It’s a known fact that supplying information to your child’s school is mandatory, but is this information safe? We always want to ensure that a child’s information is not putting them at risk.
Many Schools, Nursery Schools and now Churches have web-based systems that are operated without the basic security in mind making this information easy to be exploited and could physically put your child at risk.
It is our responsibility as well as those of schools that we ensure that Information published or shared should be done responsibly and according to the PoPI Bill, emphasis also needs to be placed on the Operators of the Systems, by means that they should be properly trained. Authentication Body should be established as well as the fact that Staff and System Operators should undergo an Authentication process.
According to the PoPI Bill, the gathering of information must be with Parent’s written Consent and the purpose of Data must be clearly set out. Responsible data retention must also be applied.
How can Virtually Clear help you with your child’s information is not putting them at risk?
We can provide and implement some quick solutions such as a secure, web-based environment, user logins, profile security and data specific security where data is provided on a need-to-know basis only.
These solutions ensure that information is only available for personnel with allocated roles and authentication.
Virtually Clear also ensures that The Operators and Responsible Body are properly trained on the functionality of the system. Virtually Clear also assists with guidelines and how to responsibly extract information out of the System. It is however important that security practices are adhered to when working offsite. In addition, Virtually Clear offers eCourses which holds the trainee accountable for their own training at their own pace.
The PoPI Bill might not be in place as yet, but why wait for it to be enacted? Is the safety of your children not urgent?
Further reading for online and smartphone safety for children is in this article.
For more information on the PoPI Bill please see our previous blog: How the new PoPI Act affects you