The ethical problems emerging in the use of private schools on social media

In this qualitative study, a phenomenological design was used to identify the ethical problems that emerge in the use of social media by private schools, the posts that may pose ethical problems, the status and competence of the individuals who are authorized to supply and monitor the posts and decide on the posts, and the ethical problems faced by social media managers, school administrators, teachers and parents in the process. The documents of this research are "Professional Ethical Principles for Those Providing Education and Training Services" and "Personal Data Protection Law", the websites of six private schools with kindergarten and primary school levels selected from the provinces in the Western Mediterranean Region (Antalya, Burdur, Isparta), Instagram and Facebook pages. The study group of the research consists of social media managers working in these institutions, private school administrators, kindergarten and primary school teachers working in these private schools, and students' parents. The contents of the corporate websites, Instagram and Facebook pages of these private schools were monitored and stored for 15 months, and interviews were conducted with school principals, social media managers, teachers and parents in these institutions, and the data obtained from the interviews were subjected to content analysis. Then, the ethical issues that emerged during the interviews were comparatively analyzed in parallel with the "Professional Ethical Principles for Those Providing Education and Training Services" of the Ministry of National Education, and the "Personal Data Protection Law" and "Digital ethical criteria for educators" were created. The documents were subjected to content analysis according to the determined criteria. As a result of the content analysis, it was revealed that social media managers focused on ethical problems based on loss of rights, school administrators focused on social concerns, teachers focused on students, educational processes and professions, and parents focused on ethical issues based on privacy. Then, the ethical issues that emerged during the interviews were comparatively analyzed in parallel with the National Education's Ethical Principles for Educators and the Personal Data Protection Law, and "Digital ethical criteria for Educators" were created. Other documents (websites and social media accounts of private schools) were subjected to content analysis according to the determined criteria. As a result of the research it was found that the privacy of both students and teachers is not adequately protected, there is a risk of information belonging to students and teachers being spread massively, although classroom and school lives are a part of the private lives of students and teachers, their privacy is violated. Aslo it was seen that even if the contents aim to set a positive example, it becomes negative due to the path followed, discrimination can be made between students without considering their physical, emotional, social, cultural and moral development in order to obtain ideal and more preferable shares, some teachers, in order to get more follow-up and interaction, the community they work in, the institution they work for. It has been revealed that parents and students do not hesitate to share posts that would cast a shadow on their dignity and honor, and that posts endanger student health and safety in the long term and make students and teachers vulnerable to threats. In addition, it has been concluded that due to this process, the continuity of the lesson cannot be ensured in place, school administrators can create pressure on teachers in the process of web and/or social media sharing and content acquisition, and the negativities experienced in the process can damage school administrator-teacher relations. Moreover, it has been concluded that the process can indirectly cause the negative transformation of social values, as they can gain personal benefit through social media sharing and the shared content and sharing methods can normalize and legitimize the process. Other results revealed in the research include the existence of a process in which school administrators and even teachers can put pressure on parents to give sharing permission, the acceptance documents signed during the process are deemed sufficient, and the child's consent is disregarded. It has also been revealed that the process has become a part of teachers' job descriptions and the workload of teachers has increased. One of the research results is that the stakeholders in the process are not fully aware of their rights and responsibilities regarding the issue. In addition, most of the other items were excluded from the scope of the research since they were related to the process of obtaining content and some were related to personal sharing. Considering the participant opinions that were effective in the creation of the substances, there are risks to other substances even if there is no supporting evidence other than the opinions. The most basic way to protect children is to prevent them from being the subject of posts. Laws aside, as most of the participants' opinions emphasize, society's expectations, social values and general attitude are very effective in sharing. Therefore, the social reactions to be formed as a whole and the ethical understanding to be adopted for not sharing children will provide much more effective sanctions than laws. In this regard, the school should direct social media managers, school administrators, teachers, parents and students to in-service trainings/seminars so that they have sufficient knowledge and awareness on the subject, and increase their personal awareness of the rights, duties and responsibilities of the stakeholders.