Acceptable Use Policy
What is an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)?
An AUP is a document which addresses all rights, privileges, responsibilities and sanctions associated with the Internet.Ideally it will be drawn up by school staff, students, parents and Board of Management. For it to be effective it needs to be reviewed and updated on a yearly basis.
Why is it so important?
It identifies the school's strategy on promoting safe use of the Internet.
It defines the parameters of behaviour and specifies the consequences of violating those parameters.
What are the steps to developing an AUP?
1 Refer to the publication: Webwise Information and Advice for Schools in the Publications section.
2 Print the sample AUP, AUP checklist, letter to parents and permission slip provided below
3 Amend the AUP to suit the needs of the school
4 Present your draft AUP to the principal, Board of Management, parents (and students if you wish) for feedback
5 Finalise the AUP and issue parents with the letter and permission slip
6 Test how the AUP works over a three week period
7 Decide how often the AUP needs to be revised
What should it contain?
It should address all aspects of Internet usage at school, e.g browsing the World Wide Web, using search engines, downloading, publishing a school website, using email and chatrooms etc.
Are there online sample AUPs?
http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/policy/downloads.html
http://www.ncsu.edu/ligon/au.policy.html
http://www.doe.state.in.us/olr/aup/welcome.html
Sample Documents:
To view these documents, click on the relevant icon or right click and select "Save Target As " to download. The documents are available in both Acrobat (PDF) format (denoted by 
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