Coweta County

now has a new Internet policy.

The policy

was approved during Tuesday night's meeting of the Coweta County Board

of Education and will update, codify and make uniform the practices and

procedures already in place in Coweta County schools, said David Thibadeau,

Director of Information Technology for the Coweta County School System.

"Aside

from making our current procedures official policy, it will update us

to reflect the newest technologies and will bring us into compliance with

CIPA the federal Children's Internet Protection Act," said Thibadeau.

"The main

goal of CIPA and our proposed policy is to protect students from harmful

material on the Internet," said Thibadeau.

Generally,

the policy and current procedures accomplishes that by requiring adult

supervision when students use the Internet, restricting student use if

they abuse the use of the Internet, and establishing electronic filters

to block inappropriate content from school computers.

Information

technology services has already used such filters for the past year.

Several areas

are addressed in the proposed policy, including:

Access by

minors to inappropriate matter on the Internet and World Wide Web.

The safety

and security of minors when using electronic mail, chat rooms, and other

forms of direct electronic communications.

Unauthorized

access, including so-called "hacking," and other unlawful activities

Unauthorized

disclosure, use, and dissemination of personal information regarding minors.

Measures designed

to restrict minors' access to materials harmful to minors.

The policy,

including the Student Authorized Use Policy and the Faculty Authorized

Use Policy, three procedural drafts which implement the policy, and a

link to CIPA have been posted on the Coweta County Schools Web site at

www.coweta.k12.ga.us/cipa .