A STATEWIDE crackdown on student cyber bullies is set to be ramped up with increased tracking of social media use on State Government school laptops.
State schools will from next year be offered a social media monitoring program that can be installed on school-issued laptops.
The program is similar to one already used in some private and state schools that monitors keywords such as "ugly" and "pornographic" and provides reports to principals. It can also block or moderate content.
One Sunshine Coast school reported intercepting messages to high school girls asking them for naked photographs and self-harm messages.
The roll-out comes amid a jump in offensive sites and posts being shut down or removed by a special cybersafety team within the Department of Education, Training and Employment.
The department's "Cybersafety and Reputation Management" team has this year responded to 278 incidents, up from 212 last year.
Department director-general Julie Grantham said in a statement: "The Department recently undertook technical trials with a Brisbane-based company that provides a supplementary social media monitoring product.
"The schools involved in the trial found the product easy to manage and informative about student usage patterns and inappropriate use."
Queensland Secondary Principals' Association president Norm Fuller said he didn't think there would be a principal in any sector that didn't deal with cyber bullying and welcomed the initiative.
"We would request it be implemented in all schools as a departmental policy," he said.
Queensland Teachers' Union president Kevin Bates also welcomed the move, but warned that schools would have to forgo other resources to pay for the program.
But Queensland Council for Civil Liberties vice-president Terry O'Gorman said the initiative would subject students to censorship and while he accepted there was a need to deal with cyber bullying, it should not impact on freedom of speech.
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