ensure transparency.

iv. School personnel must observe professionalism and due diligence in their
dealings with learners. As such, they should not accept any social media
friend requests from their learners who are of minor age, except when the
learner is a relative.

v. For school personnel who are already friends with learners, it is advised that
they unfriend these learners or modify their social media privacy settings to
ensure that the learners have restricted access to the teacher profile.

vi. To maximize the use of ICT in communications, instead of using instant

messaging applications, moderated social media groups shall shall be utilized.
(see section on moderated social media groups)

vii. Sharing of learner’s images online – to further protect learners privacy, school
personnel are highly discouraged to share learners images online via their
personal social media accounts, unless consent is secured from the learners
and learner’s guardians. Even if consent is secured, school personnel shall
ensure that learners images are safe for posting, and are not posted publicly.
 2) Employee role modeling in social media

Teachers are encouraged to verify the truthfulness of information by checking

credible sources and official statements from official channels such as the DepEd
website or official social media page.

Teachers and other school personnel are viewed with respect by the learners,
parents, and community. As such, they must refrain from posting in their social
media accounts the following:

i. The posting or sharing of inappropriate, immoral, or offensive pictures, videos,

or articles which may discriminate against any person, agency, religion, sect,
race, or gender

ii. Any undue or inappropriate posts, such as, but not limited to, depiction of
them drinking/ smoking, and wearing inappropriate outfit that may be taken
out of context. Teachers are encouraged to use the appropriate privacy tools
to limit the people who can see their posts for safety purposes.

iii. Posting of personal attacks, libelous criticisms, distorted or defamatory

information against any person or entity, lewd pictures, sex videos or
scandals, and other similar posts.

iv. The use of vulgar or foul language.

v. The posting of confidential information obtained by reason of his/her public

position.

3) Code of Conduct for Learners

i. Learners are expected to

a. Be kind to and treat each other with respect regardless of physical appearance,
ethnic, regional, religious or cultural background, sexual orientation, gender
identity, ability or disability

b. Not engage in bullying of any kind and report any such incidences to any
school personnel if they become aware of it

c. Not harass or verbally harm other students and personnel of the school, via
the use of cell phones or any social networks (which includes written or visual
material or behavior that is unwelcome, offensive or hurtful, or expresses
hostility or threats against others, or ridicules, humiliates or intimidates
them).
d. Be respectful in their online engagements.
e. Protect their and other people's personal information online.
f. Only share verified information.

g. Report any behavior or experience that makes them feel uncomfortable or

unsafe.
4) Moderated Social Media Groups Guidelines:

The following guidelines must be observed when using Moderated Social Media Groups
for class announcements and submission of outputs:

i. Instant messaging applications shall not be used, but instead, moderated social
media groups (e.g. Instead of Facebook Messenger, Facebook Groups should be
used)

ii. The use of Moderated Social Media Groups shall be applicable to Junior and
Senior High School learners in accordance with common social media platform’s
policy in terms of age usage (13 and above).

iii. The teacher shall inform the principal and the guidance counselor of his/her
intention of creating a moderated social media group for his/her class.

iv. All moderated school social media groups shall always have 2 school personnel
moderators in place – 1. the teacher/adviser and 2. the guidance counselor or
grade level chairperson or coordinator.

v. Under no circumstances shall the guidance counselor/guidance teacher/grade

level coordinator be removed from the class social media group.

vi. The guidance counselor/guidance teacher/grade level coordinator shall also be

given “Admin” functions in the moderated social media group, but interaction
shall be limited only to observation tasks to ensure that abuse is not being
committed within the group, whether school personnel to learner, or learner to
learner.

vii. Learners within the class may also be assigned as group moderators.

viii. The moderated social media group should not hinder learner’s access to
information and class announcements and as such, the class adviser shall find
ways to relay information to learners who would not have access to such
channels/ technologies.

ix. For Grades 1 to 6, teachers shall employ either messenger group chats or
Facebook groups with the parents of the learners.

