Canterbury Christ Church University is committed to providing a safe, harassment-free digital environment for everyone. Whilst respecting freedom of speech and opinion within the law, we do not tolerate abuse of any form in the digital environment.
Our Digital Code of Conduct aims to ensure participants (students, staff, members of the public) benefit from digital learning and teaching, and enjoy the experience in line with the University’s mission and values.
Our Graduate Attributes is our commitment to provide opportunities to develop certain skills during your time at CCCU. This includes digitally literate attributes.
Here are our top tips on how to keep your information safe.
Read our Social Media Guidelines that help to protect and support you if you contribute to and engage with social media.
It is important that you never share your passwords with anyone, including friends, partners, children, or guests who come to visit you on campus. Remember no-one at the University will ask you for your password.
When creating a new password, you should avoid using any data that can be easily guessed, such as family names or your date of birth.
You should also try to mix in capital letters, and include numbers and special characters to add to your security. You could, for example, consider using numbers to replace certain letters or phrases in your password (4 instead of ‘for’, 3 instead of ‘E’, 0 instead of ‘O’).
If you feel you must write down your password, never write down the password itself, but rather a hint that will trigger your memory.
Phishing emails or texts are scams used by criminals to trick you into giving away personal information. These can take different forms and will often be designed to look like they’ve come from an official reliable source, such as PayPal, your bank, or even the University.
While we take every step possible to filter out spam and other suspicious communications, sometimes scam emails do slip through.
Some common things to look out for include:
Always treat emails and texts with a degree of caution – especially when they ask for personal information and look like they come from an official source.
There are many benefits of using social media well and it can be a positive tool for your learning and teaching, and connecting with others. However, it can also come with risks:
Our Social Media Guidelines provide an outline of the behaviour we expect on social media in line with our Student Disciplinary Procedures.
Tips on staying safe on social media
For advice on how to block someone or report an issue on different social media platforms, check the Report Harmful Content website.
If you are concerned about a member's behaviour in the CCCU community on social media, you can use our online Report+Support tool.
The tracks and traces we leave online constitute our ‘Digital Footprint'.
Managing your online presence is important. Even if you don’t actively post photos of yourself on social media, others might and you need to be clear about the boundaries you wish to establish around your private, but also your professional life.
For further advice on mapping and managing your digital footprint, check out our Learning Skills Hub module.
It is important that we protect all data we handle about people.
It is advised that you do not store other people’s personal details. However, if this is a requirement for research purposes, please check your use with your Personal Academic Tutor to ensure that you comply with the latest data protection regulations.
It is important you gain consent for the processing of any personal data, and only collect and use personal data that is needed. You should keep personal data secure at all points of processing and not keep data longer than necessary.
Support and resources
If you have experienced or witnessed online bullying and harassment you can talk confidentially to our Student Wellbeing Services or to a Report and Support Adviser for emotional support.
If you are concerned about the security of your CCCU computing account or your data, please contact the IT Hub who will be happy to advise.
Other useful links: