Most acceptable use policies (AUPs) are a list of what not to do on the Internet and, for some, support the notion that the Internet is a “bad” place to venture and explore – especially for children. A well-constructed AUP should not only outline restrictions and prohibitions, but should also promote the value of Internet usage. Andrew Churches, an educator and Internet communication technologies (ICT) enthusiast, very succinctly expounded on Digital Citizenship and has created an acceptable use agreement (AUA) based on these six tenets:
- Respect yourself
- Protect yourself
- Respect others
- Protect others
- Don’t steal
- Protect intellectual property
Lots of discussion within the responses to his posting of the AUA generated good suggestions to the revision of the fifth tenet as it was the only one that was phrased negatively. Dave Sands’ suggested re-write was, “Act with Integrity. I will cite sources for media and information. I will purchase, license and register all software. I will purchase my music and other media, and only use it for my personal needs.” Most of the responses were in agreement with his perspective and and also included requests to use his work as a basis for the AUPs that the readers were working on themselves. Churches’ freely offers his work for use in developing AUPs and will publish the final product with a Creative Commons “share and share alike” license on his wiki.
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