5) Management of social media presence of Regional Offices, Schools Division

Offices, and Schools

i. The school shall ensure that it follows the social media platform’s policies on
creation of “organizational social media pages” (e.g. For Facebook, organizations
should create a social media PAGE, instead of an individual social media account
bearing the name of the school)

ii. The format for a school social media page shall include the School’s complete and
official name, school ID number, as well as Standard Code of the Schools Division
Office
 iii. To maintain the security and integrity of any social media page, the School,
Information Technology Officer/Coordinator or a designated social media
manager shall maintain the page and ensure the use of the necessary privacy and
security functionalities such as the use of two (2) factor authentication, etc.

iv. A maximum of three (3) administrator/s or social media manager/s shall be

appointed by the Head of Office to facilitate the flow of information in the social
media page or group.

v. Administrator/s or Social Media Manager/s must be aware of basic social media

etiquette in relation to the Code of Conduct of Government Officers when dealing
with stakeholders through social media. Utmost professionality is expected when
replying to posts or messages to the school page.

vi. Administrator/s or Social Media Manager/s shall not be allowed to delete any
messages in the social media page unless directed by the Head of Office or the
latter’s authorized representative.

vii. Administrator/s or Social Media Manager/s should ensure the privacy and
security of any person that forwards any private message and relay the same to
the Head of Office.

viii. Only official announcements/statements, news, verified information, and other

authorized information from the School, Division, Regional, or Central Office of
the Department, or from other government agencies are allowed to be posted in
the said page.

ix. Images of learners to be shared in social media shall also follow securing of
consent from learners and their guardians, as well as ensuring that images of
learners are child safe.

x. The sharing of unofficial information, templates, and other resources, as well as

advertising of any merchandise or services shall not be allowed in the social media
page. .

xi. In cases where the official social media page of the school, division, or region
receives a child protection concern report, either via private message or comment,
the page administrators shall ensure that the report shall be preserved (no
deletion, only screenshot and hide comment), and shall be properly forwarded to
the school’s child protection committee within 24 hours upon receipt of the
report.
6 ) Use of ICT in Learning Delivery
With the adoption of multi-modal learning delivery under the DepEd Learning
Continuity Plan, which includes the use of online platforms, child safeguarding shall
be ensured in this context.

i. Asynchronous learning via the DepEd Commons, Television and Radio.

Child Safe Content - All learning resources to be uploaded to the DepEd
Commons platform or broadcasted via Television or Radio, shall be
ensured to be age appropriate, and shall not depict violence,
discrimination, gender stereotyping and sexualized/pornographic
content.

ii. Synchronous learning via online video conferencing platforms

Online Behavioral protocols - Teaching personnel are expected to
behave in a professional and child safe manner when interacting with
their learners online. This includes ensuring that;
1. No form of verbal or emotional abuse is directed towards learners
in the conduct of online classes.
2. Learners also practice respectful and safe online engagement
towards their co-learners and to their teachers during the online
classes.
3. That communication used shall not contain any foul language,
discriminatory terms or those which are sexualized/with sexual
innuendos.
4. The behavioral guidelines under the Employee to Learner
Interaction via Social Media shall also apply in this context.
5. Teachers shall also be conscious with their live webcam feeds to
ensure that what is broadcasted, is appropriate and child safe.

Child Safe Content - All learning resources to be used in the conduct

of online synchronous learning sessions, shall be ensured to be age
appropriate, doesn’t depict violence, is not discriminatory, doesn’t
employ gender stereotyping and doesn’t sexualized/pornographic
material. This applies to both pre-made content and live images (such
as live video feeds).

iii. Resumption of face to face classes

Once face to face classes resume, the school shall ensure that filtering
software for school computer laboratories, school office
computers/laptops, as well as internet routers, shall be installed which
blocks access to pornographic and graphic content.
 Written by Ysrael C. Diloy
Copyright 2020 Stairway Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved
www.stairwayfoundation.org